Candidate Richard Charbonneau has no visions of winning a seat on the Brevard County Commission this year.
Rather, Charbonneau says his entry Monday into the race as an official write-in candidate is a ploy to help Republican Trudie Infantini win an Aug. 28 GOP primary against incumbent Curt Smith.
"I'll do everything in my power to not have Curt elected," Charbonneau said. "I don't want Curt to win. He's got strong Democratic support."
While all three are Republicans, Charbonneau and Infantini are in a different faction of the party than Smith, who some Republicans perceive as too moderate for their tastes.
Charbonneau's strategy would come into play if no Democrat qualifies for the race.
With Democratic candidate Matthew Fleming's failure to collect the necessary number of valid signatures of registered voters by a May 21 deadline to get on the ballot, there is a chance the race could come down to a cast of Republicans.
According to his latest campaign financing reports, through May 31, Fleming has raised just $100 so far in his campaign — a check from himself.
Fleming said he plans to go to the Brevard County Supervisor of Elections Office on Thursday to challenge the petition review, in an effort to overturn the decision of elections officials who ruled on his petitions. But, if that doesn't work, Fleming said he plans to write a personal check to cover the qualifying fees.
If Fleming does not qualify for the ballot and there wereonly Republican candidates in the race, the Aug. 28 Republican primary would have become what's known as a "universal primary," with all registered voters eligible to cast ballots for either Infantini or Smith. This would include Democrats, members of minor political parties and "no party affiliation" voters who are registered to vote, but who are not within a political party.
But, with Charbonneau filing paperwork to qualify as a write-in candidate, that no longer is the case. The Aug. 28 primary between Infantini and Smith would remain a "closed primary" open only to registered Republicans, even if there is no Democrat in the race.
Charbonneau said he believes keeping Democrats and independents out of the primary will help Infantini, since he believes Smith has the support of many Democrats. Charbonneau noted, for example, that among the contributors to Smith's campaign is former Democratic District 1 County Commissioner Robin Fisher's Titusville insurance agency, which gave $1,000 to the campaign.
Nearly 53 percent of 91,627 registered voters in District 4 are not Republicans, according to the latest available data from the Brevard County Supervisor of Elections Office. There are 43,244 Republicans, 23,797 Democrats, 23,833 "no party affiliation" voters and 753 members of other political parties.
Brevard County Democratic Executive Committee Chair Stacey Patel said, while she believes Fleming will try to come up with the qualifying fee money, she is not happy about Charbonneau's tactics that would close the primary to Democrats and independents if there are no non-Republican candidates.
"I think it is a manipulation of the political system that shouldn't be allowed," Patel said.
Patel said there is little the local Democratic Party can do to financially help Fleming at this point because the party is supposed to stay neutral, at least until after the qualifying period ends. That's because a Democratic candidate other than Fleming theoretically could qualify to run for the District 4 seat by Friday's deadline.
Charbonneau ran for the same County Commission District 4 seat in 2014 as a Republican, and finished sixth out of seven Republican candidates in the GOP primary. Smith won that primary, getting 28.9 percent of the vote, and then won the general election against a Democrat and a Libertarian candidate, with 63.5 percent of the vote.
Charbonneau said he campaigned for Smith after the 2004 GOP primary, but has not been happy with Smith's voting record as a county commissioner since then.
Now, "I want Curt to lose" his seat, Charbonneau said. "I'm taking Curt down."
Charbonneau said he did not contact Infantini before he filed his paperwork to run as a write-in candidate. He added that he did not tell his wife, either.
Infantini said she was not aware that Charbonneau planned to sign up as a write-in candidate until someone told her about it after the fact.
She said, though, that if the Democrats want a say in the election, they need to come up with a candidate who can qualify for a spot on the ballot spot.
Republican John Tobia, a former member of the Florida House of Representative and an ally of Infantini, succeeded her in District 3 in 2016.
Tobia now is trying to secure a three-person voting bloc on the five-member County Commission consisting of himself, Infantini and Kristine Isnardi, who represents District 5. Isnardi and Tobia are in the second year of their first four-year terms, so they are not up for re-election this year.
Charbonneau has been a supporter of Infantini, and in September made a $420 "in-kind contribution" to Infantini's campaign in the form of paying for an ad, political dinner tickets and campaign T-shirts.
In all, Infantini has raised $39,399 in cash and in-kind contributions, and has spent $19,380 so far during the campaign, according to reports through May 31.
But Smith has raised much more, $104,828, while spending a little less, $16,611.
Brevard County Supervisor of Elections Lori Scott said Fleming needed 907 valid signatures of registered voters who live in District 4 to qualify for a ballot spot without paying the qualifying fees. That represents 1 percent of registered voters in District 4 in the last election.
Fleming submitted 1,175 signatures, but only 884 were ruled valid by Scott's office. Others were ruled invalid for a variety of reasons, including the signers not being registered to vote, not living in District 4, having an incomplete address or date in the petition, having the same person sign more than one petition, or having the signature that did not match the signature on file with Scott's office.
Scott said Fleming questioned the outcome of the petition review, but she said the rules are "cut and dried," and the only factor open to interpretation is the signature match. But that factor affected only 16 disqualified signatures — not enough for Fleming to reach the 907 signature threshold.
"I understand his frustration that he missed it," Scott said, adding that the same thing has happened to other candidates in the past.
Part of Fleming's issue may have been that he did not announce his candidacy until April 17, leaving him relatively little time to gather signatures. Both Infantini and Smith announced their candidacies last July, and both successfully met their petition requirements to qualify for the ballot.