by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
County Court Judge Tyrie Boyer will not be on the ballot this fall after all.
Boyer had planned to run for one of the three Circuit Court seats created recently by the Florida Legislature. However, after spending most of the day Tuesday in Tallahassee meeting in person with State elections officials to determine if he's eligible to run for the Circuit seat, he decided to drop his bid.
"I had every plan to run until today," said Boyer late Tuesday afternoon. "I have had discussions with officials from the State elections office and have shown them my paperwork."
After analyzing his situation from every angle and dissecting the State election laws and Constitutional statues, Boyer realized that, because he qualified in May to run for his County Court seat, he's not legally able to run for the Group 34 Circuit seat he was seeking.
"You can't qualify to run for two positions that have concurrent terms," said Boyer. "The County and Circuit seats have concurrent terms and legally I can't qualify for both. The Secretary of State said there is no methodology in the State statutes for me to disqualify myself from running for County Court and qualify for the Circuit Court. It creates a significant legal impediment to running for the Circuit Court."
Two attorneys have filed to run for the Group 34 Circuit Court seat. Yulee attorney Wesley White and Jacksonville attorney John Merrett have both filed paperwork.
Boyer said he could have pursued the matter all week but doing so would not have been fair to others looking to run for Circuit Court. A couple of weeks ago, Boyer made his intentions to run for the Group 34 known. In response, Terri McCaulie -- who had filed for the Group 34 seat -- opted to run against Dan Wilensky for the Group 35 seat. Although Boyer would not have been an incumbent for the new Circuit job, sitting judges are rarely opposed and rarely defeated.
Qualifying for the three Circuit seats and one County seat began Monday and ends at noon Friday. Boyer said withdrawing his name now is the right thing to do, especially if others are interested in running.
"I decided to let people who are thinking about running know now," he said. "The only honorable thing to do was make the decision and let the world know."
Boyer said when he was elected five-and-a-half years ago, the qualifying period for judges statewide was in July. However, due to another state election law, sitting judges were not allowed to campaign until they had qualified opposition. Conversely, anyone wishing to run against an incumbent judge could start campaigning any time. With primaries in September, an incumbent judge had very little time to raise money or campaign.
The judiciary lobbied to have the rule changed to allow incumbent judges to qualify in May. Boyer said that law was changed 3-4 years ago.
"Because the law changed, I qualified for the County position in May and no one qualified against me," said Boyer. "Then, the Legislature created these new positions and questions arose about my ability to resign and run for the Circuit Court."
Boyer said Friday's ruling by the Florida Supreme Court that prevented the newly-created positions from becoming appointed as opposed to filled by popular vote was a factor in his decision because it forced him to determine if he was eligible to run. Boyer said he will gladly serve another six years on the County bench, but will consider the Circuit Court bench in the future.