It’s a Non-Partisan City Government — But Are You Sure?

By April L. Bogle

I don’t know anyone who wants the political battles being fought at state and national levels coming to this island paradise, but it seemed to me the level of partisanship in the December 2022 Fernandina Beach City Commission nonpartisan runoff election was inviting the conflict to come on down and pay a visit. It got so nasty that the News-Leader newspaper ran a front-page story highlighting citizens’ pleas for the acrimony to stop.

Now that the election is behind us, I decided to dig around and piece together what happened. My goal? For our community to begin a civil discussion about how we want to go forward in our city elections. Do we want elected officials focused on their political party “values” or on how we preserve and protect the things that make this island a rare gem?

Let’s start with an easier question: Why are the city’s elections supposed to be nonpartisan?

“In principle, local elections are nonpartisan because issues such as where to build a road in a community are local, nonpartisan issues,” said Michael Martinez, a professor of political science at the University of Florida.

Elaine Kamarck, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said local elections becoming partisan can “distract from and interfere with common sense local government.”

“People running for local office can get caught up in national hot button issues that don’t have a place at the level where people want roads fixed and new playground equipment – the basics,” she said.

However, both experts also said that most nonpartisan elections contain some level of partisanship.

“My experience is there are many nonpartisan elections where people know who is Democrat or Republican. Sometimes a party officially endorses candidates or people know their background. Usually, nonpartisan elections are local and people know more about the candidates,” said Kamarck.

Martinez explained that the “partisan-ness” in a nonpartisan small-town election varies from only two people running and both affiliated with the same party to cases where “sometimes things get pretty nasty.”

“We are in an era of hyperpolarization, and it is going to spill over in some places including some municipalities,” he said.

So now for a more difficult question: If nonpartisan elections typically have some level of partisanship, are there any legal requirements or limits on the level of partisan-ness allowed by candidates or their political parties?

Florida Statute 106.143 (3) contains two key points on this issue:

• “A candidate for nonpartisan office is prohibited from campaigning based on party affiliation.”
• “A political advertisement of a candidate running for nonpartisan office may not state the candidate’s political party affiliation.”

Darron Ayscue, who defeated Genece Minshew for Commission Seat 5, stated in the Nov. 29, 2022, questionnaire published by this news outlet, that he is “fully endorsed by the Republican Party of Nassau County.” He sent a direct mail piece to residents’ homes that showcased the party’s endorsement of him and featured a photo of him with Gov. Ron DeSantis. He also put on his candidate Facebook page a posting from the Republican Party of Nassau County Facebook page stating, “The Republican Party of Nassau County endorses Darron Ayscue and Dr. [sic] James Antun for Fernandina Beach City Commission.”

Ayscue said he didn’t violate the election’s nonpartisan stipulation because no party affiliation was listed next to his name on the ballot.

I’m no lawyer and cannot say whether or not these actions violated state law, so I reached out to Frank Santry, an attorney based in Fernandina Beach. He said that, while Ayscue’s actions do appear to have been in conflict with FS 106.143 (3), it’s unclear if that statute will be seen as legally binding in Fernandina Beach. Why? In 2021, the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Florida issued an injunction against enforcing it on the grounds that it violated the First Amendment by prohibiting “core political speech during an election campaign.”

“This injunction is not binding in other U.S. District Courts, therefore it wouldn’t be binding in the Middle District, where Fernandina Beach is situated. But it might be given weight if the issue were raised here,” Santry said.

Another part of the statute, FS 106.143 (5) (b), reads, “Any person who makes an independent expenditure for a political advertisement shall provide a written statement that no candidate has approved the advertisement…” and “The advertisement must also contain a statement that no candidate has approved the advertisement.”

A direct mail piece promoting Ayscue and Antun, with the return address of Conservative Leadership for First Coast, a political action committee (PAC) in Gainesville, Fla., did not contain the “no candidate approved” statement.

Additional direct mail pieces that focused on the candidates’ Republican Party affiliation, sent by the True Conservatives PAC out of Tallahassee, Fla., did contain the statement “Not approved by any candidate.”

Santry said the First Amendment concern with FS 106.143 regarding funding and disclosure requirements have been decided in favor of the state’s right to regulate. “It appears that Conservative Leadership for First Coast may have violated this section of the law with its direct mail piece, while True Conservatives complied with it,” he said.

 A third question: Why do nonpartisan elections contain partisanship?

According to Martinez, making party affiliation known can increase voter turnout. “Party labels cue voters – most voters have an image of what a Democrat or Republican stands for – and this cue may help them decide who to vote for.”

And it appeared to give Ayscue and Antun the turnout they needed. Going into the runoff for Seat 4, Mike Lednovich had an 803-vote lead over Antun, while Minshew was ahead of Ayscue by 665 votes for Seat 5.

