Some Tampa Bay candidates can’t use their nicknames on the ballot

Voters around Tampa Bay were expected to encounter some telling nicknames for candidates on the November ballot.

A Hillsborough School Board hopeful planned to run as Johnny “Principal” Bush because he’d been one. The incumbent countered that she’d get listed as Lynn “Teacher” Gray for similar reasons.

Hillsborough County Commission candidate Matthew “Matt The Welder” Taylor wanted that title included because he said it’s how he’s known both on social media and in person. Current incumbent candidates Henry “Shake” Washington, a Hillsborough School Board member, and Bob “Coach” Henriquez, Hillsborough’s property appraiser, each had run on their nicknames before.

No more. Those candidates and others just learned from the state that those nicknames won’t be appearing on the ballot.

Brad McVay, deputy secretary of state for legal affairs and election integrity at the Florida Department of State, clarified that position to Florida elections supervisors: Certain nicknames were misleading “and also clearly sloganeering,” he wrote in a recent email, and some of the language could connote “a position or belief” beyond a candidate’s general identity.

In Pinellas County, Joanne “Cookie” Kennedy’s nickname made the cut in a County Commission race. But Nelson Amador, a candidate for state representative out of Clearwater who hoped to run as Amaro Lionheart, did not.

Washington, the School Board incumbent, said he was a bit taken aback by the decision. He’s been called Shake for more than 50 years, since his days playing basketball with his signature “stop-and-go move,” he said. The recording on his phone says, “Hello, Shake Washington, please leave me a message.” Some people don’t even know his real name is Henry, he said.

“I could see if I had Henry ‘Area Superintendent’ Washington,” he said. “My nickname doesn’t have an advantage.”

Henriquez, who has been a high school football coach, wasn’t sure what prompted the state’s interpretation this time.

“Clearly that can get out of hand,” he said of ballot nicknames. But he said “Coach” is how he’s known “when I’m out and about at the grocery store or anywhere else.”

Taylor said his “Matt the Welder” moniker is “in no way misleading to voters.”

“In fact it would be misleading to use my formal name that not many voters know me by,” he said via text.

Notably, not all nicknames got nixed.

In Putnam County, H.D. “Gator” DeLoach kept his on the ballot for sheriff, as did State Rep. Dianne “Ms. Dee” Hart in Hillsborough. In Liberty County, Robert “Dusty” Arnold is running for sheriff, and Dewayne “Bubba” Branch is a candidate for County Commission.