Polk School Board member Nolte revises campaign filings, reports refunds of cash donations

Rick Nolte, who joined the Polk County School Board last month, has filed an overdue final report for his election campaign while also making multiple revisions to previous reports.

Nolte disclosed making refunds to 10 contributors in the campaign termination report, a document required by state law. The refunds of $50 each followed a filing from August in which Nolte reported cash donations of $100 from each of the 10 supporters, an apparent violation of a state law that limits cash contributions to $50 each.

Nolte filed his termination report to the Polk County Supervisor of Elections Office on Friday, 18 days after the deadline of Nov. 21. Supervisor of Elections Lori Edwards previously told The Ledger that any candidate who didn’t submit a report by Dec. 12 would be referred to the Florida Elections Commission.

Nolte, 66, faces multiple complaints over his campaign finances. Billy Townsend, a Lakeland resident and former Polk County School Board member, said he filed complaints against Nolte with the Florida Elections Commission in late August.

Townsend cited not only the 10 cash contributions of $100 each but also Nolte’s report of donating $5,200 in cash to his own campaign in March. Florida statutes describe knowingly or willfully making or accepting a cash contribution that exceeds $5,000 as a third-degree felony.

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Each of the $100 cash contributions would be a first-degree misdemeanor, according to state law.

Nolte filed amended versions of several previous campaign reports. In a revised report covering March, he deleted the $5,200 cash contribution he had previously reported. He added a loan in the same amount.

It isn’t clear whether Nolte’s reported refunds of the cash contributions would affect any potential investigation of Townsend’s complaints. The Florida Elections Commission, which has authority over the relevant state laws, does not confirm investigations until after they are complete.

Edwards said it is not uncommon for candidates to submit final reports after an election addressing problems in previous reports. But she said that enforcement of state laws is ultimately up to the FEC.

Nolte, a Mulberry resident, narrowly defeated one-term incumbent Sarah Fortney in the August election for the District 3 seat. He was sworn into office on Nov. 22 for a four-year term.

Cathy Bridges, election administration director for Edwards’ office, sent a letter to Nolte dated Nov. 22 informing him that he had not filed a final campaign treasurer’s report. Under state law, a candidate who fails to meet the deadline accrues fines of $50 a day for the first three days and $500 a day after that.

But the maximum fine is limited to 25% of the total receipts or expenditures, whichever is greater, for the period covered by the late report. Nolte reported expenditures of $1,653.77 in the filing, along with receipts of negative $500. Based on those expenses, he would face a fine of $413.44, Edwards said.

After Townsend went public with his complaints, Nolte sent a letter to Edwards’ office dated Aug. 26 in which he acknowledged an error. The letter read (in unedited form):

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“I did not realize that the cash maximum contribution to my campaign was $50 cash per person. I thought it was $100. After reporting the 10 $100 donations it was brought to my attention. I have now, since realizing this mistake returned $50 cash to each of the 10 donors. Please accept my apologies for this mistake and let me know if there is anything further, I should do to correct my error.”

The letter did not mention Nolte’s self-reported cash contribution of $5,200.

Nolte did not respond to a text message sent Tuesday morning. He has not publicly addressed the accusations of campaign-finance violations except in the letter to Edwards’ office.

The Ledger received no response to a voicemail previously left on a number associated with Dennis Elliott of Mulberry, listed on an official document as Nolte’s campaign treasurer.

In all, Nolte submitted amendments to 11 of his previous campaign filings. The revisions include deletions of two contributions by check totaling $10,000 from Nolte to his own campaign and the addition of loans in the same amount. Nolte also reported refunds to individual donors in amounts ranging up to $280. In a single amended report covering June 18 to July 1, he reported refunding contributions to more than 20 individual donors.

In an amended report from June, Nolte deleted a payment of $2,718.67 to Summit Printing in Kansas City, Missouri, designated for "shirts," and added an expenditure in the same amount to "Ligion Marketing" of Lakeland for "signs." In another revision, Nolte deleted a payment of $1,012.69 to Summit Printing in April for "marketing" and added an expense in the same amount to "Ligion Marketing" for "shirts."

Townsend has questioned Nolte's report of the expenditure to the Missouri company, originally designated for "shirts." Townsend said that Summit Printing does not produce T-shirts, a fact confirmed by The Ledger in a phone call to the company.

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In an amended report covering Aug. 6 to Aug. 18, Nolte listed a refund of $1,000 to Education for All, a political-action committee based in Tallahassee. The amended filing added a contribution of $1,000 from Friends of Ron DeSantis, a political committee based in Tampa to support Florida's governor.

Nolte was one of about 30 candidates in statewide school board races — and the only one in Polk County — to receive an endorsement from DeSantis in this year's elections. DeSantis’ office did not respond to a previous inquiry about Nolte’s campaign finances.

Nolte also received support from the Polk County Republican Party in the nonpartisan election.

In the termination report, Nolte disclosed three expenditures for the period of Aug. 19 to Nov. 21. Those included a payment of $300 to Skyspot Advertising in Lakeland on Sept. 13 and one of $275 to Childlike Productions in Bradenton on Aug. 23.

Nolte also listed an expenditure of $1,078.77 to Electioneering Consulting Inc. of Tallahassee on Nov. 21. The registered agent for that company is Coates Law Firm of Tallahassee, state records show. The firm’s managing partner, Richard Coates, “has advised some of Florida’s highest elected officials, including Governors, members of the Florida Cabinet, House Speakers and Senate Presidents,” according to a biography on the firm’s website.

Coates served as general counsel to the Republican Party of Florida from 2011 to 2014, the biography says.

Townsend questioned why the FEC has not yet taken action on his complaints against Nolte.

"It's been four months, and the governor's election authority is clearly slow-rolling this for the benefit of the governor's candidate," Townsend said.

Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on Twitter @garywhite13.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Polk School Board's Nolte refunds donations, amends campaign filings