BETTY PARKER

Special to The News-Press

The new involvement of a Tallahassee-based PAC in the Bonita Springs mayor’s race signals an end to the town’s unique campaign rules, and the growing reach big business — including Big Sugar — exercises in even small city elections.

The “Committee for Effective Representation” has done mail and TV ads supporting Peter Simmons, who’s running for Bonita mayor in the city’s March 15 election.

The group, which shares a Tallahassee address and phone number with several similar organizations, had about $760,000 in its account in January; the 19 donors included sugar interests —for about $110,000 — and other groups that also received money from sugar.

One donor to the group doing the pro-Simmons ads, for example, is a PAC at the same address called “The Voice of Florida Business.” That PAC has about $4.8 million from 100 big businesses and corporations, including close to $1 million from sugar, in its own account, and gave some to the “Effective Representation” group supporting Simmons.

The money shuffle between PACs, and sugar’s involvement, is not new, nor illegal. Sugar interests provide some of the state’s biggest lobbying and campaign efforts.

But it’s different for Bonita, where the city charter includes candidate spending limits. Those limits were set when the city was founded in 1999 and re-affirmed by voters in a 2010 referendum.

Candidates’ election spending is severely restricted, using a formula that allows about $2 spent per voter. For the mayoral race this year, that means each candidate can spend about $61,000 to reach the city’s 32,000 voters.

There’s widespread agreement that such limits would not withstand a court challenge, and they’re technically unenforceable.

Yet candidates have always followed them. Even Simmons said earlier this year the limits are the will of the people, so he would abide by them.

Spending by a PAC or similar group could easily double or triple what a candidate can spend under the limits.

Such third-party spending for a candidate is not addressed in city rules. But some charter defenders say the spirit of the limits is clear, and such PAC spending uses a loophole to get around the intent.

Simmons, responding via email because of problems with his voice, said he had no advance knowledge of the group’s support, nor about the group itself. After the mailings came out, he said, he did some research and found they are a pro-business organization that takes money from many different groups.

He has not asked them to stop, he said, because they have First Amendment rights to express their opinions.

Steve McIntosh, who’s also running for mayor, said he’s “more disappointed than surprised” at the PACs’ involvement. “We’re seeing a shift from the issue-driven campaigns we’ve had in the past,” he said. “This brings in more of a national influence, and changes the way things have been done in Bonita Springs.”

And with sugar money in play, McIntosh said, that raises questions about environmental commitment from those who benefit from it — a big Southwest Florida issue as lake and river water problems make daily headlines.

“I’m not sure ignorance is a great defense,” he said of Simmons’ statements that he didn’t initially know who funded the group that helped him. “I think you need to know who’s giving you money.”

Although he acknowledged third-party and PAC spending is common elsewhere, he said he’s tried to abide by the intent of Bonita’s restrictions.

“Some people say it doesn’t matter how you win, as long as you win,” McIntosh said. “I don’t agree with that.”

Simmons said he doesn’t know why the group decided to back him, but speculated it’s because of his pro-business platform.

Officials with Associated Industries of Florida, under whose umbrella most of the involved PACs operate, said they do not discuss their PACs’ political activity.

School board race gets new candidate

Another candidate with years of experience in Lee County schools joined the school board race in District 7, a new seat that will be elected countywide.

William Lane of Cape Coral said he’s retired after stints as assistant principal or principal at schools including Bonita Springs and Gulf middle schools.

Now, he said, “the Lord is putting it on my heart to give back to the board and the district and the students” by running for the office.

Lane said he’s fully recovered from a recent bout with melanoma, and that’s helped him realize the importance of being sensitive to others’ issues.

“You’ve got to be sensitive to people,” he said. “There were times when the school board, with their antics, really demoralized me as an employee, and I’m bound and determined not to let that happen again.”

He said he’s running for District 7 because that seat is open — his home district is not up for election this year — and it’s a four-year term. The other new, open countywide district 6 is a two-year term.

District 7 does, however, have an incumbent running along with four others. Board member Cathleen Morgan switched to run in that countywide district instead of in her smaller home district.

