As early voting begins, Tallahassee campaigns battle on air, in texts and in mailboxes

The local candidates and campaigns are dropping some of their final TV commercials, digital ads and mailers — going on the attack — as Leon County’s primary election enters the final stretch .

The deluge of political marketing isn’t coming from the candidates alone — political committees that can raise and spend unlimited sums and the Democratic and Republican parties have joined the fray in a major way. Two opposing political committees, One Tallahassee and Citizens for Balanced Growth, recently filled their coffers with $50,000 each to support candidates in the battle for control of City Hall.

The messaging is timed to hit TV screens, mailboxes and cellphones as voters head to the polls to vote early in the Aug. 20 primary . And while many of the races, including City Commission and School Board, are officially nonpartisan, both sides are trying to stoke partisan passions and seize on recent national events to sway voters.

In a heated race for School Board District 4, the Republican Party of Florida and the Leon County Democratic Party each funded mailers accusing the candidate on the other side of being an “extremist.” Though the district tilts Democratic, it has a high concentration of GOP voters and is home to School Board member Laurie Lawson Cox , the only elected Republican on the board.

The RPOF flier attacked Lawson Cox’s sole challenger, Jeremy Rogers , a Democrat, saying “extremist groups” with “radical ideas” support his campaign. The mailer includes a “pop quiz” with a big red “F” on one side saying his backers believe “we live in a racist, white-dominated society,” among other things.

“Don’t let them take over our classrooms,” the GOP-funded mailer says.

The Leon County Democratic Party responded with its own mail piece featuring a photo of Rogers, a city firefighter, and his family on one side and cut-out faces of Gov. Ron DeSantis and Lawson Cox on the other above a Moms for Liberty logo.

“Ron DeSantis and Republican extremists are backing Laurie Cox,” the Democratic mail piece says.

Cox herself put out a mail piece saying she has 30 years classroom experience and is a Leon County native while Rogers runs a daycare, moved to town in 2006 and is "backed by groups against transparency." A Facebook address footnote to that claim links to his endorsement by the Leon County teachers' union.

Since mid-July, the candidates for City Commission and School Board and a handful of political committees electioneering on their behalf have spent at least $190,000 on political ads, according to state and local campaign finance reports and FCC records. That figure will only grow as more campaign expenses are reported over time.

The candidates with the biggest recent ad buys include City Commissioner Curtis Richardson , who spent $30,600 on TV and radio commercials, mailers and texts; School Board member Rosanne Wood , who spent $30,000 on printing, billboards and digital ads; and City Commission candidate Rudy Ferguson , who spent $20,500 on TV and radio ads and printing.

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Partisan sparring creeps into nonpartisan City Seat 1 race

Party politics also seeped into the City Commission Seat 1 race, with Grow Tallahassee PC repeatedly criticizing City Commissioner Jack Porter in mail pieces for taking “$50,000 from GOP-affiliated PACs” during her first campaign in 2020. Porter, a Democrat, is running for a second term against two challengers, Rudy Ferguson Sr. and Louis Dilbert.

“The secret Porter doesn’t want you to know,” says one of the Grow mailers, citing previous reporting by the Tallahassee Democrat , and pairing her photo with portraits of national Republican leaders, including former President Donald Trump.

Porter, a progressive who is also courting conservative northeast voters, isn't shying away from potential GOP support. In her own mail pieces, she emphasized that she voted against last year’s city property tax three times and “stood with conservative groups” in opposing “wasteful spending.”

“I also promised you that I would govern the same way we ran my first campaign, with our neighbors, Republicans and Democrats, working together to find creative solutions,” she said in the mail piece.

Meanwhile, One Tallahassee, whose founder, City Commissioner Jeremy Matlow, promised to stay positive when the committee launched earlier this year, sent out text blasts accusing Ferguson of “using a MAGA-funded committee to attack Jack Porter.”

“It turns out that after Ferguson became upset that Democrats were supporting Jack Porter, he teamed up with a political committee called Grow Tallahassee that is funded by right-wing Trump supporters,” the text says.

Ferguson, also a Democrat, last month accused Ryan Ray , chairman of the Leon County Democratic Executive Committee, of taking Porter’s side in the race. Ray responded that Ferguson’s behavior would only benefit “Donald Trump and his local enablers.”

Bugra Demirel, chairman of Grow Tallahassee PC and owner of the SoMo Walls project that got a $1.8 million Blueprint appropriation, told the Democrat that the political committee is emphasizing Porter’s GOP ties because her side is “dishonest” about it.

“One one hand, they are preaching anti-MAGA on Twitter, on another they are getting money, or appealing to Republican voters,” he said.

Demirel downplayed any ties to the Republican party, adding that Grow Tallahassee's board has four registered Democrats and one NPA (that's me)," he said.

Richardson, new political committee backing him launch TV ads

A new political committee called Citizens for Balanced Growth, chaired and entirely financed by Tallahassee businessman Jeff Phipps , began running TV commercials in support of Richardson, who’s facing a challenge from former City Commissioner Dot Inman-Johnson and two lesser-known candidates.

