Photoshopped SWFL county commissioner political flyers

Reporter: Emma Heaton Writer: Paul Dolan
Published: Updated:
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Controversial voting cards used for Commissioner race in Collier County District Two. (CREDIT: WINK News)

Candidates for county commissioner in a Southwest Florida district are photoshopping their political flyers.

Four Republicans are gunning for the open seat in Collier County Commission, District Two, to replace Commissioner Andy Solis. Meanwhile, only one Democrat is running for the seat.

When Ted Raia of Naples went through his stacks of the daily mail, he saw two flyers he didn’t like. “Went beyond normal politics to degrade somebody like that,” Raia said.

Raia got two political flyers from two candidates running for the District Two seat on the Collier County Board of Commissioners. That spans from Pine Ridge Road to Bonita Beach Road at the Collier-County line. The first flyer shows candidate Chris Hall side by side with a photoshopped-in Governor Ron Desantis.

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A photoshopped voting card showing candidate Chris Hall with Governor Ron DeSantis. (CREDIT: WINK News)

“I’m sure the Governor doesn’t know that he was being shown photoshopped with him,” Raia said. “Not that he would object.”

The second addressed to Collier County residents from candidate Reg Buxton, shows Buxton and Hall’s competitor, Nancy Lewis, with a hard hat on.

“It says, ‘Don’t be fooled by Nancy.’ At first, when I received it, I almost had to laugh, because for the first time I had a face; usually, I just was a black shadow,” Lewis said.

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A photoshopped voting card showing Nancy Lewis with a hard hat on. (CREDIT: WINK News)

In the fine print, Buxton talks about Lewis’ campaign contributions. It says she pledges not to accept money from developers, but “a good portion of her funding is from developers.”

Reg Buxton tells WINK News he has proof that at least one contributor to Lewis’ campaign is a developer. Buxton says the following LinkedIn biography is supporting evidence:

Buxton also sent a list of the contributor’s work history, which includes construction companies.

After reviewing her contributions from all individual entities, Lewis claims the accusations against her are false. “It was mentioning a supporter,” Lewis said. “And it was so far from the truth, the person that they were mentioning, as owning numerous properties, and that he was actually a developer, it was so far from the truth so that I was offended.”

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