In the runoff, Antun won by 323 votes; Aysuce by 211. Voter turnout was 38.83 percent, up from 29.43 percent in the 2020 runoff.

“When I campaigned door to door, I was asked well over a thousand times what party I belonged to,” Ayscue said. “When I engaged them at the front door, that was the number one question, the defining factor.”

Lednovich, an independent, and Minshew, a Democrat, did not publicize a party affiliation and did not receive contributions from any political party, although the Democratic Party did distribute their nonpartisan campaign literature and post support for these two candidates on Facebook, according to Kathi Donegan, president of the Democratic Club of Amelia Island during 2022.

“We’re legally allowed to contribute up to $500 to support candidate campaigns, but we chose not to give any money to any candidates in this campaign because it was a nonpartisan election,” Donegan said.

In addition to publicly endorsing Ayscue and Antun, the Nassau County Republican Party contributed $250 to each of their campaigns.

Chris Kirkland, chairman of the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Nassau County, said he believes “it’s not illegal or unethical for parties to weigh in on nonpartisan elections because it is their First Amendment right to do so.”

“Darron [Ayscue] is one of ours and has been a long-standing member of the Executive Committee,” he said, adding that Ayscue actively campaigned for DeSantis and former President Donald Trump.

After Ayscue and Antun attended an Executive Committee meeting, Kirkland said, the party publicly endorsed them. “We liked what they had to say.”

Antun said he accepted the party’s public endorsement because “we had been informed the opposing candidates had been endorsed by the Democratic Party” because the local party office was distributing yard signs for them. “It was my understanding this was a gray area, receiving support versus claiming party affiliation, but it was a gray area that I felt okay in.”

In addition, Antun said he would have posted the party’s Facebook endorsements of him on his Facebook page but technical issues prevented that. However, regarding the direct mail campaign, he said he had “no control over pushing that through.”

“Parties were interested in making that happen beyond my communication,” he said, adding he was frustrated because his name was printed inaccurately on some pieces as James John Antun. “If I was going to spend thousands of dollars on my campaign I would have gotten my name right.”

While party affiliation may increase voter turnout, Martinez said the downside is that it might cue voters to vote based on national partisan issues that are not relevant to municipal issues.

Antun mostly agrees. “Any sane person can agree it’s about getting things done first and if it’s a local issue, it shouldn’t be a Democrat or Republican issue.” But, he added, citizens in the runoff wanted to know where candidates stood about issues based on their party affiliation, such as financial policy, and that makes sense to him.

Ayscue says his party affiliation doesn’t define him and that “what you do for your community as an elected official has nothing to do with being partisan.”

So the final question: Should we change the city charter so that we can hold legally partisan elections?

Ayscue says discussions are taking place and he’s gotten feedback that people are split 50-50. “I don’t necessarily see the need to change this to partisan right now. As a public official, I have to do what the public wants, and I don’t see it’s an issue that’s been brought forth to be considered. We would have to change the charter and that would need overwhelming support.”

Antun had a similar response. “Before the runoff, I couldn’t have told you if I have an opinion on partisan versus nonpartisan because I felt like people should vote for a candidate based on what the candidate stands for.” Now, he’s open to making the election partisan. “I’m not hung up on making it a partisan election necessarily, but if a majority of city residents want that, we need to consider it.”

Lednovich, who served as Seat 4 commissioner from 2018-2020 and mayor from 2020-2022, said he thinks the new city commission’s proposal to change election dates to coincide with primary and general election dates is a precursor to proposing the elections be partisan. Traditionally, city elections have been held separately so they don’t get overlooked on a lengthy national and state ballot.

On first reading at the Jan. 17, 2023, city commission regular meeting, the proposal passed four to one, with commissioner Chip Ross providing the dissenting vote. At the time of this writing, it was not yet public when the second reading will take place.

Ross believes the date change issue is a “done deal” from his fellow commissioners’ perspective. He also says partisanship in the city elections started a couple of elections ago, with the Democrats, but it “wasn’t as blatant as it is now.”

Minshew agrees. “Partisanship has always been part of the city election but never as overt as in this last cycle. The Republicans were blatant.”

“A pox on both sides,” Ross said. “They need to stop this partisan bickering and find common ground.”

Lednovich encouraged citizens to show up at commission meetings and make their voices heard. “A political party is now in control of the city, which is not the intention of the city charter,” he said.

Editor’s note: April Bogle is a long-time corporate communications consultant from Atlanta who moved to Fernandina Beach a year ago. She holds a BA in journalism and political science from Indiana University and an MFA in creative nonfiction from Wilkes University. She has agreed to focus on writing about complex issues for the Observer, and we are happy to introduce her to our readers.