DeSantis-endorsed, self-declared election criminal Rick Nolte should not take office

Nolte says he cheated in his narrow Polk School Board victory with criminal cash donations. Elected law enforcement leaders say nothing. I won't let this go until Nolte is no longer above the law.

In one of the greatest civic embarrassments in the history of Polk County, Sheriff Grady Judd and State Attorney Brian Haas are about to meekly, silently allow self-declared election felon Rick Nolte to take office as your newest School Board member.

He will be sworn in on Nov. 22, if I’m not mistaken.

This violates precedent in Polk County in every conceivable way. Former State Attorney Jerry Hill in 2014 forced a judge candidate out of a race just weeks before Election Day, under threat of prosecution, after she committed campaign finance misdemeanors.

Nolte’s official campaign documents, still unamended, have shown for months that he committed (at least) 10 misdemeanors and one felony (giving himself $5200 in cash) during his 2022 School Board campaign. Other Nolte campaign finance oddities include more roughly $7,500 in vague spending with out of state or non-existent vendors — including $2,700 for “shirts” with a Missouri company that doesn’t sell shirts. Full background here:

Dear Election Police: make Rick Nolte account for $7,567.39 of "shirt," "sign," and "marketing" campaign spending

$7500 is the fee that Nolte’s fellow GOP/CCDF cranks Terry Clark and Jill Sessions — both of whom lost — spent to hire convicted felon, church-cheating, 6 PPP loan collecting James Dunn of Texas to run their campaigns. The Polk County voting public soundly punished both Sessions and Clark for doing so.

Nolte, who claims not to have hired Dunn, won by about a percentage point in August. But, to my knowledge, he has not produced the $2700 worth of shirts he supposedly bought from a company that doesn’t sell them.

“Cleaning up Polk County?” LOL, Grady Judd

Why have Grady Judd and Brian Haas publicly ignored Nolte’s openly declared crimes and the $2,700 for shirts with a company that doesn’t sell shirts? Why are they going to let him take office when Jerry Hill disqualified through prosecution the 2014 judge candidate?

You’d have to ask them.

But I’m sure it’s because Ron DeSantis — demonstrating clearly the kind of crank he would be as president — endorsed Rick Nolte and his self-reported crimes and his “T.I.T.S.” manifesto shortly before the August primary vote.

The endorsement meant nothing to the election. See explanation here. But it put Ron DeSantis squarely on the hook for Rick Nolte — for this guy:

I’d be embarrassed to claim him, too, Ron, even if I was tiny dictator.

At this point, protecting DeSantis from embarrassing accountability for his actions is undoubtedly the driving force of Brian Haas’ inaction and Grady Judd’s silence.

But hey, at least Grady lets people sell wash clothes with his image on them.

Maybe he can use it to clean up the toxic spill of his moral reputation and record.

The last loose end of an ugly, but encouraging, civic election cycle

“Public Enemy Number 1” has been on a (figurative) war footing, probably since January 6, 2021 — but definitely since I saw this picture of Lakeland mayoral candidate Saga Stevin and Lauren Boebert in September of 2021.

In the battle to purge gross, abusive cranks and book banners and T.I.T.S. posters from Polk County’s civic space, we went 3 for 4.

We, the people of Lakeland and Polk County, successfully protected our civic space from Saga Stevin, Jill Sessions, Terry Clark, Steve Maxwell, Hannah Peterson, and the rest of the graceless, anti-social, 1/6-loving CCDF-industrial complex.

But we have a loose end. I have a loose end.

If I had seen Rick Nolte’s shenanigans on his campaign finance reports in June, I would have mercilessly defined him with them. And Sarah Fortney would not have barely fallen victim to generic partisanship in August.

I blame myself.

End this absurd blight on Polk/Lakeland’s strong and improving civil society

But that’s no excuse for Judd and Haas to abandon their public responsibility to our civic space, which has been strengthened both by Lisa Miller’s win and the national climate of rejecting vicious anti-social cranks.

Last year’s Veterans Day parade in Lakeland was marred by a gross, insulting, lib-hating political stunt. I wrote about how it insulted all patriots, generally, and my combat-wounded Vietnam vet father, specifically, who had recently died.

A Veterans Parade that insults veterans for fun harms the "common defense and general welfare"

This year was very different. And the marvelous Saturday civic meeting space that our Downtown Farmer’s Market provides was the best of America again, enhancing the crowd and enthusiasm for the parade.

There was some sort of massive national “Alice in Wonderland” LARP scavenger hunt going on at the same time; and there was something quite wonderfully American about cosplaying Tweedles watching respectfully as ROTC troops marched by.

Lakeland is a good place to live, far better than most of the rest of Florida, for my money.

And our unique mayor Bill Mutz gave a truly outstanding Veterans Day speech at my Kiwanis Club Friday. I won’t try to characterize it with detail. It was intellectually and philosophically and religiously and morally complex, like Bill is.

But I think it described healthy civic space and what it takes to grow and maintain it where lots of people disagree with each other.

I’m eager to move off of war footing — the aggressive defense of civic space itself — to write a little less frequently here in a bit more depth about what our civic space can do to further enhance itself and our shared lives.

But the war for civic space isn’t quite over yet.

As long as Grady Judd and Brian Haas and Ron DeSantis (who is not shy about removing people) declare T.I.T.S. Nolte, of all people, above the law; as long as they allow Nolte to cheat the public without consequence, they dishonor and pollute our shared space and the people who make it vibrant

If T.I.T.S. Nolte is above the law, none of us live in a free society or a healthy civic space.

I can’t and won’t abide that or stop talking about it.