Newcomer enters Tallahassee race, raising questions about possible 'ghost candidate'
A newcomer from California has filed to run for City Commission against two well-known local politicians, raising questions about the possibility of another "ghost candidate" scandal in Florida.
A political newcomer with roots in California has entered a Tallahassee City Commission race against two well-known local politicians.
“It is a very rare occurrence for someone who's not well-known and is a newcomer to a community to run for a very important local office against two well-known candidates,” said Susan McManus, a political scientist and professor emeritus at the University of South Florida. “That’s very unusual.”
Donna Nyack, 58, recently filed paperwork to run for City Commission Seat 2, making her the fourth candidate to enter the race. Mayor Pro Tem Curtis Richardson was elected to the seat in 2014 and is seeking a third, four-year term in office. Former Mayor Dorothy “Dot” Inman-Johnson and local resident Bernard Stevens Jr. are also running for the seat.
Election Day for local races is on Tuesday, August 20. If none of the candidates secure a majority of the votes, a runoff election would take place on Tuesday, November 5.
The race is expected to come down to Richardson and Inman-Johnson, who are both registered Democrats and have experience in local government.
Nyack, who entered the race last week, hasn’t spoken publicly about her candidacy.
"Local races are still won at the grassroots level,” McManus said. This often involves speaking at local clubs, churches, community events and debates, as well as doing interviews, she explained. “You can't be an unknown.”
City Commission elections in Tallahassee are nonpartisan. In a race with three or more candidates, the two candidates who receive the most votes in August compete head-to-head in a November runoff election, unless one candidate receives 50% of the ballots cast, plus one vote.
Having four candidates in the race “increases the chances of a runoff,” explained Matthew Isbell, an independent data analyst for Democratic campaigns. “But it doesn’t guarantee it either.”
Richardson and Inman-Johnson, who served in the late 1980s and early 1990s, have about the same amount of experience on the City Commission. Inman-Johnson is running a grassroots campaign that relies on small donations and volunteers, while Richardson has received more large-dollar donations to fund his campaign.
Isbell explains local campaigns that rely on grassroots support tend to perform better in August, meaning a November runoff election could potentially favor Richardson.
“Grassroots money can stretch further in a lower-turnout, less-crowded August race,” Isbell said. “The electorate is probably similar in November, but the issue is the money only goes so far.”
As the incumbent, Richardson likely has greater name recognition than Inman-Johnson, and that could help him in a November election when there’s usually higher turnout, Isbell said. “It's also possible one of them still could get the fifty percent [in August] because I don't think either of these other two candidates will take a large chunk of votes.”
Nyack’s motivation to run remains unclear
Nyack has been a registered nurse in California since 1996, public records show. Last year, she renewed her nursing license and made it “active,” meaning she can still treat patients in the state. In December, Nyack registered to vote as a Republican in Leon County, Florida.
Nyack, who recently entered the race for City Commission, hasn’t launched a campaign website or social media page.
The Panhandle Press has requested an interview with Nyack to discuss her candidacy, but she declined in an email, explaining that she doesn’t “have any availability just yet.”
Nyack wrote that she looks forward to meeting “the many people of Tallahassee to introduce myself and share my candidacy objectives and goals.”
At this time, none of the candidates are guaranteed to have their names on the ballot. That’s because the candidate qualifying period for local office, which is June 10-14, hasn’t yet begun. To qualify, City Commission candidates must live in the city and list their residential address on their candidate oath. They must also be registered to vote in the county.
“It sounds like this could be a candidate who is in the race to just potentially siphon votes away from another candidate,” said Ben Wilcox, research director for Integrity Florida, a nonpartisan research institute and government watchdog organization.
In 2022, the institute put out a statewide report about “ghost candidates,” a term that describes candidates who file to run for elected office in an effort to take away votes from another candidate and increase the likelihood of a third candidate winning the race.
“They put their name on the ballot, but then they don't campaign, they don't speak publicly,” Wilcox explained. “They are mainly on the ballot to siphon votes away from other legitimate candidates.”
