Senate candidate Maughan seeks to stop campaign ad

A TV ad attacking state Senate candidate Jason Maughan — a Republican opposing  Sen. Lizbeth Benacquisto, R-Fort Myers — drew a cease-and-desist filing Friday from Maughan, who said it’s so distorted as to be fantasy.

The ad, which was still on the air Friday afternoon, is wrong and so absurd it’s almost laughable, Maughan said, predicting it will have a backlash in his favor.

“Do you think I’d be admitted to the Florida Bar if I’d done all the things they’re trying to say I did,” said Maughan, a Sanibel attorney. “People can see it’s ridiculous.”

The ad dramatizes a 1995 shooting incident involving Maughan in Washington state. Maughan’s initial felony charges were later reduced to misdemeanors, and Maughan then won a lawsuit against the prosecutor for unlawful prosecution.

According to Maughan, while he was driving alone on a quiet road, he accidentally fired a legally owned gun into a car he thought was abandoned along the roadside.

Then a man and woman who were reclining in the car, popped up. Neither was injured by the gunfire — one was cut by flying glass — but Maughan, then a student, panicked, fled and was caught, leading to felony charges.

Those charges were later reduced to misdemeanors, with a small fine and the two nights he spent in jail after his arrest, as punishment, he said. He got his gun back, and said cops told him the safety was broken, supporting his claim that it accidentally fired.

Maughan later sued for wrongful prosecution, and won about $100,000.

The ad is credited to a PAC called “Truth Matters” with a Tallahassee address. The group had  little activity in the last year, but in late June got $75,000 from another group called “Taxpayers in Action,” a Tampa political committee.

Taxpayers in Action has about $1.1 million, but the most recent activity is $120,000 given in June. The June donors include $10,000 from U.S. Sugar, and $100,000 from yet another PAC called “Innovate Florida.”

“Innovate Florida” lists Sen. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, as chairman. Galvano is expected to be Senate president in two years, and his PAC has about $3.3 million from businesses and interest groups throughout the state.

Maughan predicted when he announced his candidacy against Benacquisto, the Senate’s majority leader, that he would face serious attacks. His campaign for clean water and cleaning up Lake O and the Calooshatchee was bound to anger powerful interests, he said, but few expect how ugly that can get.

“We’re talking about our future” with the water issue, he said. “There’s not much more important that that.”

He’s also pursuing complaints over the use of a write-in candidate to close the primary so only Republicans can vote.

Such write-ins are a tradition in Southwest Florida Republican primaries, but rarely admitted.

This year, the Benacquisto camp acknowledged they’d done just that.

It works like this: If only two GOP candidates run, as the state Senate race between Benacquisto and Maughan shaped up, then all voters can cast a ballot.

But once a write-in enters, as Dakota Austin Eads did at the last minute in that Senate race, the primary closes, so only GOP voters get a say. That means candidates have a smaller, more conservative, and theoretically easier, voter group to reach.

Most write-ins are never seen or heard from after their initial filing.

But this week Benacquisto’s campaign acknowledged they worked with Eads, a Benacquisto supporter who offered his help in the race.

Such action is legal, they said. “If Democrats want to vote in primaries, they should field their own candidates and not send liberals like Jason Maughan to do their bidding,” said Benacquisto spokeswoman Erin Isaac.

Maughan said it’s unconscionable to use such “games” that disenfranchise most of the voters. While Republicans have the single largest voter registration, Democrats and the ever-growing no-party voters together outnumber the GOP.

One of the earliest times such a tactic was used here to close the primary was in Sheriff Mike Scott’s first election in 2004.  With only two Republicans on the primary ballot, a late-comer write-in entered, and said publicly he did so simply to close the primary.

Scott was widely known and popular, and thousands of people changed their party registration to Republican, with many saying they did so just to vote in that race.

Legislative attempts to change the law, and stop write-ins from closing primaries, have failed over several years.

More anti-Rooney mailers

A new mailer with negative allegations against U.S. congressional candidate Francis Rooney arrived this week, citing Rooney’s positions in the past as different from those he now promotes as he appeals to GOP primary voters.

Among the issues is immigration, and the mailer cites Rooney’s involvement with “Republicans for Immigration Reform,” a group that was more active in elections two to four years ago. The group’s allies included dozens of national corporate and  business leaders, political consultants and former elected and appointed officials, and took the “softer, kinder” approach to immigration reform that was touted by former Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio in his earlier iterations.

Former U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez — who this week endorsed Rooney in Southwest Florida’s District 19 congressional race —  is listed as an advisory board member on the group’s website.

The attack mailer says Rooney joined the group “to support amnesty for illegal immigrants” but now, in the campaign, opposes amnesty.

Among other things, the immigration group lobbied congressional  Republicans on the immigration issue, including letters signed by more than 100 people, including Rooney, Pepe Fanjul of Florida Crystals sugar business; former ambassador and developer Al Hoffman; and other corporate and political leaders.

The nation’s immigration problems mean problems finding workers and labor, and threaten the nation’s agricultural supply, one such letter said. Potential entrepreneurs and business talent are turned away and go to other countries.

That letter also referred to the growing numbers of Hispanic voters and their influence in elections. If the only bills the party advances are “viewed as anti-immigrant or not immigrant friendly, we stand to alienate troves of voters who otherwise agree with our principles,” it said.

