Who is Donna Nyack?
She filed to run for Tallahassee Seat 2 at the end of May and is a registered Republican. A former California resident, she is likely new to Leon County. She first registered to vote here on December 28th. Yet, everything else is a mystery that’s raising concerns from some experts that Nyack may be a ghost candidate.
Nyack responded to an email from WFSU News on May 30th, saying she was finalizing her launch statements and was planning on giving interviews. Since then, she hasn’t responded to multiple requests for comment. WFSU sent several follow-up emails. Reporters left notes requesting interviews on her front door. WFSU called several numbers associated with her for more than a week. There were no responses.
Nyack’s opponents in the race are current Commissioner Curtis Richardson, former Tallahassee Mayor Dot Inman-Johnson, and Bernard Stevens Jr. All say they have never heard of her. Chair of the Republican Party of Florida and Leon County Republican Party Evan Power hasn’t heard of her either.
Nyack’s candidacy concerns Integrity Florida’s Ben Wilcox. The longtime government watchdog said her demeanor with the press, especially as a new, politically unknown person, is a red flag.
“The fact that she's not making herself available, I mean, why, if you're a serious candidate, why wouldn't you want to introduce yourself to the community?” he said.
Wilcox is concerned that Nyack may be a ghost candidate, or a candidate who is not in a race to earnestly run for the office, but to siphon votes from another candidate and is encouraged to run by a political group or operative.
Integrity Florida has been raising awareness of ghost candidate schemes around Florida, dating back to 2020 when a ghost candidate scheme won a tight South Florida state senate race for republicans by putting a candidate on the ballot with the same last name as the Democrat. That scheme was engineered by Republican political consultants hired by Florida Power & Light.
Ryan Ray, chair of the Leon County Democratic Party, is also suspicious about Nyack.
“Right now, it just doesn't seem like a normal candidacy. It doesn't seem like a sincere effort to get elected to City Commission. It seems more like behavior that's consistent with schemes we've seen in the past in Florida elections to try to siphon off votes from legitimate candidates,” he said.
Wilcox said the next campaign filing deadline could provide more information about Nyack’s candidacy.
“There's just a lot of question marks around this candidate. We don't know who she is and who's funding her. And you know, she's, she's not helping anybody by not giving interviews and making herself available to the press,” he said.
Nyack has already qualified and will be on the ballot for the August 20th primary.