Jose Rodriguez Fabiani had no idea what he was doing. He was filling out papers at the Supervisor of Elections’ counter last week to run as a write-in candidate in a County Commission race. He’d been put up to it. “What office am I seeking? District 3?” he actually asked as he was filling out paperwork he had to redo a couple of times. He didn’t even know.
But Dennis McDonald told him. Yes, that McDonald. “He got me out of the house to do this,” Fabiani said to no one in particular, as if embarrassed by the whole thing. Of course he did.
McDonald is the fact-challenged perennial loser who couldn’t win an election (he lost four local elections by my count). He was now using Fabiani, or at least showing him what to fill in, where to fill in, to ensure that Nick Klufas and Bill Clark don’t win the County Commission’s District 3 race, either.
Klufas and Clark are two moderate Republicans, and too moderate Republicans for the MAGA sort McDonald shills for–in this case, Kim Carney. She’s the third candidate in the race. Since no Democrats or independents filed to run, it would have been an open primary. Every voter from any party or no party would have been eligible to cast a ballot, because the election would have been decided in the primary.
That would have been bad news for Carney: non-Republicans would have voted more substantially for Klufas, and for Clark to a lesser extent (he’s less known), reducing Carney’s chances. That’s what happened when she lost to Dave Sullivan in 2020. In a closed Republican primary, all Democrats, independents and small-party voters are eliminated, and as always in either party’s primaries, the more extreme wing of the voting party holds sway.
How to get there? Exploit the write-in loophole: if a write-in qualifies, that means the election will be “contested” in the general election. That means the primary must be closed. Doesn’t matter if the write-in couldn’t tell you the difference between a district and a dish rag. Doesn’t matter if the write-in has no intention of campaigning, raising money, going to forums, let alone contesting the seat, as Fabiani clearly does not. The primary is closed.
Klufas himself was told before qualifying ended that McDonald, who’s contributed to Carney’s campaign, was on the hunt for a sacrificial schmuck, so Klufas wasn’t surprised. Days earlier Michael McElroy pulled off the same schmuckery for his fellow-Trump Club conniver Ed Danko in the District 3 race, where Danko would have had a hard time beating Pat Richardson with Richardson pulling the bulk of moderates. (McElroy is listed as the Trump Club president. Danko is its PR chair.)
The whole write-in allowance is a fraud, starting with the special treatment granted write-in candidates in a state where not a single write-in candidate has won. Ever.
To run for the County Commission as a legitimate candidate, you could either secure 954 valid petitions or pay a $4,200 qualifying fee (6 percent of the current salary of $69,900). Write-ins don’t have to turn in a single petition. They don’t have to pay anything. They don’t even have to have a clue about the County Commission or the elections. They can just show up with a handler directing them where to fill in the blanks and how.
And just like that, without any effort, without a single intention to run a campaign, Fabiani and McElroy, obvious mercenaries for others’ campaigns, each disenfranchised 47,687 Flagler County.
Notably, Andy Dance and Fernando Melandez, two Republicans and the only candidates in the District 1 County Commission race, have chosen not to take part in that kind of scams, because they’re not that kind of people. Their primary will be open to all voters.
McElroy and Fabiani of course haven’t raised a dime. McElroy hasn’t even bothered with a bio at his Supervisor of Elections page. Fabiano still filled out his information inaccurately: there is no “100 Seaside Dr.” in Flagler Beach, as listed on his candidate page at the Supervisor of Elections’ website. He is homesteaded at 100 Seaside Point, a property on which he pays no taxes. Maybe he is trying to hide the fact that he listed the property for sale a little over a month ago, which raises the curious possibility of a write-in running after he no longer owns property here. He describes a solid military career. “Chief Warrant Officer Five Jose R. Rodriguez-Fabiani” was inducted into the Quartermaster Hall of Fame in 2017, though he doesn’t mention that in his brief bio.
Why Fabiani would associate himself with McDonald is a mystery. Why anyone would associate themselves with McDonald, Carney included, raises questions about judgment and ethics. But it’s worth remembering who is behind disenfranchising voters.
McDonald is the man who, as a leader of the extremist and law-breaking group then known as the Ronald Reagan Republican Assemblies, teamed up with a couple of his colleagues to slander the reputations of county officials by making “knowingly false” ethics commission complaints, in the commission’s own words. He couldn’t beat them at the ballot box. So he lied about them. The state tossed the complaints and fined him.
He kept at it, associating himself with Kim Weeks, the former elections supervisor, now a felon many times over. In 2019 the Ethics Commission accused him of “complete disregard for law” and fined him again. By 2020 the state commission declared him in contempt over $80,000 in fines–which he still owes Flagler County government, not including additional interest.
As for McElroy, he ran for a school board seat in 2014 against Trevor Tucker, losing by 58 votes. An amiable sort, he then associated himself with Ed Danko and his Trump Club. Enough said. But those are the characters who have summarily suppressed 51 percent of the electorate.
Legislators could easily introduce a ballot amendment that, with voters’ approval, would close the loophole. They’ve refused, because in this one-party state, Republicans have no reason to weaken a slimy, cynical strategy that so often helps them defeat the moderate, the reasonable, the democratic.
Pierre Tristam is the editor of FlaglerLive. A version of this piece airs on WNZF.
