Strings of political mailers have appeared in Alachua and Newberry mailboxes in the final leg before the towns’ elections, sent without the approval of the candidates they represent. 

With days left before the two towns’ April 8 elections, candidates are responding to the flyers’ different tones with determination to focus on their own campaign and town, not the outside influence. 

Alachua 

The city of Alachua has one commissioner seat, and a mayoral seat, up for election on Tuesday, with two incumbents running on their track records against challengers. 

Recently, citizens began receiving flyers decrying the town’s current direction of development, stating that the city needs stricter environmental safeguards to protect its water quality. 

The flyers also accuse Alachua of underreporting traffic impacts to the Florida Department of Transportation, with consequences including Santa Fe High School students who could be required to walk along or across US-441 to school if they live in a Tara or Tomoka Hills development. 

The mailers in Alachua direct voters to vote for Jacob Fletcher for Commissioner Seat 2, with instructions to “see the plan” at the URL of his campaign website. 

But the mailers also note that they were sent independent of any candidate and were not approved by any candidate. Fletcher said he had no knowledge of them until a friend showed him a photo of one. 

The mailers are sponsored by Florida Future Leaders (FFL), a Democratic youth organizing program with a goal to “turn youth organizing into real political power.” 

FFL also has a municipal program aimed at supporting young candidates for local offices, especially in “flippable” districts, but Fletcher said he never reached out to the organization. 

Fletcher said he has only seen one of the mailers: one raising concerns over students walking near US-441, which does echo a concern he has that Alachua may be lacking the infrastructure it needs for the developments coming its way. 

“They’re just pointing out things I’ve been saying,” Fletcher said in a phone interview. “And it seems like the concerns I have with the city… it seems like that’s resonating with people even outside of the city, and the people in the city. So it seems to be a pretty much a universal stance.” 

Fletcher said he is not concerned about the mailers and does not know what affect they may have on his campaign. He and his opponent, incumbent Ed Potts, have both sent out mailers of their own, and Fletcher said as long as the outside mailers supporting him remain respectful of Potts, he has no problem with them. 

Potts said the flyers looked “generic” to him, like FFL has a template that it follows for towns facing robust development. 

He also said they do not accurately portray the way Alachua is dealing with growth, using exaggerated images of a child crossing a 10-lane highway, and dirty water spewing from faucets. Potts said the mailers use “ridiculous scare tactics” and imply the town’s water supply is already tainted. 

“You have to read the flyer to understand that they’re saying, ‘but if rampant development were to continue, your water could be dirty because we’re not prepared for all of the growth,’” Potts said in a phone interview. “We’re absolutely prepared for the growth. We have another treatment facility being built. We’re well within our current capacity, and that is being built because of the development that is planned in the future.” 

Potts said he cannot make it his business to go about publicly challenging the mailers in an election cycle as short as this one, so instead he focuses on his own campaign and spreading word of what Alachua is doing. 

Questions and complaints of a lack of transparency from the city have recently sparked around the sudden resignation of most of Alachua’s planning department and the City Commission’s cancelation of an investigation into their departures. 

Fletcher has built a significant part of his campaign on a call for transparency and early investment in infrastructure. 

“The commission is in a boat, and they’re just rowing in circles, and they’re not doing anything to address these problems,” Fletcher said. 

Potts said those same events have also shaped his campaign to include the importance of transparency and integrity. 

“I believe the public has the right to ask those questions and be concerned about how we lost three really strong people and… I appreciate their concern in regard to why we didn’t move forward with the third-party interviews to see what they might have told us to make us a better city and a better commission,” Potts said. 

Potts was one of two outvoted commissioners on Alachua’s dais who voted in favor of going forward with the inquiry into the planners’ departure. 

Newberry 

Alachua is not the only municipality in the county with an upcoming election that has sparked mailer campaigns. 

The city of Newberry’s mayoral seat is also up for election on April 8, along with two commission seats. 

Last week, Newberry voters also began receiving ominous mailers, aimed at current Newberry Commissioner Tim Marden, who is running for mayor. 

The Newberry mailers were paid for by One Alachua County, a Gainesville-based nonprofit in support of at-large districts. 

The mailers do not mention Marden’s opponent, real estate broker Joy Glanzer, by name, instead focusing on calls to “fire” Marden and “show [him] the door.” They say “Taxin’ Tim” will bring Newberry clogged roads, big box stores, water shortages, uncontrolled development and a county dump. 

Glanzer, who did not endorse the mailers, said she found out about them when she saw pictures on Facebook and was “horrified.” 

“Newberry is not the type of community where you do these attack ads and campaigns,” Glanzer said. “I would never do that. It’s repulsive, but they come in and they do that. It’s not about me; it’s not about anything else. It’s about them wanting to out a certain person.” 

Marden said he was not surprised by the mailers, saying he is a political target for his principles. But he said while Glanzer may not have asked for the ads, she opened the door for mudslinging like this by supporting and hosting Democratic candidates such as Anna Prizzia and Thomas Vu into Newberry during the 2024 fall election season. 

“Those are the sorts of things that… invite this element into our community,” Marden said in a phone interview. “I think she bears some responsibility for the effects that it has, and this is one of the effects. So her feigning naivete or feigning that she had nothing to do with it… I just don’t know how you get there.” 

Both candidates agreed that the mailers were wrong about Marden’s plan to raise taxes, though Glanzer has concerns about her opponent’s disapproval of receiving grant money. She said issues such as the grants and spot zoning are “black and white,” separate from any personal character attacks. 

Both also agreed that the flyers are more likely to help Marden’s campaign rather than hurt it. Glanzer said she had not heard of One Alachua County before, but if she were to have asked them for help, she would have asked them for the opposite of the mailers they sent. 

“This isn’t my character. I don’t talk bad about people,” Glanzer said. “And when I see this kind of thing, I would look more towards the person who did it than the person they’re attacking. Because nine times out of 10, a lot of things they’re attacking are just exaggerated or superfluous.” 

Glanzer said she wants to help heal the Newberry community and bring people together. She said she wants more people to be involved in public service. 

“After the election, we’ll be neighbors again,” Glanzer said. 

Apart from the mailers, Marden has also been under some scrutiny for his position with the John Birch Society and recently registered as a lobbyist for the time he spends in Washington, D.C. 

Marden said lobbying is not a major portion of his job, but for transparency’s sake, he and his employer thought it would be good to complete the free registration. 

A Gainesville Sun reporter informed Marden that Florida law prohibits public officers—including municipal officers—from lobbying for compensation “on issues of policy, appropriations, or procurement.” 

Marden, who said he was not aware of that portion of the law, said he has now enlisted the city attorney for legal advice on whether he needs to withdraw his lobbyist registration. He said his work is “more from an angle of advocacy versus compensation,” and that he believes the lobbying would fit well with advocacy for Newberry’s needs. 

“I think it gives an advantage to Newberry… because what I do is not much different than me going to Tallahassee and talking about things that are important to the city of Newberry,” Marden said. “If we’re not allowed to talk with our other governmental entities, then that’s obviously not going to work, because that’s kind of my role as an elected official.”