Republican State Rep. Paula Stark will not appear on the ballot this year after a Florida judge rejected her bid to overturn her disqualification, effectively handing House District 47 to Democrats without a general election.
Leon County Circuit Judge Joshua Hawkes ruled against Stark, a Republican from St. Cloud, who sued after failing to qualify for re-election last month.
With no Republican candidate remaining, the race for the Orange and Osceola County district will be decided in the Aug. 18 Democratic primary between Jorge Figueroa and Anthony Nieves. Because there is no Republican in the race, the primary will be open to all voters regardless of party affiliation.
At the center of the case was Stark’s required Form 6 financial disclosure. In her lawsuit, Stark argued that her campaign treasurer, Joel Davis, who is also her significant other, submitted the form before the June 12 qualifying deadline but claimed a Division of Elections clerk mistakenly handed it back without filing it. Davis said he delivered the paperwork about 25 minutes before the noon deadline.
Hawkes rejected that explanation.
“What likely happened in this case, as counsel for Intervenors suggests, was that Mr. Davis thought the Form 6 was not needed because he had submitted it the day before to the Florida Commission on Ethics,” the judge wrote in his order. “Mr. Davis attributed this line of thinking to the clerk in supposedly handing him back the Form 6, but it is much more likely that he thought this and did not actually turn in the Form 6. In any case, the Court does not credit the story of DOE staff immediately returning the Form 6, the Form 6 was not turned in before the noon deadline, and Petitioner did not show that she qualified for HD 47.”
Election officials also disputed Davis’ version of events.
According to Hawkes, five Division of Elections employees testified they never received Stark’s Form 6 and described a streamlined process in the final half-hour before the filing deadline in which clerks simply accepted and time-stamped paperwork without reviewing it.
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“DOE had four clerks working the counter at the time. There was also a supervisor responsible for their work. All five testified. They all testified consistently that after 11:30, the clerks no longer performed any check of the papers. Instead, they just received, stamped, and later, if time allowed, handed copies of the stamped forms back as courtesy copies,” Hawkes wrote. “The streamlined, no-review, process was to ensure those that wanted to qualify could before the noon deadline. By way of example, if somebody submitted paperwork to run for the Governor of Alabama, they would have received and stamped it. There is no stamped copy of Petitioner’s Form 6.”
Davis also argued that confusion inside the elections office prevented the form from being stamped after he realized he still had it in his possession.
But court testimony contradicted that account, with clerks saying the disturbance occurred earlier in the morning rather than around the filing deadline.
“The Court finds that the incident happened early in the morning and would not have served as the distraction that Mr. Davis suggests it would have before closing,” Hawkes wrote. “The Court also finds that the timing discrepancy of this incident severely undermines Mr. Davis’ credibility.”
The judge also noted Davis had been inside the Tallahassee elections office twice that day, including an earlier visit when officials informed him that his qualifying check had not been drawn from a campaign account.
“In fact, Mr. Davis was there twice, once in the morning, when the courtesy review revealed that his check was not drawn on a campaign account as required, and later just before noon,” Hawkes wrote.
Although Stark has previously faced campaign finance penalties and compliance issues, Hawkes said those problems did not factor into his ruling. Stark previously lost control of her political committee after failing to pay roughly $16,000 in fines.
“The Court does not base its credibility determination on Petitioner’s past foibles with DOE, such as fines or compliance notices,” Hawkes wrote.
As of late Wednesday, neither Paula Stark nor the Florida Democratic Party had responded to requests for comment.
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