–Roy Hardemon, a member of the Florida House of Representatives admitted that he personally put up campaign yard signs on public school property.
-Hardemon said he did it for his “boss”, State Senator Daphne Campbell.
-Two Campbell re-election campaign signs were spotted on a fence on WJ Bryan Elementary School in North Miami by a RISE NEWS reporter.
-Miami-Dade Public Schools have regulations against political candidates putting campaign materials on school grounds.
-Hardemon and Campbell are two of the most controversial politicians in Florida politics.
-Hardemon is one of 120 Florida State Representatives, while Campbell is one of 40 State Senators.
The 2018 primary election is still over eight months away, but that hasn’t stopped two local politicians from trying to use public school property to win votes for one of their campaigns.
State Representative Roy Hardemon, a Miami Democrat, personally put up two large yard signs for State Senator Daphne Campbell’s re-election campaign on the gate of WJ Bryan Elementary School in North Miami.
A RISE NEWS reporter spotted the two signs on opposite ends of the school’s property off busy 125th St.
He then called Campbell’s Senate office to get an explantation for why they were placed there.
Moments later the reporter received a phone call from an unidentified man who said that he put the signs up on Campbell’s behalf.
“It ain’t nothing wrong with [a sign] saying Happy Holidays,” the man said. “I’m trying to figure out what’s wrong with that.”
When asked the made identified himself as “Roy… Representative Roy Hardemon.”
The phone number from which he called the reporter from matched the phone number that Hardemon listed with the Florida Candidate Tracking System.
“You called my boss and she chewed me out,” Hardemon said of Campbell. “I put the signs up for her. She blasted me out.”
Hardemon, who represents House District 108, hasn’t publicly disclosed payments from Campbell if he is indeed employed by her.
In fact, he hasn’t publicly disclosed any form of income on his Financial Interest Disclosure filings with the Florida Commission on Ethics.
Hardemon also doesn’t have a profession listed on his State Legislature Bio on the Florida House of Representatives website.
He is one of only three member of the 120 member House to not have a listed occupation (The others being Jennifer Mae Sullivan and Barbara Watson).
When pressed on his relationship with Campbell, a Democrat who represents District 38, Hardemon backtracked.
“She’s not my boss, she’s my friend,” Hardemon said.
Campbell was not able to be reached by the time of publication.
Hardemon said that parents of the school should be happy to support Campbell because of what he said was her leadership on their behalf.
“Somebody’s doing there best and people are complaining about signs,” Hardemon said. “I’ve had it up to here with these petty complaints.”
He also said that he thought the signs were allowed to be on the school’s fence.
Florida State Rep. Roy Hardemon. Photo: Roy Hardemon/ Facebook
“The fence is a public right of way,” Hardemon said of the fence, which is clearly on school property. “You know how it’s called, it’s an unwritten rule.”
Except that is not an unwritten rule, the rule is actually written down.
According to the Miami-Dade County Public Schools policy on advertisements on school grounds, political campaign materials are not allowed.
“Advertisements containing a campaign or other political message supporting or opposing a political candidate for public office, a political platform, or a political issue, are prohibited,” the school board passed law reads.
Since Miami-Dade public schools were out for the winter break, spokespeople for the School Board were unable to be reached.
Calls to Bryan Elementary were also not answered due to the break.
Both Campbell and Hardemon represent Bryan Elementary in Tallahassee and both are up for re-election to their offices in August.
Campbell tried to use her connection to an FPL lobbyist to turn on electricity at her house after Hurricane Irma and Hardemon has been arrested 19 times over his life, including for punching a woman in the face in 2014.
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This Jeb Bush Video Is The “Frattiest” Campaign Ad Ever
Jeb Bush visited the University of Georgia on Saturday where he campaigned around fraternity row and shook some bro hands on game-day.
For anyone familiar with southern colleges, this is not at all surprising. The Greek System in the Deep South is typically conservative leaning.
But check out this Bush campaign video that could have been ripped straight off of Total Frat Move’s homepage.
One member of the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign thinks so too:
I think this may be the frattiest presidential ad of all time. https://t.co/8p1XL5TUR5
— Ian Sams (@IanSams) September 21, 2015
Watch the video for yourself:
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— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) September 21, 2015
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Cover Photo Credit: Jeb Bush Campaign/ Screenshot
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