Although school board races are still non-partisan, party politics has grabbed hold of the Leon County School Board Seat 4 race.
Challenger and registered Democrat Jeremy Rogers has accused incumbent and registered Republican Laurie Lawson Cox of receiving financial support from conservative corporate political committees. WFSU factchecked that claim.
Rogers is a firefighter and local preschool owner. During a recent forum at WFSU, he contrasted his campaign donations with Cox—a former classroom teacher.
“If you look at my donations, they're my neighbors. You know, they're small business owners in my district. They're not these giant, dark, scary corporate packs,” he said.
Cox denied that and accused Rogers of injecting party politics into the election.
“My opponent is the one that's trying to bring partisan politics by labeling me as an extremist. And anyone that knows me knows that is the farthest thing from the truth? So, I don't I'm not exactly sure who he's talking about,” she said.
Cox has received very little money from political committees so far.
So far, she has just received support from one PC through a $1,000 donation from the political committee connected to Republican State Senator Corey Simon. That’s a drop in the bucket compared to the about $69,000 she has raised so far.
However, she has brought in at least $9,000 in individual donations from Republican lobbyists and consultants.
Rogers received money from a PC as well, a $1,000 donation from the local firefighter union. He is also being supported by One Tallahassee, a political committee run by Tallahassee City Commissioner Jeremy Matlow. He’s also been endorsed by the Leon County Democratic Party.
