Orange County’s chief judge on Tuesday agreed to hear a lawsuit next week that could end outgoing Orange County Commissioner Maribel Gomez Cordero’s campaign to become the county’s next clerk of courts.
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The case — brought by Gomez Cordero’s opponent Rick Singh, who observed Tuesday’s hearing from the gallery — looks to remove her from the Democratic primary ballot over an alleged violation of Florida’s so-called resign-to-run law.
Chief Judge Lisa Munyon set a deadline for both parties to submit evidence and a witness list by next week ahead of a trial scheduled for July 30. The primary election for clerk of courts is less than three weeks later on Aug. 18.
The lawsuit claims the final 28 days of Gomez Cordero’s term as commissioner, which ends Dec. 8, would have a 28-day overlap with her new office should she win in November, which Singh contends is illegal under Florida law. The swearing-in to succeed Tiffany Moore Russell as clerk of courts is slated for Nov. 10.
Gomez Cordero, according to the lawsuit, would have needed to have already submitted her resignation, effective Nov. 10 or earlier, before qualifying to appear on the ballot. The Orange County Supervisor of Elections office had stated it had no such resignation letter on file from the commissioner.
In court on Tuesday, Philip Kaprow, Gomez Cordero’s attorney, argued that because of legal technicalities, there was some confusion among election officials in Tallahassee as to when the clerk of courts election would take place.
Records filed in court show Moore Russell, also a Democrat, submitted her resignation on May 26 in order to run for county mayor. She told Vox Populi at the time she did so in order to ensure an election would be held to replace her this year, instead of via an appointment by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Kaprow said he has unsuccessfully sought clarity over the issue from the state, but the matter could be addressed in a future lawsuit in Leon County.
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Munyon rejected Kaprow’s arguments as irrelevant to Singh’s lawsuit and ruled to dismiss his motion.
Nick Shannon, of the Supervisor of Elections office, said the lawsuit ought to proceed as there is already a primary and a general election scheduled in the clerk of courts race. He also called the motion to dismiss “premature” given the lack of evidence presented so far to the court.
“There is nothing for them to dismiss if there’s no there there,” Shannon said. “More critically, any issue regarding this would need to be resolved with the participation of the secretary of state and the governor’s office, who are clearly not present, nor have they been sued.”
Munyon also denied a motion for a temporary injunction from Singh’s attorney, Gavin Rollins, after he admitted he did actually not have evidence that Gomez Cordero didn’t file a resignation letter.
“Any stipulations of fact needed to be in writing so that we would avoid this problem,” Munyon said. “There are affirmative ways to prove whether someone did or did not send a document to the governor or the supervisor [of elections], wherever it needs to go — but if you have no evidence, then I have no basis to grant an injunction.”
If the lawsuit is successful, Singh, who served as Orange County’s property appraiser from 2013 to 2021, would go head-to-head in the Democratic primary against Roberta Walton Johnson, who is currently the general counsel for the clerk.
The winner of that race will face Terrell Thomas, who entered the race with no party affiliation, in November.
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