While it’s possible that Nyack is a serious candidate, she’s showing signs that winning the election isn’t her motivation for running, Wilcox said.
“The fact that she’s being secretive has the appearance that this is potentially a ghost candidate,” he said. “Whether she is going to intentionally get out there and campaign, raise money and put up yard signs, and do all that kind of stuff, remains to be seen.”
“Ghost candidates” or “spoilers” have entered races in Florida since the early 2000s, according to the report. In a Miami state Senate race in 2020, a “ghost candidate” named Alex Rodríguez, who ran as an independent, caused former Democratic state Sen. José Javier Rodríguez to lose his reelection bid to Republican state Sen. Ileana Garcia by only 32 votes.
Alex Rodríguez ultimately pleaded guilty to breaking campaign finance laws, admitting that he had accepted $45,000 in bribes to put his name on the ballot. Not all “ghost candidate” scandals involve illegal activity, the report explains.
A political action committee backed by the state’s major utility company Florida Power & Light paid for ads on behalf of Rodríguez, promoting him as “a left-leaning progressive,” the report states.
"In other communities, we’ve had people playing games with the ballot,” said Ryan Ray, chairman of the Leon County Democratic Party. “You’ve seen similar names, intended to confuse people, appear on the ballot.”
Ray says he sees “red flags” with Donna Nyack’s candidacy. For instance, she doesn’t have a record of getting involved in local politics and she hasn’t spoken publicly about her reasons for running.
Typically, candidates are eager to speak to the press and communicate their issues with voters as soon as they file, Ray explained. “The absence of that here, combined with the proximity of the qualifying deadline, to me raises questions about the sincerity of this candidacy.”
Candidates react to newcomer’s entrance in the race
Mayor Pro Tem Curtis Richardson told The Panhandle Press that he wasn’t aware of Nyack’s candidacy until this reporter asked for his reaction to her filing.
Richardson says he’s not concerned about an additional candidate entering the race. “I am running on my record of service to this community,” he said. “And I feel good about my record of service.”
Former Mayor Dorothy “Dot” Inman-Johnson says someone on her campaign told her “that someone named ‘Donna’ filed,” but she’s not concerned about Nyack’s candidacy.
“My supporters are going to be my supporters,” Inman-Johnson said.
Bernard Stevens Jr., who’s never held political office, says he’s “ecstatic” that another candidate has entered the race.
City Commission Seat 2 race challenges ‘slim majority’
Many important decisions made by the City Commission are approved with a 3-2 vote, explained Integrity Florida’s Ben Wilcox, who also helped form Citizens for Ethics Reform, a coalition of groups that helped establish the city’s Independent Ethics Board. “One side is typically supporting what special interests want, and the other side is typically trying to fight against that kind of system.”
Wilcox explains that a “slim majority” on the commission tends to vote in a way that benefits developers and other “special interests” and includes: Mayor John Dailey, Commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox and Mayor Pro Tem Curtis Richardson. Commissioners Jeremy Matlow and Jack Porter tend to break with the majority on major decisions, such as the city’s recent property tax rate increase, he added.
With Richardson’s seat opening up in this election, that “slim majority” is “in jeopardy,” Wilcox said. “There's a lot at stake in this coming election.”
Former Mayor Dorothy “Dot” Inman-Johnson, who’s challenging Richardson, says that she never imagined she’d again seek public office before deciding to enter the race last year. “I felt I needed to do it.”
Inman-Johnson says she believes the City Commission has made the wrong decisions on behalf of residents, including raising property taxes and spending revenues in a way that benefits developers at the expense of working people.
“They are sitting high and looking low — and not paying attention to those of us who are down here on the ground,” Inman-Johnson said. “And I want to put the people first.”
I figured David Wamsley was already sort of a ghost candidate because he doesn't seem to have any current ties to the area. I guess this makes two city commission races with two ghost candidates. And even though they're "non-partisan" this is a well-established page of the Florida Republican party playbook.