Tactics suggest regret by the GOP

A secretive political committee with GOP connections is spending big bucks to support a Democratic candidate in Seminole County.

Perhaps that sentence confused you, since it said a

firm was supporting a

If it did, that’s probably because you’re a normal person who doesn’t immerse yourself in the skankiness of Florida politics. I, however, love to study skank. And that’s what we appear to have here. Republicans are worried that their chosen candidate in a key state Senate race is going to lose. So they’re trying to take down a promising Democrat before she has a chance to take out their guy.

To be fair, Republicans are right to be worried. Former state Rep. Jason Brodeur has amassed one of the most disturbing legislative records in Florida … which is really saying something.

He voted in 2011 to create the failed unemployment system.

He was named Florida’s biggest recipient of money from opioidmakers in 2018.

And he made national headlines when he filed a dangerously bad bill that attempted to imprison doctors who discussed gun safety with their patients.

Any doctors. It didn’t matter if a patient walked into a psychiatrist’s office and said he was experiencing homicidal urges. If the doctor asked the patient about his access to guns, Brodeur wanted to imprison and fine the doctor … up to $5 million. That’s approximately $5 million more than this state fines people for murder.

Years ago, when I created a list of the “Most bone-headed bills ever proposed in Florida,” a bill that sought to legalize “dwarftossing” at bars earned a mention. But Brodeur’s bill was still an easy No. 1 because it was both dangerous and unconstitutional. (Government can’t imprison people for free speech among consenting adults.)

The NRA-backed bill was later watered-down and then ruled invalid by the courts.

But Brodeur, the head of the Seminole County Regional Chamber of Commerce, remained a darling of the state’s business interests and has collected more than $2.5 million since launching his campaign … for a legislative position that pays $29,697 a year.

Now, often, Florida Democrats just roll over, play dead and accept defeat. But this time, Dems found a serious candidate with good chances: attorney Patricia Sigman, a long-time community advocate who runs her own employment-law firm.

Sigman hasn’t amassed nearly the campaign cash Brodeur has. But the $226,000 she’s raised so far is enough to compete. Plus, she’s smart, organized and apparently scaring the bejeezus out of Brodeur’s backers.

So a mysterious group has flooded the Seminole and Volusia County Senate district with mailers that attack Sigman and promote one of her Democratic opponents.

The group is called Floridians for Equality and Justice. (As a side note: You have to appreciate the ridiculously upbeat names these dark-money groups give themselves. Why not The Society for Rainbows and Unicorns?)

Sigman

As the Sentinel previously reported, the mailers sent to Democrats claim to come from fellow progressives. Except the mailers are sloppy and suspicious, oddly obsessed with things like Hillary Clinton (who’s not on this year’s ballot) and “Non-Gender Binary” public restrooms.

In other words: The mailers don’t read like they were written by actual Democrats, but rather conservatives who are disdainful of those things.

More important, as the Sentinel reported Thursday, all of the money spent by this mysterious group has gone to a firm run by a GOP lawyer with a history of working for the Republican Party of Florida.

Basically, these people think you’re stupid.

Also, the group may not have followed the law.

See, one of the few rules in the wild west of campaign financing is that political committees have to disclose where their money comes from. Floridians for Equality and Justice didn’t do that. Instead, the group just listed its entire $249,925.54 budget as a

“starting balance” — as if it just came out of nowhere.

I don’t remember much from high school biology, but I do remember that abiogenesis — the idea of something evolving from nothing — applies to microorganisms in deep-sea vents, not campaign committees in Florida.

So I’m not sure how starting a committee with a quarter million dollars — without disclosing any donors — is either proper or legal.

Neither is Mark Herron, one of the state’s leading election-law attorneys. He said this week he had never seen such a thing, saying: “It’s darker than dark.”

For his part, Brodeur says he knows nothing about the group that’s attacking his chief opponent. “I only know what I’ve read in news reports,” he said. (Yay for local journalism!)

Brodeur also claimed he wasn’t too worried about Sigman, saying he was more concerned about other “quality candidates” on the Democratic side.

He’s right that there are several strong ones. (His hot mess of a record attracted a stronger field than usual.) Democrat Alexis Carter, an attorney and former public defender and

U.S. Army lawyer, has a particularly impressive resume. Other candidates include Guerdy Remy and H. Alexander Duncan.

But the shady group with GOP ties chose to tout engineer Rick Ashby, a loyal Democrat who reported a total of $663 in campaign contributions, as their choice for Brodeur’s general-election opponent.

Ashby disavowed any connection to the group on Facebook and stressed his opposition to “any illegal campaign activities.”

Interestingly, even Brodeur seemed to acknowledge this stealth campaign probably won’t save him from facing Sigman in November, saying: “It’s been clear for a while now that Sigman will be the Democrat nominee.”

Still, the nonstop attacks against her are forcing her to spend money now — money she won’t have to spend later against Brodeur.

But the stealth campaign has also done two other things:

Elevate Sigman’s profile. And let the world see how scared Republicans are about the idea of Brodeur facing her in November. flalottery.com

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