A lazy Florida Republican has cost the GOP a critical seat in the House after failing to submit a public disclosure of her financial interests. There will now be two Democrats and no Republicans on the ballot in the upcoming election. Rep. Paula Stark, who represented House District 47, filed a lawsuit to challenge her disqualification and be reinstated to the ballot.
Leon Circuit Court Judge Joshua Hawkes rejected Stark’s request. Democrats Jorge Figueroa and Anthony Nieves are the only two candidates on the ballot. In light of that, the August 18, 2026 Democratic Party primary race will be open to all political parties since there are no Republicans on the ballot. Stark attempted to lay the blame for her negligence on the shoulders of her campaign treasurer and a clerk.
According to the lawsuit, Stark said that Joel Davis, her campaign treasurer and significant other, submitted Form 6, but a clerk accidentally returned it to him and it was never filed. Davis submitted the required paperwork 25 minutes before the June 12 qualifying deadline. However, Judge Hawkes didn’t buy her excuse.
“What likely happened in this case, as counsel for Intervenors suggests, was that Mr. Davis thought the Form 6 was not needed because he had submitted it the day before to the Florida Commission on Ethics,” the judge went on to say in his order. “Mr. Davis attributed this line of thinking to the clerk in supposedly handing him back the Form 6, but it is much more likely that he thought this and did not actually turn in the Form 6.”
“In any case, the Court does not credit the story of DOE staff immediately returning the Form 6, the Form 6 was not turned in before the noon deadline, and Petitioner did not show that she qualified for HD 47,” Judge Hawkes added. According to a report from Florida Politics, Division of Elections (DOE) employees who collected paperwork before the qualifying deadline have disputed the claims made by Davis, stating they never received his Form 6.
“DOE had four clerks working the counter at the time. There was also a supervisor responsible for their work. All five testified. They all testified consistently that after 11:30, the clerks no longer performed any check of the papers. Instead, they just received, stamped, and later, if time allowed, handed copies of the stamped forms back as courtesy copies,” Hawkes went on to say.
“The streamlined, no-review, process was to ensure those that wanted to qualify could before the noon deadline. By way of example, if somebody submitted paperwork to run for the Governor of Alabama, they would have received and stamped it. There is no stamped copy of Petitioner’s Form 6,” the judge stated in the order.
"*" indicates required fields
Davis claimed there was a disturbance in the office on the day he submitted the Form 6, which he says is the reason he didn’t notice the form was not time-stamped until much later. Clerks working in the office that day told a much different story in court. The clerks testified that the disturbance happened earlier in the day, not at midday which is when Davis came in to submit the Form 6.
“The Court finds that the incident happened early in the morning and would not have served as the distraction that Mr. Davis suggests it would have before closing,” Hawkes stated. “The Court also finds that the timing discrepancy of this incident severely undermines Mr. Davis’ credibility.” The judge then revealed that he did not take into account Stark’s long history of missing deadlines and fines from her campaign paperwork when making his ruling.
Watch another Florida RINO call for amnesty for illegal aliens: