Before we began FloridaCapitalTea, our team had varying degrees of interest in local politics. Some of us knew nothing and followed nothing. So when we first started to hear about “ghost” candidates from Valerie Crowder one of our team members asked, “So why does this matter?”
On the surface, this appears to be a colossal waste of someone’s money. Pay someone to pretend to run, pay for them to have a rental, and pay all the qualifying fees. What’s the reason behind all this hassle? The idea behind a Ghost candidate is to confuse voters. Voters like us, before we started this page.
A Ghost candidate is chosen whose name and gender are similar to a candidate they are attempting to take votes away from. Voters who know they don’t want to vote for someone, let’s say Curtis Ricardson because of the firefighters. They may not be following the candidates closely. They vote for Donna Nyack instead of Dot Inman-Johnson because they see the first two letters and believe that’s the person they want. The reality is their vote has now been “stolen” from Dot.
According to several online articles this isn’t the first ghost candidate attack in Florida. The most recent article contributes the ghost candidates in South Florida to Alex Alvarado, from Tallahassee.
How Do We Know If The Integrity of Our Elections Is Under Attack?
The Leon County Democratic Party posted about Alex Alvarado and his hidden participation in a post on X, formally Twitter, yesterday as well as a link to a longer YouTube video.
Leon County Democratic party explains how Alvarado has created several PACs (Political Action Committees) and who the donors to these PACs are. An Alvarado PAC made a campaign video in 2020. A different Alvarado PAC used the same video with a new voice over for Richardson’s campaign this year.
The donors are all apart of the Chamber Of Commerce. Unfortunately, many of our small local businesses are not feeling the abundant profits that the Chamber is touting. Couple that with this information and local business are feeling pushed out for Developer interests. We understand that “not all” Chamber members are nefarious. However, the handful that are participating in election interference tend to represent all of the members. The silent members that disagree with this interference are just as guilty. The good members, that have good hearts; this is your call to call in the members misrepresenting you,
Richardson claims he doesn’t have any involvement with Ghost Candidates. However, we can see that he has fruit with Alvarado. A person running several PACs with big developer money doesn’t just pour money into a campaign without an expected return. Developers don’t just donate money to a PAC without an expected return also.
This may not have been Richardson’s intentions but this is absolutely the impact. He has voted enough times in favor of developers that the are willing to do what’s needed to re-elect him. The ends, for them, justify the means.
The Ghost Candidate
Donna Nyack is our suspected Ghost candidate. FloridaCapitalTea reached out to her after she announced she was running. Her phone went to voicemail and she never returned our call. She has only appeared in one debate and revealed to know little to nothing about recent major government decisions.
If she is a ghost candidate, then she is interfering with our local elections. She is compromising the integrity of our local government.
If a candidate cannot win on their own merit, perhaps they are not the right candidate for us. And if a development idea is not popular among residents, perhaps we need to have more conversations around it. To mislead our neighbors and to deceive us is unacceptable.
Further reading from candidates that responded to our community questions: City Commission Candidates: The Questions We Wanted To Know
A confused voter does not have his or her vote stolen because he or she didn’t care enough to read the name of the candidate! That’s ridiculous. It’s not only silly, but it’s false. You need to stop lying about what a stolen vote is.
Ghost candidates are real and while legal they are not ethical.