Demonstrating a notable lack of attention to detail, campaign mailers promoting Florida Republican Erika Booth, a candidate in a January special election for Florida House District 35, have printed the wrong election date on one side.
Photos of the mailer, provided to Orlando Weekly by a reader who has requested anonymity, show that one side of the mailer prints the correct date of the special election (Jan. 16, 2024) while the flip side calls for mailer recipients to vote for Booth on Jan. 17, 2024, which would be a day too late for their votes to actually matter.
House District 35, located in Central Florida, covers parts of eastern Orange and Osceola Counties. The House seat, previously held by Republican Fred Hawkins, was left vacant last year after Gov. Ron DeSantis tapped Hawkins to be president of South Florida State College after a failed presidential search. Hawkins, an Ohio native, resigned from his elected position to take the job.
Fine print on the mailers for Booth, who's facing off against Democratic candidate Tom Keen, show the campaign advertisement was paid for and approved by the Florida House Republican Campaign Committee, a political committee that promotes Republicans for elected office. The mailer states that the content was approved by Booth's campaign.
The treasurer for the political committee did not return an emailed request from Orlando Weekly for comment on the botched mailers, nor did Booth's campaign (after emails to two addresses we could find for her campaign bounced back, and an email to a personal email address did not receive a response.)
Ironically, the mailer promotes Booth, an educator by trade and a sitting member of the Osceola County School Board, as a classroom teacher who "is setting our students — and the rest of Florida — UP FOR SUCCESS!" Suffice it to say, approving a mailer design with a typo that's capable of sinking her campaign would be a shaky start — not a setup for success.
Booth, who's married to Osceola County commissioner Ricky Booth, is promoted on the mailer as a candidate focused on education and providing financial literacy skills to students. Her campaign website displays a much more partisan message, though, blasting "Sleepy" President Joe Biden's "woke agenda" and naming priorities that include a crackdown on "illegal aliens" and preventing "indoctrination" in schools.
Booth won the Republican party's primary election for HD35 in November with 49.5% of the vote in a face-off against two other Republican competitors. Democrat Tom Keen, a businessman and U.S Navy veteran, secured 36.1% of the vote in a close Democratic primary, similarly facing off against two other campaigners.
Democrats are hoping to flip the district, which joined a red wave that spread across the state in 2022, supporting DeSantis and former Republican State Rep. Fred Hawkins after favoring President Joe Biden in 2020. The district also saw more participation from registered Republicans in the November 2023 primary, with 7,470 Republicans turning out to vote compared to 6,750 Democrats.
Booth was swiftly endorsed by the Florida House Republican Campaign Committee. She has Big Business on her side, with campaign finance records showing donations from the Central Florida Hotel and Lodging Association, the Associated Industries of Florida, prison healthcare company Centene, and the Realtors and Apartment Associations, which hate the idea of establishing limits on rent increases and love prohibiting local governments in Florida from establishing laws prohibiting bad landlord practices. The FHRCC alone gifted Booth $50,000 in campaign donations.
Keen, who's raised just a fraction of what Booth has, is a self-described "committed progressive" running on a platform that includes adequately funding Florida's public schools, promoting affordable housing strategies, and protecting reproductive freedom, free speech rights, the environment and LGBTQ+ Floridians from partisan attacks on their rights.
Campaign finance reports show that most of Keen's reported campaign donations are small-dollar donations under $200 from individuals, not businesses or PACs. He's been endorsed by several labor unions (including the Orange County teachers union), Florida Planned Parenthood, VoteVets and the Florida Democratic Party.
Early voting for the HD 35 special election begins Jan. 6, 2024, and runs through Jan. 14, and the official Election Day is Jan. 16. Whomever wins the special election will also be up for re-election with all other state representatives this November.
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Photos of the mailer, provided to Orlando Weekly by a reader who has requested anonymity, show that one side of the mailer prints the correct date of the special election (Jan. 16, 2024) while the flip side calls for mailer recipients to vote for Booth on Jan. 17, 2024, which would be a day too late for their votes to actually matter.
House District 35, located in Central Florida, covers parts of eastern Orange and Osceola Counties. The House seat, previously held by Republican Fred Hawkins, was left vacant last year after Gov. Ron DeSantis tapped Hawkins to be president of South Florida State College after a failed presidential search. Hawkins, an Ohio native, resigned from his elected position to take the job.
Fine print on the mailers for Booth, who's facing off against Democratic candidate Tom Keen, show the campaign advertisement was paid for and approved by the Florida House Republican Campaign Committee, a political committee that promotes Republicans for elected office. The mailer states that the content was approved by Booth's campaign.
The treasurer for the political committee did not return an emailed request from Orlando Weekly for comment on the botched mailers, nor did Booth's campaign (after emails to two addresses we could find for her campaign bounced back, and an email to a personal email address did not receive a response.)
Ironically, the mailer promotes Booth, an educator by trade and a sitting member of the Osceola County School Board, as a classroom teacher who "is setting our students — and the rest of Florida — UP FOR SUCCESS!" Suffice it to say, approving a mailer design with a typo that's capable of sinking her campaign would be a shaky start — not a setup for success.
Booth, who's married to Osceola County commissioner Ricky Booth, is promoted on the mailer as a candidate focused on education and providing financial literacy skills to students. Her campaign website displays a much more partisan message, though, blasting "Sleepy" President Joe Biden's "woke agenda" and naming priorities that include a crackdown on "illegal aliens" and preventing "indoctrination" in schools.
Booth won the Republican party's primary election for HD35 in November with 49.5% of the vote in a face-off against two other Republican competitors. Democrat Tom Keen, a businessman and U.S Navy veteran, secured 36.1% of the vote in a close Democratic primary, similarly facing off against two other campaigners.
Democrats are hoping to flip the district, which joined a red wave that spread across the state in 2022, supporting DeSantis and former Republican State Rep. Fred Hawkins after favoring President Joe Biden in 2020. The district also saw more participation from registered Republicans in the November 2023 primary, with 7,470 Republicans turning out to vote compared to 6,750 Democrats.
Booth was swiftly endorsed by the Florida House Republican Campaign Committee. She has Big Business on her side, with campaign finance records showing donations from the Central Florida Hotel and Lodging Association, the Associated Industries of Florida, prison healthcare company Centene, and the Realtors and Apartment Associations, which hate the idea of establishing limits on rent increases and love prohibiting local governments in Florida from establishing laws prohibiting bad landlord practices. The FHRCC alone gifted Booth $50,000 in campaign donations.
Keen, who's raised just a fraction of what Booth has, is a self-described "committed progressive" running on a platform that includes adequately funding Florida's public schools, promoting affordable housing strategies, and protecting reproductive freedom, free speech rights, the environment and LGBTQ+ Floridians from partisan attacks on their rights.
Campaign finance reports show that most of Keen's reported campaign donations are small-dollar donations under $200 from individuals, not businesses or PACs. He's been endorsed by several labor unions (including the Orange County teachers union), Florida Planned Parenthood, VoteVets and the Florida Democratic Party.
Early voting for the HD 35 special election begins Jan. 6, 2024, and runs through Jan. 14, and the official Election Day is Jan. 16. Whomever wins the special election will also be up for re-election with all other state representatives this November.
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