Florida candidate Joe Saunders is suing to get his aunt, ‘Moe Saunders,’ off the ballot
Florida House candidate Joe Saunders is suing his estranged aunt to try to prevent her from running against him under the name “Moe Saunders,” calling it “a deliberate attempt to deceive, mislead and confuse voters.”
Earlier this month, Maureen Saunders Scott filed to run as a no-party candidate against her nephew Joe, a Democrat and former state representative, for a Florida House seat that covers Miami Beach and other coastal cities. Scott later said she would be running under the nickname Moe Saunders, raising alarm bells among Democrats who saw it as an attempt to confuse voters and thwart efforts to unseat the controversial Republican incumbent, Fabian Basabe.
Now, the former legislator is taking the issue to court. On Tuesday, Joe Saunders filed a lawsuit in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, arguing that Scott should be removed from the ballot and that she created the nickname deliberately to mislead the public.
The lawsuit notes that Scott has previously gone by the nickname “Mo” but never “Moe.”
“Contrary to Defendant Scott’s sworn statements to the Department of State, she is not generally known by the nickname ‘Moe Saunders,’” the complaint says. “[Scott] is known to friends and relatives as Mo, without an ‘e,’ a common shorthand for the name Maureen. In fact, she is known by the name Mo Scott, not ‘Mo Saunders’ — and definitely not ‘Moe Saunders.’”
Joe Saunders is being represented by attorney Kendall Coffey, a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida. In a statement, Coffey called Scott’s candidacy “a clear violation of Florida law.”
“In defense of our democracy, this kind of conduct must not be allowed and ‘Moe Saunders’ must not appear on the ballot in November,” Coffey said.
Reached by text message Tuesday morning, Scott told the Miami Herald she has “been Moe for over 40 years” and that she has been using her maiden name, Saunders, “on social media for years now.”
Asked about the spelling as “Moe” rather than “Mo,” she said: “The family and I have always used both spelling [sic].”
In email correspondence Scott previously shared with the Herald, a relative referred to Scott as “Mo.” The complaint filed Tuesday morning includes screenshots of tweets and emails in which Scott has referred to herself as “Mo” or “Aunt Mo.”
While the exact circumstances that led to Scott’s decision to run are unknown, Scott, 63, appears to be a disgruntled relative of Saunders, 41, and has made repeated public claims about his character. On a Twitter account seemingly belonging to Scott, she has suggested that Saunders failed to speak out and protect her against an abusive relative, though the Herald has been unable to corroborate her claims.
Scott wrote on Twitter last week that she is running for office “because there is no representation for women or any survivors of trauma” and claimed that Saunders “refuses to stand with women and trauma survivors.”
“I know my nephew and I know he is bad for Florida,” she wrote. “I have seen the incumbent’s record and believe he is also a bad choice for Florida.”
Saunders has not commented on his aunt’s statements about him and members of their family.
In a statement Tuesday, Saunders said he remains focused on “earning every vote so that I can fight for our community’s needs in Tallahassee,” despite the “shameless, fraudulent tactics at play which violate both the letter and the spirit of the law.”
Rep. Fentrice Driskell, the Democratic minority leader in the Florida House, said the party will help Saunders in his efforts.
“We will not stand for this and we are going to ensure voters know who their real champions are,” Driskell said in a statement.
In a June 13 affidavit that Scott filed to say that she would be running under a nickname, she swore she had not “created the nickname to mislead voters.” The affidavit became required under an election reform bill passed last year that came in response to a 2020 “ghost candidate” scheme in which a man was paid more than $40,000 by former Republican state Sen. Frank Artiles to run as a no-party candidate in a Florida Senate race.
A spokesperson for the Florida Division of Elections has not responded to questions about Scott’s candidacy from the Herald, but state elections officials deemed Scott a qualified candidate on June 13.
The lawsuit also names Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd and Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Christina White as defendants. The Department of State is responsible for determining whether candidates are qualified to run for office, while the local elections department prepares the ballots and oversees the voting process.
Records show Scott lives far from the district she’s seeking to represent, House District 106. She is registered to vote in St. Johns County and lives in a townhouse she owns outside Jacksonville.
Florida law says state legislator candidates are only required to live in the district in which they are seeking office once they are elected.
Saunders’ lawsuit could hinge on whether Scott has previously gone by the name “Moe Saunders” in her personal or professional life.
In 2006, former state Rep. J.C. Planas, who is now running for Miami-Dade supervisor of elections, succeeded in knocking his cousin off the ballot after the cousin tried to siphon votes from Planas under the name “J.P. Planas.” The Third District Court of Appeal said Planas’ cousin had not previously “transacted private and official business” under the name J.P. and therefore couldn’t remain on the ballot.
Saunders, who was a Democratic state representative in the Orlando area from 2012 to 2014 and is now the senior political director for the LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Florida, has suggested Basabe and the Republican Party were involved in a “coordinated and orchestrated effort to fool voters” by having Scott on the ballot, though they have not provided evidence of the claim.
Basabe, a former New York socialite and reality TV star who was elected in 2022, has denied any involvement.
“Maybe someone should just ask Moe why she’s running before throwing bogus accusations around!” Basabe said earlier this month in a statement.
Asked Tuesday if anyone encouraged her to run or assisted her with her candidacy, Scott replied: “I have the support of many friends and fellow survivors.” Scott denied that Basabe had played any role, saying, “No. I don’t even understand why people are suggesting that.”
In February, Basabe interacted on Twitter with the account seemingly belonging to Scott. After Scott posted that she was a “Survivor of the Saunders Family System,” Basabe replied that he was “so saddened and sorry for what you have gone through.”
The primary election for Basabe’s seat is in August, followed by a general election in November. Basabe will face attorney Melinda Almonte in the Republican primary.
