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Write-In Lawsuit Is Teetering
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Published: July 4, 2008
NEW PORT RICHEY - NEW PORT RICHEY - A lawsuit filed to disqualify write-in candidate John M. Taylor and open the District 1 county commission primary to all Pasco County voters could end next week.
In all likelihood, the outcome won't be what Pasco Democrats had hoped for.
At a hearing Thursday, an attorney representing Taylor produced an affidavit in which his client says he resides in District 1 and also is having a house built there.
The affidavit appears to undermine the plaintiffs' claim that Taylor can't be on the ballot because he resides outside the district and it could force plaintiffs Steve Byle and Deborah Lopez to abandon their lawsuit. Their attorney, Robert Altman, said he would talk with his clients to determine what to do next.
"I would be satisfied if all of the voters in Pasco got to vote in the primary," Altman said after the hearing. "But if we don't have a legal basis for it, I'm not going to be chasing shadows."
Allowing Taylor on the ballot as a write-in would preclude the county's 170,000 registered Democrats, Independents and minor party members from voting in the primary, leaving it up to Republicans to choose between John Nicolette and incumbent Ted Schrader.
Taylor has acknowledged that he added his name to the ballot to accomplish just that. The political move makes use of a 2000 ruling by the state Division of Elections in which it decided that a primary is not open to all voters if the race includes any write-ins.
The ruling came two years after Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment that allows all voters to participate in primaries if the candidates come from the same political party.
Byle, a Democrat from Hudson, and Lopez, a Zephyrhills woman with no party affiliation, based their lawsuit on the assertion that Taylor claims a homestead exemption on property in Land O' Lakes, which is not in District 1.
But Taylor's attorney, Dominic Fariello, said the exemption will be transferred to his new home once it's completed. Fariello said Taylor moved to temporary housing within the district four or five months ago and will move to his new home when it's completed.
County records show Taylor is building a house just west of Interstate 75 on Thomas Prairie Road. He purchased the lot from Nicolette in 2003.
Also Thursday, Circuit Judge W. Lowell Bray Jr. granted a request to expedite the case should Byle and Lopez decide to continue the suit. Bray granted the motion at the request of Supervisor of Elections Brian Corley, who must mail out some 10,000 absentee ballots in time for the Aug. 26 primary.
About 20 percent of those are going to county residents living or serving the military overseas.
The court case and the uncertainly of Taylor's candidacy has delayed the mailing. By law, the overseas ballots must be mailed 35 days before the election, or by July 21.
If the lawsuit continues, a July 17 evidentiary hearing will determine whether Taylor's name appears on the ballot.
Reporter Todd Leskanic can be reached at (727) 815-1084 or tleskanic@tampatrib.com.
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