SerpApi.Org
TALLAHASSEE — Republican gubernatorial candidate James Fishback on Tuesday tried to assure a judge that he’s always lived in Florida as he faces questions about his eligibility to be on the ballot.
Documents that could show otherwise — like a Washington, D.C., mortgage record where Fishback attested that the city was his primary residence — were completed without thinking, he and his attorney argued.
“I was just kind of signing through stuff,” Fishback testified.
He said he rarely used the Washington apartment. He said he registered to vote in Washington, D.C., and voted there in 2020 only because he was stuck amid the pandemic. (Fishback previously asserted he never voted in D.C.)
He said it was too late at the time for him to vote by mail in Florida.
But one of his political opponents in the race for governor, Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, is arguing that Fishback’s time inWashington was more permanent than Fishback insists. Fishback attended the Tuesday court hearing. Collins did not.
Collins in late June filed a lawsuit asking that Fishback be removed from the ballot, saying he doesn’t meet the necessary criteria. Florida’s constitution requires that the governor be a state resident for the seven years before their election.
It’ll be up to Judge David Frank, who heard arguments from both candidates’ attorneys Tuesday, to decide whether Fishback meets the residency requirement.
Even if Frank rules that Fishback is ineligible to run for office, it could likely be too late to remove his name from printed ballots. The primary election is Aug. 18.
Both Fishback’s and Collins’ odds of success in the Republican primary are low. While Fishback has ranked as the second most popular candidate in the Republican primary for governor in some polls, he has trailed behind front-runner U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds.
In the course of his campaign, Fishback has levied racist attacks against Donalds, including intentionally misspelling his name as “By’rone.”
In the lawsuit, Collins cites documentation that he says shows Fishback lived outside the state.
The documents were gathered by GOP researcher Mark McLaughlin, whom Collins’ side called as a witness. McLaughlin said he was paid $40,000 or $50,000 by the campaign since being hired in the spring, he said.
Some of the records McLaughlin obtained point to a condo Fishback purchased in Washington in 2021. From 2023 through 2026, Fishback received a homestead exemption on the property.
That homestead exemption was removed in April and the tax office retroactively charged Fishback for the exempted amount of taxes going back to 2023. It’s not clear why.
To get that homestead exemption in the first place, Fishback would have had to assert that it was his primary residence, McLaughlin said.
“What I was seeing was evidence he had established residency, in the case of the homestead exemption, that he was domiciled in D.C. for a period of time,” McLaughlin said.
But Fishback said he didn’t know he was attesting to being a D.C. resident. Before buying his home in Madison County in 2022, Fishback said he was living with his grandmother in Plantation, Florida. His dad, whom his camp called as a witness, said the same.
“I just happened to be in D.C. when everything hit the fan,” Fishback said.
Fishback and his attorney, former Republican state Rep. Anthony Sabatini, cited their own list of examples to show Fishback has lived in Florida, including Florida business records for his investment organization and a debate league he created that shows a Florida address.
They also referred to a civil case from Fishback’s former employer, Greenlight Capital, who went after him for $228,000 Fishback owed. In that case, Fishback said his former employer was upset at how much time he spent in Florida starting his debate organization.
His registration to vote in Washington was “inadvertent,” Fishback said. When pressed on tax records during cross-examination, Fishback said he wasn’t the one who filled out or signed the forms that showed him with a Washington address.
At the end of the hearing, Sabatini, Fishback’s attorney, said individual actions don’t assign someone a residence. Even making a sworn statement saying otherwise, Sabatini said, can still be incorrect.
“Mr. Fishback was never wedded to D.C.,” Sabatini said. “It was simply a networking opportunity that panned out pretty well.”
Ahead of the hearing, Fishback started speaking to his followers in the room, saying in part that Collins was wasting taxpayer money on the case.
He then directed his attention to John Cardillo, a member of Collins’ campaignteam, saying that Cardillo would either return money to the taxpayers or “go to jail when I’m governor.”
During his cross-examination, Fishback repeatedly pressed Collins’ attorney about his line of questioning and was occasionally combative. Judge Frank repeatedly interjected to redirect Fishback.
Attorneys for both Collins and Fishback have until 5 p.m. Friday to file additional information with the judge, who said he would have an order ready by 5 p.m. Monday.
