Caldwell Concedes Ag Commissioner Race To Fried

November 19, 2018

Republican Matt Caldwell pointed to a need for political “sanity” and a “peaceful transfer of power” Monday as he conceded the race for Florida agriculture commissioner to Fort Lauderdale lawyer Nikki Fried, the only Democrat to winstatewide this year.

Caldwell, a real-estate appraiser from North Fort Myers who has served the past eight years in the Florida House, said in a statement that he still had questions about how ballots were handled in Palm Beach and Broward counties, where he had filed a lawsuit. But he didn’t want to use “legal loopholes to win an election.”

“All I have ever expected since Election Day is a full and fair accounting of all legal votes cast, and then respecting the will of the voters,” Caldwell said. “Unfortunately, as a result of the abject failures in Broward and Palm Beach, it has become clear that we may never gain an understanding of what transpired in the hours and days after polls closed, despite the exhaustive efforts of my legal team to get to the truth. To continue this legal challenge would likely require millions of dollars and months to complete without providing any more clarity.”

A short time after Caldwell’s announcement, Fried tweeted that she received a phone call from Caldwell and “he could not have been more gracious.”

“I want to congratulate him on a close race and thank him for his willingness to step into the arena. And to everyone who supported him, I will be your voice in Tallahassee too,” Fried tweeted.

The state Elections Canvassing Commission will meet Tuesday to certify the results of the Nov. 6 elections.

A manual recount completed Sunday raised Fried’s lead over Caldwell to 6,753 votes out of more than 8 million cast in the race for a seat on the state Cabinet. The manual recount added 1,446 votes to Fried’s total from an earlier machine recount, according to results posted on the state Division of Elections website.

Caldwell’s campaign Sunday continued to explore how heavily Democratic Broward and Palm Beach counties handled the recount. The Republican’s attorneys contended in the earlier lawsuit that about 17,000 vote-by-mail ballots were collected and counted in Broward County after polls closed at 7 p.m. on Nov. 6.

Caldwell also attacked Broward Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes for “staggering incompetence” after her office was unable to provide the results of a machine recount to the state by a Thursday deadline.

Snipes, appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush in 2003 and re-elected four times, submitted her resignation — effective Jan. 4 — to Gov. Rick Scott on Sunday.

Caldwell’s concession Monday came a short time after the Republican Party of Palm Beach County called for volunteers to help with a recount expected to be conducted locally Tuesday and Wednesday.

Caldwell, who noted the need for a “peaceful transfer of power” by alluding to how Richard Nixon accepted the results of a “fraud” filled 1960 election won by President John F. Kennedy, said he was no longer challenging the results.

In a separate letter thanking supporters, Caldwell said the current “unhealthy” state of politics weighed in his decision.

“That hit home this last week when the FBI informed me that I was among the group of individuals that the recently captured pipe bomber had researched prior to his arrest,” Caldwell wrote. “Even our own governor-elect was a near target of the baseball field shootings. There is no place for political violence in a democratically elected republic. Our remedy is the ballot box and it should remain there. Embracing this fact can only make us stronger. The sooner we return to peaceful sanity, the better.”

In addition to his letter to supporters, Caldwell submitted a letter to Secretary of State Ken Detzner that calls for reform of the election process and outlined “mistakes, errors and failures” in Palm Beach and Broward counties.

Among his proposals: changes to how votes are delivered, sorted and counted; basic training for supervisors of elections and their staffs; extended time periods for machine and manual recounts; and a process for canvassing boards to request extensions to complete counting.

Caldwell declared victory on election night, as ballots counted several hours after the polls closed had him up by more than 40,000 votes. But over the next several days, as more ballots were tabulated, particularly in South Florida, Fried pulled ahead.

Fried, who has also worked as a medical marijuana lobbyist, first claimed victory after unofficial returns were posted on Nov. 10. But state law required machine and manual recounts because of the slim margins between the candidates.

Fried has set up a transition team headed by Congressman Darren Soto of Orlando and former Congressman Patrick Murphy.

by Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida

Comments

7 Responses to “Caldwell Concedes Ag Commissioner Race To Fried”

  1. David Huie Green on November 21st, 2018 12:38 am

    CONSIDERING:
    “What does a south Florida lawyer know about agriculture?”

    Who knows? Or the other parts of the job?

    She will be responsible for accurate pumps,
    Emergency Preparedness,
    Agricultural Water Policy,
    Cabinet Affairs (Do any of us know what that means?),
    Federal-State Relations,
    General Services Bureau,
    Methods Development and Biological Control, Plant and Apiary Inspection, Seafood and Aquaculture Marketing,
    Forestry,
    Fair Rides Inspection,
    Liquefied Petroleum Gas Inspection,
    Petroleum Inspection,
    Weights and Measures,
    Dairy,
    Pesticides,
    Compliance Monitoring,
    Food Safety,
    Aquaculture,
    Mediation and Enforcement,
    Consumer Assistance,
    Licensing,
    Surveyors and Mappers,
    and more. (I left out most.)

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_Department_of_Agriculture_and_Consumer_Services

    I voted for him, but I don’t think anybody could know all the things the office involves.

    David for Sisyphus

  2. Howie on November 19th, 2018 11:13 pm

    Did not read anything about banks and financial work in this article as Jeanne Dobson stated.

    Congratulations to Nikki although I voted for Caldwell that knows the business.

    Great news that Brenda Snipes has voluntarily left her position before being fired. Hopefully her co-workers will go by the State Rules for counting ballots and not Brenda’s policies.

  3. Dennis Enderson on November 19th, 2018 7:23 pm

    It is absolutely normal for the larger counties in Florida to continue counting ballots well after election night, as is true in many other states around the country, and there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever of any election fraud and/or impropriety in the final counts that were delivered. The recounts changed the final vote totals only slightly, and had nothing whatsoever to do with flipping the results of this or any other election in Florida. It is tragic that some have chosen to portray the vote tallying process as some kind of voter fraud when, in fact, it is the only way to know for sure which candidate actually received the largest number of votes. I can guarantee you that, if there was any fraud, it would have impacted the Senate and/or governor’s race as opposed to the contest referenced in this story. Caldwell is a sore loser and it is shameful for him to suggest that he didn’t lose this race fair and square.

  4. Tessygunderson on November 19th, 2018 3:52 pm

    This is why I voted for this man in the first place. He is honest and knows all about hard work. It is a shame the Florida voters lost him to fraudulent activity. I hate to see how someone who won the election Thur fraudulent activity handles the job.

  5. Alma Mcdaniel on November 19th, 2018 1:36 pm

    What does a south Florida lawyer know about agriculture?

  6. SW on November 19th, 2018 9:16 am

    Hmmm. From +41,000 to -6,000. Great recount.

  7. Jeanne Dobson on November 19th, 2018 9:15 am

    I will no longer be using either of the aforementioned banks for any of my financial work. Not that I did.
    Maybe they don’t need to do business in Florida if this is the way they feel! Good riddance.
    Good luck Nikki in your new job. Some new faces in the political arena may be what we need to move forward for a change.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News