What Happened to Carey Baker?
First, a Personal Opinion Preface by FiscalRangers.com Editor Vance Jochim
This article and entire post is my personal opinion and is political commentary. Be sure to read my commentary and opinion at the bottom of the document.
The article by Tom Vail further below describes political dirty tricks by a local Cabal to:
1) Replace well-liked Lake County, FL Property Appraiser *and former Florida Senator" Carey Baker by using backdoor sneaky procedures to replace him with Mark Jordan, brother of David Jordan, Lake County Tax Collector. Jordan never had to campaign, did not appear at voter forums about the Property Appraiser election, and he does not (in my opinion) appear to be a competent manager of such an important department. I have videos of him running for a much smaller office.
2) Sneak in application forms with the Supervisor of Elections at the last minute for 100+ Republican Committee members (aka Precinct Captains) without any transparency, training or approval from the Lake County Republican Party. They are expected to then disrupt the incumbent Republican Party leadership and support election of new Cabal Republican Party leaders as a power grab. In my opinion, this Cabal is only interested in power and networking connections and not acting on interests of conservatives or grass roots voters.
But, all these dirty tricks were preceded over the past eight years by many of the dirty tricks Cabal members described below when they filed Republican Committee applications with the Lake County Republican Party just before the past two Presidential elections (2016 and 2020), when leaders of the Republican Party were also voted in or out. The Jordan Brothers Dirty Tricks Wolfpack/Cabal did not have enough new voters in those preceding party elections to win in prior contested Republican Party leader elections, so now they have resulted to dirty tricks to sneak in over 100 Republican Committee members without being trained, processed or vetted by the Republican Party. Now you know the background and read Tom Vail's article below to understand what happened this year.
Here is an earlier AI generated cartoon about the Jordan Brothers Dirty Tricks Wolfpack/Cabal and their establishment candidates. AI hasn't learned how to spell or take spelling corrections yet. The cartoon focuses on the nasty political campaign hit mailers from dark money PACs supporting Keith Truenow and Nan Cobb.
What Happened to Carey Baker in the recent 2024 Elections?
Written by Tom Vail on Oct. 3, published by FiscalRangers.com on Dec. 5, 2024
First, some background:
Carey Baker is the current, elected Lake County Property Appraiser. He is one of five Constitutional Officers in the county, with a four-year term, with election in the same years as the US Presidential election. Carey Baker was expected to be re-elected as Property Appraiser in 2024 because he was the ONLY qualified candidate UNTIL 30 minutes AFTER the deadline to register as a candidate. A group of people, promoting an unelectable candidate, devised an underhanded plan to remove Carey Baker’s name from the list of candidates on the November 2024 ballot, and surreptitiously insert another name. This is CLEARLY the workings of an unaccountable group, attempting to circumvent the voters of Lake County and install the candidate of their choice. (Editor: I call this group the "Jordan Brothers Dirty Tricks Wolfpack or Cabal which will be covered in a following article).
In order to get your name on the ballot in Florida, there are several steps that a potential candidate must follow. To be a Party candidate like Republican or Democrat, you have to either pay a fee (which varies depending on the office), or collect signatures from registered voters (the number of which also depends on the office sought). Alternatively, one can file as a “write-in” candidate. In Florida, write-in candidates must also qualify in order for their votes to be counted and reported. But, the requirements for a write-in candidate are more simple: only filling out and submitting two forms – no fees, no signatures to collect.
Florida is known as a “closed primary” state. This means that Republicans vote for Republicans in the primary elections, and Democrats vote for Democrats. But, there is a twist. If all of the candidates in the primary are of the same party, this turns the primary into an “open primary,” essentially turning the primary election for that race into the general election. But, there is another quirk. If anyone else files and qualifies as a write-in candidate, the election MUST go to the general election. It matters not if the write-in candidate is of the same Party as the other candidates. This is the current situation in the Lake County Property Appraiser race. Mark Jordan ( Editor: promoted by the Dirty Tricks Cabal ) as the Republican candidate against Carey Baker as the write-in candidate, who is also a Republican. But, Carey's name and Party will not appear on the ballot.
