ALLAHASSEE – A Republican challenging U.S. Rep. Cory Mills in a primary is appealing a Leon Circuit Court ruling Friday denying his attempt to knock the incumbent off the ballot.
Read more Developer asks to remove Pappy’s Patch land from Seminole’s rural boundary
Michael Johnson’s attorney, Anthony Sabatini, filed notice Monday he would appeal the decision from Judge J. Lee Marsh to dismiss his suit. The original lawsuit contended Mills didn’t properly take and notarize his candidate oath as part of the required paperwork for qualifying for the ballot.
But Marsh found Johnson couldn’t sue under the state law requiring a candidate oath because it doesn’t give him an avenue to push him from the ballot.
The law “does not provide Plaintiff with a cause of action to seek the disqualification of another candidate based upon that candidate’s satisfaction of the qualifications process,” Marsh wrote.
The appeal comes as voters are returning mail ballots. The original lawsuit was filed June 19, one week after the qualifying period for candidates ended, but a hearing didn’t take place until Friday.
Sabatini, a former state House member and current Lake County Commissioner, thinks there’s still time for the First District Court of Appeal to intervene ahead of the Aug. 18 primary election.
“It’s given expedited treatment under the appellate rules because it’s an election case,” Sabatini stated in a text message.
As it stands, Mills, a military veteran first elected to the District 7 seat in 2022, will remain on the ballot. He also carries plenty of baggage, including a U.S. House ethics investigation, a physical altercation with a girlfriend last year and allegations by another woman he threatened to expose nude images of her, which resulted in a restraining order issued in October.
Read more Mother of 2-year-old fatally shot in Kissimmee could be charged with negligence
If he remains on the ballot, Mills faces Johnson, Ryan Elijah and Sarah Ulrich in the GOP primary. Should he win, he’d face the winner of the Democratic primary, which includes Bale Dalton, former U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson and Marialana Kinter.
District 7 includes all of Seminole County and part southern Volusia County.
Sabatini, who initially filed a lawsuit to challenge the state’s law requiring elected officials to resign their current office to run for another office if the terms overlap, has been busy with election lawsuits.
He’s also been hired by state Rep. Paula Stark, R-St. Cloud, in a case attempting to get the incumbent onto the ballot after she failed to get all of her paperwork in correctly and on time during the qualifying period.
After Stark’s push to be retroactively placed on the ballot for the House District 47 seat was rejected by a Leon County Circuit judge, Sabatini filed a motion to reconsider. But that attempt was also rejected, he said.
Stark is still considering whether to appeal the ruling, Sabatini said.
“The judge denied the motion for reconsideration and the client has not made a final decision on a potential appeal,” Sabatini wrote in a text message.
House District 47 covers a sliver of southern Orange County and a chunk of Osceola County that includes St. Cloud.
Read more Who’s raising the most money? Search congressional fundraising data for Central Florida candidates