Republican Executive Committee votes to endorse Putnam candidates

The Republican Executive Committee voted Thursday night to favor three candidates over their opponents.

In a social media post Friday morning, the Republican Party of Putnam County announced the results of the vote.

"At the July (21 July 2022) meeting of the Republican Executive Committee (REC) the members voted to endorse three candidates in the upcoming primary election," the post states. "Receiving endorsement were District 4 School Board Candidate Linda Wagner, District 2 County Commissioner Candidate Jeff Rawls, and District 4 County Commissioner Candidate Tom Williams."

Wagner, an endorsement recipient, is challenging incumbent Bud McInnis for the School Board District 4 seat. Both McInnis and Wagner are running as No Party Affiliation candidates, but both have professed to hold conservative values in recent candidate appearances.

Republican Leota Wilkinson is challenging incumbent Republican and endorsement winner Jeff Rawls for the Putnam County Board of County Commissioners District 2 seat. The winner of the primary will face off against Democrat LaToya Anderson in the November general election.

Multiple efforts to reach Rawls and Williams were unsuccessful as of publication Friday.

Wilkinson called the endorsement “disappointing” but said it was not surprising. 

“I feel most Republican voters are not going to allow .001% of fellow Republicans to sway their vote,” Wilkinson said in a statement. “The electoral population is smarter than the REC is giving them credit.”

Wilkinson said it has been many years since the executive committee has endorsed a candidate in the primary election but “it was quite apparent” the committee was prepared to endorse candidates during its meeting earlier this month.    

“In my opinion, Tom Williams should have stepped down as the REC chair when he decided to run for office.  To me, this is the prime example of a conflict of interest,” Wilkinson said in a statement.  “It's impossible to be impartial while he is candidate and chair of REC.”

Wilkinson said she is honored to be endorsed by US Congresswoman, Kat Cammack, state Sen. Keith Perry, Florida Senator Travis Hutson, Rep. Bobby Payne and the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors.  

She said, “I will continue to seek out endorsements from fellow Republicans and look forward to August 23.”

The County Commission District 4 race has a packed field for the seat currently held by Republican Larry Harvey.

“I think it’s ridiculous,” Harvey said about endorsements.  “We have primaries for this.”

He said this is not the way it should be and was heading to the executive committee’s headquarters Friday afternoon to remove his campaign display from the building. 

“I’m not a 2-year-old,” Harvey said, referencing his opponent’s words during a political forum earlier this week. “I’m not going to play in the sandbox.”

Harvey does not think an endorsement vote is necessary at all. He said enjoys what he does and enjoys serving the people of Putnam County. 

Harvey's Republican challenger for the seat is Williams, who won Thursday's endorsement and who also heads up the REC. The winner of the Republican primary will face NPA candidate Ronald Burckhard and write-in candidate Douglas Hays in the general election.

At least one member of the Republican Executive Committee was available for comment Friday and defended the group’s decision. 

Executive Committee member and County Commissioner Paul Adamczyk applauded the candidates in Putnam County and across the state, though he did not elaborate.

“I would like to congratulate Jeff Rawls for County Commission District 2, Tom Williams for County Commission District 4, and Linda Wagner for School Board District 4 in joining the group of Statewide candidates including Gov Ron Desantis, (Attorney) General Ashley Moody, CFO Jimmy Patronis, and Senator Marco Rubio, in earning the endorsement of the Republican Party of Putnam County,” Adamczyk said in a statement. “(I’m) wishing all the candidates well, and please most importantly may every citizen participate in both the primary and the upcoming general elections.”

There were no endorsements made in the Putnam County School Board District 5 race for the seat being vacated by board member Jane Crawford, Adamczyk confirmed. 

In that race, the REC avoided picking sides between NPA candidates Phil Leary, who has been endorsed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, and Kevin Whitlow.

Leary said members of the executive committee made a motion to endorse him during the meeting but it did not pass. 

“I wasn’t surprised, honestly,” Leary said about the lack of District 5 endorsements. “It is what it is.”

Whitlow said he was not in attendance at Thursday night’s meeting but did speak during the meeting earlier this month about why he would make a good school board member. 

“My thought is that organizations can endorse who they choose,” Whitlow said in a statement. 

There also appeared to be no endorsement made in the Palatka mayoral race.

The move follows a divisive meeting earlier this month during which the REC and the Putnam County Republican Club appeared to be at odds over whether to vote to endorse some Republican candidates over others in the run-up to the August 23 primary election.

The Putnam County Republican Executive Committee called a meeting July 6 to discuss if its members would choose specific Republican candidates to back in the upcoming elections over others. The vote was ultimately pushed to Thursday over concerns about sufficient notice to members to alert them to the vote.

At the time, Williams stated emphatically that it was the job of the REC to elevate the group's choices if they vote to do so.

“It is our job to pick a candidate,” Williams told the room July 6.

He said Republican voters need to know who to pick in this year’s Aug. 23 primary and Nov. 8 election, and the party should treat the primary as if it were the general election. 

“If we do our job correctly, this process will proceed very smoothly,” Williams said about endorsing candidates. “Personal feelings should not and will not influence the outcome of this process, use only facts and policies.”

Not every member of the REC has agreed with the decision to favor candidates, however.

Rhonda Drackett Williams, a member of the REC and president of the Putnam Republican Club, which is a separate entity but has some overlap in membership, has said she feels the endorsements do not reflect the entirety of the Putnam County Republican community.

“Let me just tell you that I have heard from many people in the Republican club that they are against this REC endorsing any candidate. It doesn’t matter who they are,” said Drackett Williams at the July 6 meeting. “That endorsement ends up happening by a handful of people.”

It was estimated that a majority vote to endorse or not would take about 17 votes. The precise votes were unclear as of publication time.

As a member of the REC, Drackett Williams said she turned in a blank ballot for each nomination “as I personally didn't agree with the process."

"The Putnam Republican Club is not going to endorse any candidates,” she said in a statement.  “We feel that it's the people's choice to be decided in the Primary Election on August 23rd."