'The gloves are off': Accusations fly, campaigns get ugly ahead of Tallahassee primary

After a fleeting summertime lull, the local campaigns went back to battle stations over the past few days, with fights flaring up on multiple fronts in hotly contested City Commission and School Board races.

The attacks and counter-attacks drew many eyeballs and reactions on Facebook and X/Twitter and prompted a mix of condemnation and kudos from residents, community activists, business leaders and politicians. Besides once again illustrating deep political divisions in Tallahassee, they served as an omen of the likely election negativity ahead.

One skirmish started Thursday in the Facebook comments of an otherwise innocuous Tallahassee Democrat news article about a coffee shop coming to SoMo Walls, a new dining and distillery project on South Monroe Street owned by Bugra Demirel.

Will Crowley, treasurer of the Leon County Democratic Executive Committee, suggested people boycott businesses in SoMo Walls because he said it would enrich Demirel, chairman of the developer-funded Grow Tallahassee political committee that’s been active in recent elections.

That prompted Demirel to publish two columns on the Grow Tallahassee website, one blasting Crowley and the two city commissioners he supports, Jeremy Matlow and Jack Porter, and another about SoMo Walls, a project touted as revitalizing the southside that got an infusion of $1.8 million in Blueprint sales-tax dollars .

Matlow, meanwhile, amplified Crowley's call for a boycott on X, formerly known as Twitter, and included a portion of a private conversation between him and Demirel, who asked him to pull back supporters who were attacking SoMo Walls.

“If your people continue to target my livelihood and my tenants, this will get very ugly very quick,” Demirel wrote in one text.

Matlow responded that "people have freedom of speech" while Demirel countered that minorities, himself included, don't "appreciate or approve your divisive tactics to discourage southside investments."

Matlow posted part of the exchange on X and quipped: “Nothing like an overt threat from a political operative to start the afternoon."

Demirel, in one of his columns, said the text was a warning that Crowley's comments would only escalate the "political back and forth." He went on to write that Crowley should be fired from his state job.

"The gloves are off now," Demirel wrote. "I am fighting back."

'I didn't take the money and run'

Demirel defended the $1.8 million Blueprint investment in SoMo Walls , saying it was the biggest redevelopment project for South Monroe/South Adams in 30 years.

Demirel and his partners "personally invested about $3 million, and secured around $6.2 million from private bank financing," according to his column, in which he reaffirmed his pledge to pay back $1 million of the Blueprint appropriation.

“I didn’t take the money and run,” he wrote. “We used every single dollar to revitalize an entire city block and attract amazing tenants."

Grow Tallahassee, which funded mailers in 2022 supporting Mayor John Dailey and City Commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox and David Bellamy, who challenged Matlow, posted and advertised the column on Facebook. Numerous people either commented or shared it, including City Commissioner Curtis Richardson and County Commission candidate Isaac Montilla.

“Before you push to boycott an existing business ... consider all involved,” Montilla wrote. “The waiter, the manager, heck ... think about the people doing (maintenance) and all of their families. Let’s do better.”

Environmental activist Max Epstein panned Demirel’s column and the SoMo Walls project.

“I’m not sure how a cookie cutter development with a heavily subsidized distillery with a few murals on the walls is somehow ‘new ideas, change and success,’ ” he wrote.

One person shared on his personal page a link to another Demirel column called "The Ugly Truth About Matlow and Porter" which included a photo of Porter and Ray, chairman of the Leon County Democratic Party. The person who shared the link referenced the purchase of a pistol. Ray filed a report about the post Monday with the Leon County Sheriff’s Office.

Ray also complained to the Leon County Supervisor of Elections Office after he said a fake slate of candidates purportedly supported by the Democratic Party were “illegally” placed in mailboxes. The Democratic Party tweeted that it had not made such endorsements and called the alleged slate “electioneering fraud.”

School Board candidate calls GOP attack 'shocking and unprecedented'

In another dust-up, Evan Power, chairman of the Republican Party of Florida and the Leon County GOP, lashed out at Jeremy Rogers, candidate for School Board, after the Leon County Democratic Party posted a photo of him Sunday campaigning with LGBTQ rights group Equality Florida.

Also in the photo were Rogers' school-age daughter, Ray and others. Ray serves as aide to Matlow and is a close friend of Porter, who’s running for re-election.

“Oh look, Equality FL who wants to sexually indoctrinate your kindergartner is campaigning for Jeremy Rogers," Power posted. “Jeremy Rogers does not share our North Florida values.”

Rogers, a Democrat challenging School Board member Laurie Lawson Cox, a Republican , called it a “very wild, bigoted insult.”

“My daughter and I were just exploited for political gain by a national political figure Evan Power,” Rogers said in a text. “It’s really shocking and unprecedented in our community’s elections.”

Bugra Demirel's Grow Tallahassee political committee drops attack mailer on Jack Porter

Meanwhile, some of the first attack mailers of the campaign season hit mailboxes courtesy of Grow Tallahassee, Demirel’s "pro-growth" political committee, which is bankrolled in large part by developers.

One side of the mailer features a photo of Rudy Ferguson, who’s trying to unseat Porter in the Seat 1 race. “Ethics matter. Honesty matters. Integrity matters,” the mailer says.

The flip side of the mailer has a photo of Porter, a Democrat, next to images of former President Donald Trump, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Sen. Ted Cruz. Included is a link to a Democrat article from 2020 that mentioned donations Porter received in her first City Commission run from both Democratic and GOP-linked political committees.

The mailer was a twist on others that have gone out in the past from the local Democratic Party linking local Republican candidates to state and national Republicans who are unpopular in Democratic-heavy Leon County.

Porter, who is part of the progressive wing of the City Commission, responded by saying she didn’t want to get “in the mud” with Grow Tallahassee.

“Our campaign is supported by Democrats and Republicans alike, coming together to make small donations to our campaign to reform city government and improve our city for everyone,” she said in a text.

Curtis Richardson ads with city-produced images raise questions

Richardson’s campaign put out its own mail piece touting his support for $500 million in south-side infrastructure projects, $27 million for a new fire station and $18 million in investment in under-served neighborhoods.

But the mailer and a re-election commercial that appeared on Facebook drew questions from Matlow over their use of city-produced images, including Richardson’s official portrait and photos of city events picturing city employees.

Matlow, who is supporting Richardson’s opponent, former City Commissioner Dot Inman-Johnson, said the political marketing didn’t “pass the smell test.”

“You’re not supposed to use any video produced for photographs produced with tax dollars for your own personal benefit,” he said. “I’ve never seen a campaign locally do it.”

Richardson bristled at Matlow’s criticism and defended the ads.

“Nobody from the city of Tallahassee has said that we did anything improper using those images,” he told the Democrat on Tuesday.

The city maintains a website, talgov.com/photos , that includes photos of city events, press conferences, commissioners and more. The photos are available to the general public.

Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or 850-599-2180.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: 'The gloves are off': Accusations fly, campaigns get ugly ahead of Tallahassee primary