I’m writing you to address the deeply immoral and deceptive election misdeed committed by candidate Mark Jordan yesterday in regard to the re-election of Lake County Property Appraiser Carey Baker, and to ask for your support in demanding that Mark Jordan immediately withdraw from the race for Lake County Property Appraiser.
Yesterday on June 15th, the final day of qualifying for local elections, Property Appraiser Carey Baker was among the last three people at the Lake County Supervisor of Elections. He was joined by candidate Mark Jordan, who filed to run for a seat on the North Lake County Hospital Board, and Tax Collector David Jordan.
As some of you may know, Carey Baker has a long-standing tradition of saving taxpayers and his supporters money by qualifying for re-election as a “write in” candidate, instead of a party nominee, when there are no other candidates filed. This saves his supporters money from paying the high qualifying fee. At 11:59am, there were no candidates filed for the office of Lake County Property Appraiser other than Carey Baker. So at that time, Mr. Baker filed for re-election as a “write in” candidate, ensuring his automatic victory within moments. Also at that time, candidate Mark Jordan was filed for a seat on the North Lake County Hospital board.
Knowing no one else could file against him at 12pm, Carey Baker left the building. Once he walked out of the office and the doors were closed and locked, candidate Mark Jordan, in conjunction with Tax Collector David Jordan, waited until Baker was out of sight, then withdrew his candidacy paperwork for the North Lake County Hospital Board race, and then filed instead for the Republican nomination for Lake County Property Appraiser—stealing the nomination from Mr. Baker. Because he timed it to 12pm, Baker could no longer qualify for office as the Republican nominee.
This disturbing act of election fraud and political deception is potentially criminal and unbecoming of any candidate for public service, and has no parallel in the history of our county or state. Carey Baker is the single most respected and humble public servant in Lake County history. Now that the Republican nomination has been denied to Mr. Baker, Mr. Jordan is likely to win the election, unless he corrects his immoral error and withdraws from the race immediately.
Therefore, the Lake County Republican Party is requesting ALL Lake County Republican voters to call candidate Mark Jordan and demand his immediate withdrawal from the race no later than Friday 11:59pm June 15, 2024, before ballots are printed. Furthermore, we are calling on all Republicans to also call Tax Collector David Jordan, who orchestrated this disturbing election fraud and demand that he direct candidate Mark Jordan to resign.
We also call on ALL elected Republican officeholders to speak out and post publicly their denouncement of this immoral act.
If Mr. Jordan does not withdraw, he will be CENSURED, expelled from the Lake County Republican Party, banned from Republican events, and prohibited from any recognition from our Party. Further, we will draft a demand to Governor DeSantis to REMOVE Mr. Jordan from office for the cause of misfeasance, in accordance with Article 4, Section 13 of the Florida Constitution.
Finally, we will be recommending criminal charges to the State Attorney’s Office for fraud in connection with an election.
Mark Jordan’s phone number: (352) 552-1727
David Jordan’s phone number: (352) 408-2222
Respectfully,
