Mailer from Tallahassee targets Maitland candidate

Both Maitland City Council candidates Mike Dabby and Mike Thomas spoke out in favor of the city raising its taxes in 2014 – but only one of them is being attacked for it in a campaign mailer sent out to Maitland residents last week.

The mailer, paid for by the Small Business Advocacy Council, an electioneering communications organization out of Tallahassee, targets Thomas showing a Photoshopped picture of his face with dollar signs over his eyes and the caption “Tax Hike Mike.”

The mailer references the Maitland City Council meeting of July 28, 2014 when Thomas spoke in favor of the city raising its millage rate, instead of the city continuing to drain its reserves to get by. But it fails to mention that minutes earlier at that same meeting, according to the official meeting minutes, Dabby stated that, “…the City should not be afraid to raise taxes. Believes the City should dream big, set higher millage rate and then reduce, if needed.”

Since the mailer went out, the Small Business Advocacy Council reportedly also paid for a robo-call to Maitland voters bashing Thomas. The former Orlando Sentinel writer said he doesn’t know why the group is targeting him.

“Somebody must really want [Dabby] elected though,” Thomas said, “because someone is paying for this.”

Dabby said he had no involvement with the negative ads, and has since tried to contact the group behind them to demand they stop issuing them. He also posted on his website and Facebook denouncing the ad last week.

“This is gutter politics,” Dabby said. “We don’t want anything to do with it. It’s not productive, and it doesn’t have any place in our community.”

Prior to the mailer, both Thomas and Dabby said campaigning has been clean leading up to tomorrow’s election.

But this isn’t the first time the Small Business Advocacy Council has dirtied up a Central Florida election, throwing its support behind a municipal candidate at the last minute.

According to a Nov. 12, 2011 Orlando Sentinel article, “Sneak attacks show worst of Fla. politics,” the organization was formed three weeks before the fall 2011 election, and paid for attack ads in the Altamonte Springs mayoral election targeting incumbent Pat Bates as “too scary for Altamonte Springs.”

Across the state in Collier County, the Naples Daily News reported in an Aug. 12, 2012 article, “Groups' cash changes character of election,” that the Small Business Advocacy Council sent out a mailer targeting incumbent candidate Tom Henning as violent against women. The article said the mailer read, “What kind of man has domestic violence charges filed against him from both his wives?" with a picture of a woman with a black eye fearfully looking at a silhouette of a man towering over her. The Naples Daily News wrote that in reality, the allegations were related to civil, not criminal, cases against Henning.

According to Florida Department of State Division of Elections records, the Small Business Advocacy Council has ties back to former Florida Republican Rep. Chris Dorworth of Lake Mary, and current Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Fort Walton Beach. Organizations chaired by each politician – Citizens for an Enterprising Democracy, and the Economic Freedom Foundation, respectively – combined to contribute the first $15,000 to the electioneering committee back in 2011. Since its formation, as of Feb. 29, the committee has raised $152,286 and expended $144,124. Division of Elections campaign contributions records show that about half of the SBAC’s funding over the years has come in from committees with ties to Gaetz.

Thomas said he doesn’t know how the ads will impact voters casting their ballots at the polls, which are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. tomorrow, March 15. But he said, he’s disappointed to see “House of Cards”-esque politics – and even worse, he added jokingly, Winter Park-style politics – invading the Maitland election.