Senate candidates seek traction

Florida’s U.S. Senate candidates are fighting for traction when most are unknown outside their home area, and voters’ attention is glued to presidential bouts.

But given the liking for “outsiders” this season, GOP Senate candidate Todd Wilcox of Orlando may be well-positioned.

A political novice who’s a self-made millionaire through businesses he developed after his military career, Wilcox recently made a call to “stop career politicians” and “end the mess in Washington.”

His ideas won’t be popular with a lot of elected officials, but they’re likely to resonate with voters.

Wilcox’s five-step plan calls for 12-year term limits; no pension—“election to Congress shouldn’t mean a lifetime windfall of cash”; requiring members to read the bill; follow the same laws they impose on others; and, perhaps most radical in today’s world, a lifetime lobbying ban, to end the common practice of lawmakers moving into the lobbying world.

Meanwhile, another nonpolitician entered the GOP primary this week: Carlos Beruff, whose parents fled Cuba for the U.S. year ago, is a homebuilder from the Sarasota area, with roots in Miami.

Beruff has been an ally of Gov. Rick Scott, who has not taken sides in the primary that includes his Lt. Gov., Carlos Lopez-Cantera.

Others in the GOP race for the post now held by Marco Rubio include U.S. Reps. Ron DeSantis and David Jolly.

Major Democratic candidates include U.S. Reps. Patrick Murphy and Alan Grayson. President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden this week endorsed Murphy; Grayson’s flamboyance has done little to endear him to party leaders.

Freeman makes her case

April Freeman, the Democrat who’s run unsuccessfully for the seat now held by U.S. Rep. Curt Clawson, R-Bonita Springs, is running again this year in a different district.

Now she’s a pursuing District 17, which includes parts of north and east Lee County, and is now represented by U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, a central Florida Republican.

Freeman said at BUPAC this week her chances as a Democrat are better in that inland district that sprawls over much of south central Florida, and the party has promised help.

She’s still working hard on her own, she added, because the party promised help that never fully materialized in her previous Southwest Florida campaigns. But other women running elsewhere — in areas with more Democratic voters and where Democrats still sometimes win—have gotten help from the party and others, and this race may provide more promising demographics.

Lee County has not elected a Democrat to a major partisan office in 20 years; in Collier, it’s closer to 30 years, and the party tends to focus on races with closer numbers.

Rooney has done little in Congress, Freeman said, and she’s a hard worker who’s ready to reach across the aisle for support. “We’ve got to elect people who are willing to work, and work together, if we want to get things done,” she said.

Lake Okeechobee’s problems are a major issue for that district as well, she said, and she’s looking for new ways to attack that matter. She suggested making the lake a national park, although others said the park system has been the target for severe federal budget cuts.

Early childhood education, and teaching parents how to prepare their children for school, is another of her major issues.

Some mail-in ballots useless

Since vote-by-mail ballots first went out for Florida’s March 15 presidential primary, there have been changes in both parties’ slate of candidates. Jeb Bush dropped out of the GOP contest after about 20,000 mail ballots were already returned, for just one example, so any of those early votes for Jeb are now useless.

Democrats saw Martin O’Malley depart after the ballots were printed and many sent.

Given such changes after some people voted, has anyone asked for another ballot so they can do it over?

That’s illegal; you can’t do that. But Lee County Elections Supervisor Sharon Harrington said they still get asked.

“It happens every presidential election,” she said. “Some candidate drops out or something happens and the voter wants another chance. But we can’t give them another ballot. That’s against the law.”

Names of candidates who’ve quit still appear on the ballot because in some cases, the ballot has already been printed. Ballots must go out more than a month in advance to overseas and military personnel in foreign countries so they can vote and return it in time

And in many cases, the candidate is still technically, legally, a candidate. They’re not running, but they “suspend” a campaign, putting it in limbo. Their names must still appear.

It’s up to the voters to make sure their candidates, especially if less-known, are still running. But if the candidate drops out after you voted, there’s little that can be done.

And despite last-minute bombshells, there are no do-overs.

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