Pinellas County Commission votes to sue state over new election law

Pinellas County commissioners voted Tuesday to sue the state over its new election reform law, which includes a provision they say illegally targets Pinellas to suit the political ambitions of a state lawmaker.

On Monday, Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law that created an office within the executive branch to investigate election crimes. The law includes a provision that requires county commissioners in single-member districts to run again for their seats after a redistricting process, which Pinellas finalized in December.

But the language included multiple exceptions, making Pinellas County the only affected government in the state.

Because of the provision, District 5 Commissioner Karen Seel and District 7 Commissioner Rene Flowers are due to run again for their seats in November, even though they have two years left on their four-year terms.

That benefits state Rep. Chris Latvala, R-Clearwater. Last year, he was running to run for District 5 in 2024, when Seel, a fellow Republican, had planned to resign at the end of her sixth term. The law now allows her to run for District 5 this year when she also has a limited term outside the Florida House of Representatives.

In an interview with the Tampa Bay Times on Tuesday, Seel said he had not yet decided whether to run again in November to complete the final two years of what would be his final four-year term. Latvala has a $100,435 head start since he started fundraising last year, according to the treasurer’s reports.

“It is simply the greatest privilege to be able to serve the public,” Seel said at the meeting. “I always wanted to make sure that I took the right path, that I did the right thing, and all of this makes me very sad.”

County Attorney Jewel White said she believes the commission has cause to sue because the provision targets only Pinellas County, but it was introduced as a general bill rather than a local bill. Local bills require notice and two public hearings, which was not provided in this case.

The commission voted 4-2 to sue the state over the provision, with commissioners Dave Eggers and Kathleen Peters opposing it. Seel refrained.

“It’s about right and wrong and principle,” Commissioner Janet Long said. “A thug is a thug is a thug, and at what point do you say enough is enough… This is a blow to our democracy.”

Peters questioned whether there was a conflict in the commission suing the state over the provision, since Flowers has already filed to run for re-election in November.

After the state bill with the language that affected his seat was introduced in February, Flowers said he filed papers to launch a campaign out of an abundance of caution in case the bill becomes law.

White did not say he saw a conflict in Flowers’ involvement in the lawsuit. Peters also questioned the wisdom of challenging any part of Gov. Ron DeSantis’s legislation considering the county has $30 million in appropriations for next year’s budget.

“If you sue the governor over one of his top priority bills, if you think he won’t veto every appropriation we get this year and every appropriation we’ll get in the future, I think that’s being naïve,” Peters said.

But most commissioners said the legal challenge was necessary to uphold democracy.

Commissioner Charlie Justice pointed to the “bare fist policy that we know is behind this legislation.” He said he was not convinced by the argument that the provision was included to correct redistricting changes.

About 16,000 voters, mostly in Clearwater and Seel District 5, were moved by the December redistricting process. No significant changes were made to Flowers District 7 which covers the southern part of the county.

“The voters had a say, the voters elected our commissioners to a four-year term,” Justice said. “To say that the power of the state can come in and cut a local official’s term in half just because they can is very, very dangerous, I think.”

With staggered single-member seats, Eggers in District 4 and Peters in District 6 were already up for re-election in November before the law passed. Commissioner Pat Gerard, who represents District 2 at large, was also up for re-election.

In a text exchange with the TimesLatvala again denied Tuesday that he had any role in pushing the provision allowing him to run for his declared county seat two years earlier.

Latvala said that while he is filed to run for the Seel seat, he is still considering challenging Eggers in District 4, a fellow Republican, or Gerard, a Democrat, for the District 2 at-large seat. He did not say when or how he would decide to which seat was he running for?

“I have always behaved ethically,” Latvala said. “My constituents who elected me for eight years (in the Legislature) seemed to agree.”