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Negative mailers trace back to campaign of state House candidate who denies them

 
Republican Lawrence McClure has denied any connection with a negative mailing campaign in his bid for the District 58 state House seat. But a search of campaign finance records traces back to his campaign manager. [Times file]
Republican Lawrence McClure has denied any connection with a negative mailing campaign in his bid for the District 58 state House seat. But a search of campaign finance records traces back to his campaign manager. [Times file]
Published Nov. 17, 2017

An 87-year-old widow from Melbourne, a mysterious direct mail company in tiny Buffalo, Wyo., and a tangled web of political committees all were linked to the onslaught of negative mailers that helped Lawrence McClure win the Republican primary in Plant City's state House District 58 special election last month.

The flood of mailbox dirt that helped defeat McClure's opponent, Yvonne Fry, appears to have been paid for through a network of committees affiliated with McClure's campaign manager Anthony Pedicini and political consultant William Stafford Jones of Gainesville.

Pedicini has close ties to the Florida Legislature's Republican leadership.

Legislative leaders and their allies, including Michael Corcoran, lobbyist brother of House Speaker Richard Corcoran, supported McClure's campaign, but Richard Corcoran denied being involved.

Jones, a former Alachua County Republican Party chairman, specializes in managing the independent committees that have become a major part of Florida political campaigns.

Such committees have politically attractive names like "Citizens Alliance for Florida's Economy" or "The Responsible Leadership Committee" but are often paper entities with bank accounts, used to conceal campaign donors by passing money from one committee to another until it becomes untraceable.

They can receive unlimited contributions but cannot coordinate with candidates' campaigns.

And they're often used for negative advertising, which candidates themselves don't want to be associated with — candidate McClure insisted frequently during the campaign that he was not.

As the GOP nominee in the Republican-leaning district, McClure will be front-runner in the Dec. 19 general election.

Carmela K. Falcone, 87, of Melbourne, identified in her husband's obituary as Pedicini's grandmother, has been listed as chairman of 10 committees, one still active, and Pedicini has been linked to four.

In October, around the time of the primary, a committee run by Jones, called Conservatism Counts, funneled $77,000 into direct mail services, reports show.

At the same time, a committee run by Pedicini called Citizens Alliance for Florida's Economy gave $77,100 to Sunshine State Freedom Fund, another Jones committee.

And Sunshine State and two other Jones committees gave Conservatism Counts a total of $65,000.

Meanwhile, Conservatism Counts spent $37,000 on mail services and gave $40,000 to a new committee formed just before the primary called Hillsborough County Conservatism Counts, which spent it on direct mail.

The mailers trashed Fry as a "liberal" who hates gun rights and loves high taxes.

Where the money originally came from is impossible to say.

Pedicini's Citizens Alliance committee is funded heavily by industries dependent on the state Legislature — trial lawyers, tobacco, sugar, utilities, insurance, Disney and others.

Those involved in the District 58 mail attack clearly wanted to cover their tracks.

Conservatism Counts and Hillsborough County Conservatism Counts bought direct mail services from a company called Campaign Services LLC, which formed just before the primary with an address in Buffalo, Wyo.

But Conservatism Counts initially reported the company's address at the same location in Jensen Beach as the office of Michael Millner, a political campaign accountant who often works with Pedicini.

It's also the address of at least one inactive committee chaired by Pedicini's grandmother.

Conservatism Counts quickly amended its finance report to show the address in Buffalo, a small town on a scenic highway between Mount Rushmore and Yellowstone National Park.

The firm's corporate filings don't give names of an officer, which is allowed in Wyoming but not Florida. Its address is the same as Buffalo Registered Agents LLC, a company that offers to form and serve as agent for anonymous Wyoming corporations, promising on its website to "keep your name off of public records."

Pedicini and Jones declined to be interviewed for this story. Phone and email messages to Millner weren't returned.

Contact William March at wemarch@gmail.com