New Pasco commissioners step into seats after write-in candidates drop out

NEW PORT RICHEY — On November 22, Pasco County’s two newly elected county commissioners, Seth Weightman and Gary Bradford, will place their hand on a Bible in Dade City to take an oath and get sworn in.

Over their four-year terms, they will help make hundreds of vital decisions for Pasco’s half million residents, ranging from what will get built next to their homes to how high their tax bills will be. Yet because of the unique circumstances of their elections, 59 percent of Pasco’s eligible voters had no say in their selection.

Republicans Weightman and Bradford won in races shaped by write-in candidates with no public profile, who have made no public comments about their choices to run, raised no money and did no campaigning. Both dropped out after the August primary.

Their one impact on the election is that by joining as write-in candidates, who pay no filing fee and have no obligation to collect public candidate petitions as party candidates must, they closed the election to all but voters registered as Republicans.

While they do boast the biggest block of registered voters in Pasco, Republicans only make up 41 percent of Pasco’s total voter numbers. Those registered without party affiliation are second, Democrats third and a handful of minor party voters fourth. All regular county commission candidates this year were Republican.

The so-called write-in loophole has been controversial in Florida for some time, but it is perfectly legal and reform proposals have not been successful.

Two of the Republican candidates who lost in the primary say the strategy came from their party leadership.

That includes Christina Fitzpatrick, who was ousted from her District 4 seat by Bradford. When she ran two years ago against him and others, she won in an open primary, which allowed all registered voters to vote. She said she believed she would have won again if the primary was open.

In the August primary write-in candidate Cory Patterson actually gave a campaign donation to Bradford, whom he was technically running against. He also had campaign signs in his yard for Bradford, according to photos provided to the Tampa Bay Times.

Patterson, a registered Republican, filed to run two weeks before qualifying for the seat ended. He withdrew his candidacy this week. While a space for a write-in candidate will still appear on the ballot in that race, any write-in votes would be moot since there are no official write-in candidates still in the running, said Pasco County Supervisor of Elections Brian Corley.

Bradford has acknowledged that Patterson, a friend of his, filed as a write-in candidate in his race after he explained to Patterson that it would prevent Democrats and independents from voting and possibly help him win. Bradford said he did not ask Patterson to run. Patterson has not returned repeated telephone and email messages seeking comment.

“It certainly seems like it violates the spirit of the law, even though it is legal for a write-in candidate to run, if the write-in candidate is only joining the race to prevent it from being an open primary and is really a Republican and/or working with the Republicans,” said Beth A. Rosenson, associate professor of political science at the University of Florida.

“It is definitely a loophole that seems to be exploited for partisan gain,” she said. “It seems very easy for a write-in candidate to get their name on the ballot even when they are not a serious candidate.”

Weightman, who won the vote in District 2, also had faced a write-in candidate, Luis Antonio Rodriguez. He said he and other Republicans were in the race to serve Pasco County.

“I know that many Democrat party members were looking forward to voting in a Republican Party primary election because their leaders failed to identify, support and elect one of their own in their own primary,” Rodriguez said. “But it is not up to the Republican Party Pasco County to make up for the shortcomings of Democrats.”

Rodriguez withdrew his candidacy shortly after the primary.

Weightman did not immediately respond to phone and email messages seeking comment about the write-in closing the primary and whether that disenfranchised voters.

Bradford did respond to a question about whether the write-in served to disenfranchise voters. He said, “The Democrats chose to not put in a candidate” and so they did not have a a reason to feel disenfranchised. When told that the number of no-party voters and those registered to other parties was actually larger than the number of Democrats who didn’t get to vote, he said that it didn’t matter to him that the Democrats didn’t get to vote.

Fitzpatrick said she believes Bradford had always been the chosen candidate for her seat by the local Republican leadership.

Fitzpatrick said she believes James Mallo, chairperson of the county’s Republican Executive Committee, was helping Bradford, which is not allowed in primary elections when all Republicans are supposed to get the same treatment.

“The REC should lose all funding,” she said. “I feel James Mallo helped Bradford to win this time” and closing the primary with a write-in candidate was part of that strategy.

Bradford called Fitzpatrick’s criticisms “sour grapes.”

Christie Zimmer, a lifelong Republican who lost to Weightman was critical of the actions of the executive committee. She said she believes that it “encouraged Republicans to run as write-in candidates to control the election.”

“I find that to be extremely disturbing to the Republican Party as a whole, to know how manipulative the Republican Party leadership can be,” Zimmer said.

Mallo said he took issue with the candidates’ criticisms of the executive committee.

“At no time did the Pasco (executive committee) endorse or work for any candidate competing in a Republican primary,” he said. “Any allegations suggesting that are false. It is discouraging to see those who lost Republican primaries attempting to sully the hard work of the (committee).”