In his bid to unseat incumbent Deltona City Commissioner Jody Lee Storozuk in the November election for District 6 , Dominic "Nick" Lulli has filed a lawsuit against his opponent claiming Storozuk did not properly file documents to qualify him in the race.
Lulli submitted the legal motion July 15 in Volusia County Circuit Court, alleging that while Storozuk did designate his wife Peggy as campaign treasurer in candidate paperwork, he "did not appoint himself, or any other individual, as a deputy treasurer" as is required by law. Therefore, the suit claims, campaign checks he cashed, should have been considered invalid.
Volusia County Supervisor of Elections Lisa Lewis is named in the lawsuit, as well. Lewis did not respond to The News-Journal's attempts to reach her for comment.
In a phone interview with The News-Journal on July 16, Storozuk said it was the first he was hearing of the legal claim and attributed the discrepancy to an oversight, saying he had resubmitted the paperwork properly after he was told he had to have his wife present with him to file the financial statement before the June 14 deadline.
It is Storozuk's third campaign for city commissioner.
"I look forward to continuing to be the voice for Deltona," Storozuk said.
It is Lulli's first run for office but not his first run-in with local politics. Lulli sued former City Commissioner Tom Burbank for an anti-gay comment he left on a video post in 2023, for which Burbank was later censured by his fellow commissioners. However, at one of the meetings to discuss an $8,000 settlement for Lulli , Storozuk said: "I don't want to give him a penny, not an ounce, not a drop. I don't want to give him a ride home."
He continued: "We all get called names. Is every time we get our feelings hurt, are we going to grab our blanket and go home and go sue someone?"
Since then, Lulli has been a vocal opponent of Storozuk.
Lulli told The News-Journal he could not comment on the current lawsuit due to pending litigation.
The defendants have until Aug. 12 to respond.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Challenger for Deltona District 6 seat files lawsuit to have incumbent disqualified
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