Board of Ed. Member Gary Chartrand creates multiple accounts to skirt campaign financial laws

Before you continue you should know I contacted the Duval Supervisor of elections to file a complaint and they directed me to the states ethics office who subsequently told me they don’t deal with campaign contributions. What BOE member Gary Chartrand is doing may not be illegal but it definitely violates the spirit of the law and is yet another example of how rich republican donors feel as if they can do whatever they want.

So here we go, Gary Chartrand created four different accounts so he could donate to his preferred candidate, David Chauncey in a Jacksonville school board race.

8

4/16/2018

Messenger of the Truth LLC
139 Ponte Vedra Blvd
Ponte Vedra, FL 32082

Business

Organization

Check

$1,000.00

9

4/16/2018

Chartair Holdings, LLC
139 Ponte Vedra Blvd
Ponte Vedra, FL 32082

Business

HoldingCompany

Check

$1,000.00

10

4/16/2018

Unreasonable Leadership Book LLC
139 Ponte Vedra Blvd
Ponte Vedra, FL 32082

Business

Company

Check

$1,000.00

11

4/16/2018

Gary Chartrand
139 Ponte Vedra Blvd
Ponte Vedra, FL 32082

Individual

CompanyExecutive

Check

$1,000.00

https://www.voterfocus.com/CampaignFinance/candidate_pr.php?op=rp&e=21&c=Duval&ca=840&sdc=693&cname=David+Chauncey&coffice=School+Board+Dist+6&

I tried to see if he had done this elsewhere as I have heard rumors but where I can navigate the Duval site pretty well that wasn’t the case and found others not very user friendly.

Here is the thing, I couldn’t donate to the same candidate from my checking, savings and Christmas account but then again I am not a multi-millionaire setting up LLC’s left and right either. Why can he donate over and over again while us normal folk can’t? How did the system get this broken? Oh that's right, it was set up to benefit people like Chartrand so they can buy influence and install their candidates.

You know maybe I wouldn’t care so much except for the fact Chartrand paired huge donations to Rick Scott into a position on the state board of education where he helps set education policy. Oh did I mention he is chairman of the KIPP charter school board as well. A charter school proponent setting public education policy, hmm that explains many of his anti-public education decisions.

In Duval Chartrand always supports a candidate in every race as he collects members like I used to collect baseball cards

https://www.duvalelections.com/Candidates-And-Committees/Search-Local-Contributions-And-Expenditures

but he hasn’t always been this blatant about it. He has contributed tens of thousands of dollars to local races in Jacksonville and even more to PACs but on the state level his contributions have been dizzying.

http://dos.elections.myflorida.com/cgi-bin/contrib.exe

Friends, we aren’t being led, instead we are being ruled and that is not how it is supposed to be. If this is the example a member of the state board of education sets, it certainly is a poor one.