Letter: The choice is clear in HD10 – vote Marshall Rawson and stop a political machine family dynasty

Letter to the editor

I am a Republican voter in Florida House District 10. I am writing under a pseudonym because during this campaign, I have witnessed the lengths the Brannan family and their most ardent supporters are willing to go to harass and intimidate supporters of his opponent Marshall Rawson.

Throughout this campaign, the public has witnessed a litany of dirty tricks by the Brannan Political Machine as they spend over $300,000 to win a single seat in a House of 120, for a position paying $29,000 annually.

We have seen and heard of Chase Brannan removing his opponent’s yard signs. His father, incumbent Chuck Brannan, has used his perch in House leadership to roll up hundreds of thousands of dollars in lobbyist and big business donations – including land developers and Hyperscale AI data center companies – to steer towards his son’s campaign. 

Chuck Brannan also sits on the board of Florida Gateway College, a state institution which has used its public communications to promote Chase Brannan and his campaign while early voting is underway. This is a highly inappropriate and unethical quid pro quo. 

Local businesses have reported to the Rawson campaign that Rep. Brannan has visited them, furious about signs for Rawson placed in front of their establishments, menacing them with anger and smearing his son’s opponent.

I was a witness in Lake City – at the single candidate forum Chase Brannan agreed to participate in – where Chase onstage proclaimed he “did not like” Alachua County and denigrated county leadership. 

As a member of the House representing a rural part of Alachua County, cooperation and positive relationships with county officials is crucial – especially with electeds in the other political party.

Insulting elected officers and county employees you must work with on constituent issues to score cheap political points during an election should be beneath the dignity of any candidate for office.

I was a witness at the Baker Conservative Women’s Network candidate forum dinner in Macclenny. At that event, the committeeman of the Baker County GOP – who has endorsed Chase Brannan in his personal capacity – made an unannounced and unapproved decision to call Chuck Brannan to the stage after the local candidates had spoken. 

For several riveting minutes, Chuck Brannan aggressively ranted at the audience about the millions of dollars of budget funding he steered to Baker County, how he was The One singularly responsible for stopping the privatization of Northeast Florida State Hospital, before closing with a strange story about sitting on a toilet in a White House bathroom with President Trump as the President was on his knees before him, analyzing a remodel of the bathroom’s tile. 

I was witness to the moments immediately after, when Chuck Brannan left the stage and accosted an elderly female Rawson supporter, who was sitting by the front door alone with Marshall’s wife and children. 

Along with nearly a dozen Rawson supporters – and every person leaving the event – I was witness to Chuck Brannan berating the elderly female Rawson supporter for a personal Facebook post she made, while ignoring Marshall’s wife’s pleas for calm and civility – to the point that she was left in tears. 

Additionally, we witnessed Chuck Brannan’s legislative aide – whose salary is funded by the taxpayers and who has been a top lieutenant to Chase’s campaign – curse at and physically intimidate Rawson campaign supporters, until Chuck Brannan had to tell him to stop.

And like all of us inside this district, I have been witness to the unprecedented barrage of negative mail and television ads by the Brannan campaign through dark money intermediaries and political committees. 

These ads have been so misleading that some mailers feature disclaimers that they are made with generative Artificial Intelligence. Some of them are so graphic that mothers have had to shield children from them. 

Most importantly, all of the negative mailers strongly stretch the truth based on Rawson briefly registering as a Libertarian 15 years ago during the Mitt Romney campaign, or contain outright lies reversing Rawson’s publicly stated positions on issues like abortion, illegal immigration, and pay for teachers and correctional officers.

The closing weeks of a political campaign can feel like being in the fog of war. You never know what is directly in front of you. It is hard to tell truth from fiction. 

That is by design. What the Republican voters of HD 10 have been subjected to by the Brannan Political Machine has gone too far. 

The Florida House should be a place where local residents come to Tallahassee and are the voice of their community. These seats are not supposed to be handed down through generational lineages like some feudal monarchy. 

Further, we the people should not trust candidates for office who are willing to spend TEN TIMES their position’s annual salary to win their seat where they can only serve 8 years. 

It begs the question – what sort of agreements have been made for legislation to be filed and votes to be taken between special interest donors and candidates willing to spend so obscenely?

The Republican voters of House District 10 have a clear choice in the primary this upcoming Tuesday August 18th. 

The People can capitulate to a wealthy family dynasty and establishment political machine willing to say and do anything to install a son to his father’s seat and maintain its grip on what is supposedly a sliver of representative power. 

Or the People can elect Marshall Rawson – a father of five children under the age of 7, a sole proprietor citrus farmer, longtime taxpayer activist, and advocate for protecting our forests, agricultural lands, water supply, and rural way of life against predatory overdevelopment. 

This Tuesday, August 18th, the People have a rare chance to stand up and break the Machine. Please join me and vote for Marshall Rawson. 

Darren J.

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