St. Petersburg mayor's race tests law on Web ads

Risking tens of thousands of dollars in potential fines, St. Petersburg mayoral candidate Scott Wagman is leaning toward challenging a complaint filed against him over Google and Facebook ads. The case has broad repercussions for candidates across Florida.

Until recently, if you Googled the name of another mayoral candidate, up popped an ad for Wagman. The complaint filed with the Florida Election Commission contends the ad should have included a disclaimer identifying that it was paid for by Wagman's campaign.

Wagman notes that those ads don't have enough room for a disclaimer and that anyone who clicked on the link was directed to Wagman's campaign site, which includes the disclaimer. Florida's law was written well before such ads became common — federal campaign laws allow them without a disclaimer — so it falls into a murky area that some campaign pros say lawmakers should clarify soon.

"By requiring the disclaimer in an advertising format that only allows for a limited number of characters, you're effectively preventing the candidate or campaign from advertising in that medium, and that is in my view a legitimate First Amendment issue," said Justin Sayfie, a Republican lobbyist and new media consultant unconnected to Wagman's campaign.

The complaint was filed by Peter Schorsch, former campaign manager to Jamie Bennett and now a supporter of Bill Foster's. Wagman must decide what to do by Monday, and he said he had not ruled out settling the matter by paying $250 to the Election Commission.

Meek prediction

Democratic Senate candidate Kendrick Meek predicts Charlie Crist's high poll numbers will drop once he's forced to take positions on issues and Floridians start asking why he's running for Senate in the first place.

"He's going to have to explain to Floridians why he's stepping down from the most powerful position in the state of Florida — that's governor — to then serve in the U.S. Senate in the minority," Meek said in a Political Connections interview airing today on Bay News 9 at 11 a.m. and 8 p.m.

Rubio slighted

Former state Republican chairman Al Cardenas has never been especially close with Crist and is a longtime friend of Crist's Republican Senate rival, Marco Rubio. So even if Rubio understands that a lobbyist has a hard time bucking a sitting governor — especially one applying pressure — Cardenas' endorsement of Crist last week had to sting Rubio.

"As we look to the 2010 election cycle, I urge Republicans to unite the Republican Party by standing behind Gov. Crist. With Gov. Crist atop the ticket, I am confident that our party will achieve sweeping victories in 2010," Cardenas said.

Attorney general candidate finds support

Democratic attorney general candidate Dave Aronberg last week announced a bunch of strong endorsers on his Hillsborough steering committee: Clerk of Court Pat Frank; Tampa City Council member Gwen Miller; former state Sen. Les Miller; Public Defender Julianne Holt; former Democratic National Committee member Cathy Bartolotti; state committeeman and DNC member Alan Clendenin; Democratic bigs Harry Cohen, Stacy Frank and Janet Rifkin; and former Democratic chairman Mike Suarez.

Adam Smith can be reached at asmith@sptimes.com.