According to campaign finance reports, the committee reported a single $50,000 donation from Phipps on July 27 and a single $40,000 expense four days later.

Campaign reports don’t specify how much of the committee’s money went toward pro-Richardson efforts. However, Citizens for Balanced Growth’s website mentions only one candidate, Richardson.

“The Committee for Balanced Growth in Tallahassee is dedicated to fostering a thriving and sustainable community through strategic development and responsible planning,” the PC says on its website.

The committee’s commercial calls Richardson a “proven leader” who “made the tough decisions.” State records don’t say when Phipps created the committee; he operated one under a similar name during the 2006 election cycle.

Meanwhile, Richardson’s campaign launched its own TV ads with footage of him and his wife, Leon County Judge Nina Ashenafi-Richardson.

“We’ve still got work to do,” Richardson says in the commercial, “and if you continue to trust me to fight for you, we can ensure that Tallahassee remains an All-American City for years to come.”

FCC records show Richardson spent about $10,000 to run a series of 30-second spots on WCTV. The ad agency and buyer working with Richardson were listed as Auryeon Ideas and Remera Jones-Haynes, the spouse of Chauncy Haynes, a political consultant and aide to Leon County Commissioner Carolyn Cummings.

Auryeon Ideas also handled a $10,000 ad buy at WCTV for Ferguson, who recently launched his first TV commercial.

In the ad, Ferguson pledged to be “a good steward of the people’s voice through productive discussions that yield solutions” and said he has “the ability to work with others even if we always don’t agree.”

One Tallahassee puts candidate slate on display in TV commercial

One Tallahassee, the Matlow-backed political committee, reported two $25,000 donations from the Green Advocacy Project of Palo Alto, California, which has helped bankroll progressive campaigns in Tallahassee for the past few election cycles. The money came in on July 22 and 29.

Since 2018, the group has given more than $150,000, often circuitously, to committees backing candidates that include Matlow, Porter and Adner Marcelin, who ran for City Commission in 2022 and serves as campaign treasurer for Inman-Johnson.

The donation helped bankroll efforts that include a new TV ad featuring Matlow, Porter and Inman-Johnson, who would make up a new voting majority on the City Commission if the latter two win this year. FCC records show One Tallahassee spent $8,220 on 30-second commercials that show all three talking about the election from three different locations.

“Nobody likes when we don’t get along, but we need to have a serious conversation about City Hall,” Porter says.

“Because what we do in the this election will determine what we do in the future,” Inman-Johnson says.

“That’s what this election will determine,” Matlow says. “Will we have a balanced commission that listens to all voices or solidify a pro-developer commission that takes resources away from the things that truly matter?”

One Tallahassee also is running new digital ads showing side-by-side photos of Porter, Inman-Johnson and Kamala Harris, the newly minted Democratic nominee for president who has re-energized her party.

Porter's campaign has its own commercials up on YouTube and Facebook, including a 30-second spot with video similar to that of her in the One Tallahassee ad and a longer one with slow-motion footage. According to her campaign reports, she's spent roughly $6,300 since mid-July on postage and advertising, including $2,250 to Max Herrle's firm, THG Consulting, for ad production. Herrle, a former lobbyist, also runs the Our Tallahassee electioneering website.

Inman-Johnson responds to Grow Tallahassee attack mailer

Grow Tallahassee PC also funded a mailer critical of Inman-Johnson, who served on the City Commission from 1984 until her defeat a decade later by Ron Weaver.

“Tallahassee voted Dot out of office 30 years ago,” the mailer says. “It’s time to reject her extreme agenda once more.”

The flier shows Inman-Johnson speaking into a bullhorn at a protest against Florida’s six-week abortion ban. She told the Democrat the photo “wasn’t hidden” and is among many on her campaign website.

“Thankfully there are many people in Tallahassee who remember my hard work for this community then and now,” said Inman-Johnson who was the first Black woman elected to the City Commission.

The flip side of the Grow Tallahassee mailer touts Richardson as "a proven leader for Tallahassee's future" and includes endorsements by the Big Bend Police Benevolent Association and others along with the straw poll results from a Seat 2 forum hosted by the Network of Entrepreneurs and Business Advocates.

Inman-Johnson's campaign, which recently spent $5,820 on a television ad buy, sent out its own mailers saying she would protect neighborhoods from developers and end city tax increases, alluding to Richardson's support last year of an 8.5% tax rate hike that funded additional police officers.

Her mailer notes notes she was the first Black woman to serve as Tallahassee mayor and her endorsement by the Tallahassee firefighters union. It includes a photo of her giving the key to the city to Rosa Parks years ago and in an echo of one of her TV commercials says, "She’s not done yet.”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article misidentified Dot Inman-Johnson's campaign manager. Her husband, Lee Johnson, is managing her campaign.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: As early voting begins, Tallahassee campaigns battle on air, in texts and in mailboxes