On the night of June 15, 2024, Anthony Sabatini, the Chairman of the Lake County Republican Party, sent out a letter to supporters detailing a “deeply immoral and deceptive election misdeed” carried out by candidate Mark Jordan earlier that day with respect to the re-election of Lake County Property Appraiser Carey Baker. 

Sabatini called on his supporters to demand that Mark Jordan immediately pull out from the race for Lake County Property Appraiser.

On the final day of qualifying for local elections, Property Appraiser Carey Baker was one of the last three people at the Lake County Supervisor of Elections. He was accompanied by candidate Mark Jordan, who filed to run for a seat on the North Lake County Hospital Board, and Tax Collector David Jordan.

Baker has built a reputation for saving taxpayers and his supporters money by qualifying for re-election as a “write-in” candidate, instead of becoming the GOP nominee, when there are no other candidates filing for election. This saves his supporters money from paying a steep qualifying fee. At 11:59 AM, outside of Carey Baker, there were no candidates filed for running for the office of Lake County Property Appraiser. At that time, Mr. Baker filed for re-election as a “write-in” candidate, guaranteeing his automatic victory within a matter of minutes. At around the same time, candidate Mark Jordan had already filed for a seat on the North Lake County Hospital board.

Knowing that no one else could file against him at 12 PM, Carey Baker exited the building. Once he exited the office and the doors were closed and locked, candidate Mark Jordan, teaming up with Tax Collector David Jordan, waited until Baker was no longer on the scene, then withdrew his candidacy paperwork for the North Lake County Hospital Board race, and subsequently filed for the Republican nomination for Lake County Property Appraiser instead. In doing so, Baker stole the nomination from Baker. Owing to how Jordan timed it to 12 PM, Baker can no longer qualify for office as the Republican nominee.

Sabatini said the following about Jordan’s devious political action: 

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.

The Lake County Republican Party pushed all Lake County Republican voters to call candidate Mark Jordan and urge his immediate exit from the race no later than 11:59 PM on June 15, 2024, prior to ballots being printed. In addition, the Lake County GOP urged all Republicans to call Tax Collector David Jordan, who carried out this devious political act, and demand that he push for candidate Mark Jordan to resign.

Initially, Sabatini warned that if Jordan did not withdraw from the race, he would be “censured, expelled from the Lake County Republican Party, banned from Republican events, and prohibited from any recognition from our Party.” 

The Lake County GOP made good with this threat on June 18, when it unanimously passed a censure resolution against Tax Collector David Jordan and fraudulent candidate Mark Jordan for “their deeply immoral and depraved actions unbecoming of a Republican official in regards to the election fraud against Lake County Property Appraiser Carey Baker.”

On top of that, the Lake County GOP is drafting a demand to Governor DeSantis to remove Jordan from office “for the cause of misfeasance, in accordance with Article 4, Section 13 of the Florida Constitution.”

Wilton Simpson, Florida’s Agriculture Commissioner, also came to Carey Baker’s defense in a letter he sent to Mark Jordan. In the letter, he described himself as an “unapologetic supporter of Carey Baker.” 

He stressed how Baker has strong organic support and is selfless public servant, which Simpson detailed below: 

While no one is “owed” a position in leadership, Carey certainly has the support and favor of his community. Because of his servant’s heart, he made a plan to save his supporters money on a qualifying fee by running unopposed as a write-in candidate.

He did this with the support and advice of his circle of trusted confidants. Only someone with inside knowledge and cruel intent could have disrupted that plan.

Simpson concluded by noting that Mark Jordan’s actions were deceitful in nature and that he should step down from this race as soon as possible: 

Carey Baker is carrying the torch of freedom and he is doing it well. You know that because you did not challenge his candidacy in a fair and transparent way.

Maybe you were told this clever move is legal and no one would know the difference.

Mark, it’s not clever, it’s deceitful. It’s selfish. It’s underhanded. The right thing for you to do is to drop out of this race. Run in the future if you want, but do it with integrity. Lake County Republicans are watching and so are a growing number across Florida. This story has not yet been written, and there is still a chance to undo what I believe is a terrible mistake. 

As Chair of the Lake County GOP, Sabatini has used his position to put pressure on Republicans who engage in deceitful political behavior or who fail to abide by conservative principles. On June 14, Sabatini filed to run for Lake County Commission, District #1, where he will continue his hell-raising against the Florida political establishment.