Another letter from the group dated July 30, 2013, and signed by Rooney, former Bush consultant Karl Rove, Pepe Fanjul, and many others on the first missive, mentions the same worker issues, and urges GOP members of Congress to “take control of who comes in the country and make sure everyone plays by the same rules.”

Needed fixes include securing the borders; providing ways for U.S. companies to be able to hire the workers they need, and “providing a path to legal status for undocumented immigrants who pay penalties and back taxes, pass criminal background checks, and go to the back of the line.”

Rooney has talked about immigration during the campaign, and has an ad on the issue airing now. There’s little mention of fears of lost entrepreneurs or voters, and he vows to crack down on the problem.

Asked about his positions now compared to his positions then, Rooney replied via an email that repeats much of the ad: Washington has failed, and Rooney — who knows how to build walls — will fight for one on our southern border. In addition I will work to end sanctuary cities and deport illegal immigrants committing crimes.”

There was no mention of his past beliefs nor a response to the “Republicans for Immigration Reform” activities.

Asked again about  contrasts between the positions in the letters he signed for the pro-reform group and his positions now, Rooney again responded via email: “The bottom line is that Americans want our immigration laws enforced and like everything else in Washington, our elected officials just aren’t doing the job…The people want to secure the borders, stop illegal immigration and sanctuary cities, and deport illegal immigrants who commit crimes” and he vowed to work toward those ends.

Quackenbush's past

Lee County School Board candidate Chris Quackenbush is another candidate facing questions about her past activities in another state during the 1990s.

At that time, Quackenbush lived in California, where her husband, Chuck, was the state’s elected insurance commissioner; a successful statewide candidate often mentioned as potential governor material.

But he was caught up in controversies involving campaign donations, misuse of public funds and treatment of the industry he regulated. Investigations and hearings by the Legislature and law enforcement resulted, and he resigned in the summer of 2000 and moved to Hawaii.

News reports of the controversy are voluminous, including months of reports in the LA Times and business and professional publications.

News stories say he transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars from his political accounts to his wife’s (Chris) failed 1998 race for state Senate. “Chris Quackenbush used the money to pay off her own campaign debt, incurred with a second mortgage on their Rio Linda Home,” according to one LA Times story.

A later Times story said Chuck Quackenbush “diverted $565,000 of the money to his wife’s failed 1998 state Senate campaign. The Quackenbush couple then used the money to pay off a mortgage on their family home and even paid themselves $52,000 interest in the transaction.”

Under California law, all those actions were legal, the stories say, but those donations from him to her were one of the first things that drew attention to his actions.

The stories are easy to find, and lead to speculation and questions at candidate forums in the school board race.

At one recent forum in Lehigh Acres, the moderator — reading a question submitted by someone else  — asked Chris Quackenbush to comment on questions regarding the funding of her campaign in California.

Quackenbush said she ran for state Senate and lost, but she did not know what questions anyone might have.

“I got $2 million,” she responded. “I ran a good campaign, but I lost. I had no questions, no questions at all….I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Asked about it later at another event, Quackenbush said she didn’t know what questions regarding her earlier race finances referred to, but after being reminded of the detailed news coverage, she said she had no problem talking about it.

Her husband “donated money to a lot of candidates,” she said. “There was no problem with that, no fine. It was legal.”

After his resignation, the family moved to Hawaii. After two or three years, newspaper accounts there wrote about their growing involvement in Hawaiian politics, along with his political past.

Chris Quackenbush said she was especially proud of her work there to lessen quarantine requirements for animals being brought to the island.

Family matters brought them back to the states, and eventually to Lee County, she said.

Hurley Speaks

Kimberly Hurley may be a relatively new resident to Lee County, after three years of teaching out of state, she can bring experience and a fresh outlook to the Lee County School Board’s District 2, she told BUPAC members this week.

Hurley is one of five candidates trying to unseat incumbent Jeanne Dozier, who’s seeking re-election. Only district residents can vote in this nonpartisan race.

Hurley said good teachers have to be excited about their jobs to teach well, and the board and community needs to do more to support them. “We know we’re not going to get rich,” she said of teachers. “We teach to see students grow, and see those light bulb moments.”

Teachers need more help and support in learning how to teach new subjects, she said, such as the different math processes now in use.

Basing teacher evaluations on such single factors as how well students do on a test, however, does more harm than good for teacher morale. “It’s very disheartening to know you’re going to grade me on how well my 26 students did on one test, on one day,” she said.

She’d also like to see more emphasis on teaching American history and government, saying that often gets short-changed in favor of more exotic topics.

Upcoming events

Chris Patricca, Lee County school board District 3, has a fund raising event scheduled 5:30-7:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 13, at Beef O’Brady’s in Estero. The host list of about 40 people includes Bill Lonkart, Howard Levitan, Bill Ribble, Jim Boesch, Glee and Sally Duff, Skip Mitchell, Jim Wilson and Wayne Smith.

Francis Rooney, congressional candidate, has an event scheduled 5-7 p.m.  Friday July 22, at the Martin Law Firm in Cape Coral. Hosts include Brian Hamman, Steve Teuber, Steve and Eviana Martin, Benjamin and Suzi Martin, and Farrell Tyson.

Betty Parker is a freelance writer specializing in politics. Her column appears in Saturday's The News-Press and at news-press.com