TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Democrat Ryan Torrens might have lost his bid to become Florida attorney general. But he got a win Tuesday in court.
A panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal overturned a ruling in a lawsuit that contended Torrens had improperly qualified for the ballot. The lawsuit, filed by Torrens’ Democratic opponent, Sean Shaw, led to a messy end to their primary-election campaign.
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Ultimately, Shaw won the Aug. 28 primary --- but lost in last week’s general election to Republican Ashley Moody.
The lawsuit alleged that Torrens had written a $4,000 check in his wife’s name to his campaign account. Shaw argued that the check was improper and had been used in June to cover Torrens’ election-qualifying fee. Individual donors, other than candidates, are limited to contributing $3,000 in statewide races.
Just days before the Aug. 28 primary, Leon County Circuit Judge Karen Gievers agreed with Shaw and disqualified Torrens as a candidate. But Torrens, a Hillsborough County attorney, appealed Gievers’ decision, and the appellate court granted a stay that allowed him to remain in the race.
A three-judge panel of the appeals court Tuesday rejected Gievers’ decision and said in a footnote that the case was not moot because of “potential incidental consequences that may arise out of the trial court’s decision in this case.”
In her Aug. 24 decision, Gievers wrote that Torrens engaged in “bad faith and improper conduct” in writing the check in his wife’s name and using the money to help qualify.
“Mr. Torres intentionally acted contrary to the campaign finance and qualifying laws relevant to his campaign for attorney general, then claimed he is entitled to stay on the ballot because he has not yet been criminally convicted (under a section of state law),” Gievers wrote. “The law does not shelter such wrongdoing to allow an improperly acting candidate such as Mr. Torrens to stay on the ballot.”
But the appeals court said Shaw’s case was based on a campaign-finance laws that do not create “a private right of action,” such as the one filed by Shaw, to remove a candidate from the ballot.
The ruling by judges James Wolf, Susan Kelsey and Harvey Jay said legal remedies for violating the laws “are very specific and limit when a violation may result in removal from the ballot.” Such circumstances involve candidates being convicted of first-degree misdemeanors because of violations --- something that didn’t happen in the Torrens case.
“Thus, a private citizen’s allegation of a violation … has no bearing on whether a candidate has properly qualified for office,” the six-page ruling said.