When there is an uncontested election, the sole candidate who qualifies is automatically elected to that position. That candidate’s name never appears on the ballot. Election for that office never appears on the ballot. This happens more frequently than people realize. In 2022, in Lake County, there were 21 election contests. 14 of those had only one candidate qualify, who was automatically elected. They included School Board members Bill Mathias and Mark Dodd, and County Commissioner Leslie Campione. (Leslie Campione filed as a write-in candidate). In 2020, ALL FIVE of Lake County Constitutional Officers were elected without opposition: Peyton Grinnell for Sheriff, Gary Cooney for Clerk of Courts, David Jordan for Tax Collector, Alan Hays for Supervisor of Elections and Carey Baker for Property Appraiser. In that election, Carey Baker filed as a write-in candidate.
Now, to the heart of the matter:
The qualifying period for getting on the 2024 ballot was noon, Monday, June 10, 2024, until noon, Friday, June 14. The Qualifying Office for county-level elections is the Supervisor of Elections. Candidates in line at the noon deadline on Friday are permitted to legally submit their forms after the actual deadline. This is where the line becomes blurred between what is legal and what is not. And this is when and where the deceptions of the Jordan Brothers Conspiracy come into play. Make no mistake, this was a well planned, well organized, and well executed plan to deprive Carey Baker of his proper place on the ballot, and his position as the chosen Property Appraiser for Lake County. But, the conspiracy extends farther than that, as the facts will demonstrate.
As he did in the 2020 election, Carey Baker planned to file as an unopposed, write-in candidate. To do so effectively, he had to time his actions carefully, as he well knew. Initially, Carey filed to run as the Republican candidate, potentially facing another Republican candidate in the Primary election in August. He filed the required documents and paid the $10,000 fee, and was listed as an active candidate for the office he already held.
On the morning of the final day of the qualifying period, Carey arrived in the office of the Supervisor of Elections at 11:20, intending to wait until the last minute to see if anyone else would file to run against him. Seeing none at 11:59, he withdrew his candidacy and re-filed as a write-in candidate for the same office, expecting to be automatically elected, saving his campaign donors their money.
What Carey did not realize is that when the Jordan Brothers arrived at 11:50, they were preparing to put their plan into action. Their plan was to be “in line” before the 12:00 noon deadline, so that Mark Jordan could surreptitiously withdraw his candidacy for the seat on the North Lake Hospital Board, for which he was the incumbent, and submit a new filing for Property Appraiser AFTER the deadline. More importantly, this had to be done AFTER they KNEW that Carey Baker had withdrawn his candidacy and re-filed as a write-in candidate. They HAD to do their dirty deed AFTER Carey Baker had left the building, making sure that he was unaware of what they were about to do.
KEY to the success of this devious plan was another related conspiracy, intended to overthrow the leadership of the Lake County Republican Party. Ana Germeroth, a mortgage broker in Mt. Dora, was the operative handling this. She delivered a batch of 97 Republican Party qualifying documents (Ed: for Republican Committee or Precinct positions) one minute before Carey Baker submitted his new campaign qualifying documents. These documents, submitted by Ana Germeroth, totaling more than 160 pages, were time stamped starting at 11:58 and ending at 12:33. When looking at the big picture, it is clear that this dump of documents just minutes before the deadline was planned and coordinated to accomplish several purposes, including causing a distraction in the Qualifying Office, and separating Carey Baker from the deceptive filing by Mark Jordan.
Mark Jordan submitted his Republican Party qualifying documents AFTER the batch of 97 submitted by Ana Germeroth. His was stamped at 12:34.
Another interesting fact about the qualifying documents submitted by Ana Germeroth is that 7 of the 97 had a handwritten time on them in addition to the time stamp. These include:
- Charlotte Jordan
- David Jordan
- Debra Jordan
- Mark Jordan
- Wendy Jordan
- Dawn VanAlstine
- Randy VanAlstine
More interesting is the fact that out of this remaining sub-group of 7 with a handwritten time BEFORE the official time stamp, four were notarized by Michael Holland ( Ed: the Eustis Mayor and he works for David Jordan, Tax Collector, and is the brother of Mark Jordan ) and 3 were notarized by Randy VanAlstine (Ed. he also works for David Jordan, Tax Collector).
In total, in the batch of 97 sets of qualifying documents,
- Randy Van Alstine notarized 3, including Charlotte, Debra and David Jordan
- Amanda Wettstein notarized 8, including Jonathan and Ana Germeroth and Lourdes Buigas
- Lourdes Buigas notarized 10, including Monica Wofford
- Michael Holland notarized 12, including Mark and Wendy Jordan
- Ana Germeroth notarized 38
Important to note that Michael Holland, currently the Mayor of Eustis, is also on the paid staff of David Jordan in the office of the Tax Collector.
Another important connection is that Ana Germoroth is married to Jonathan Germeroth, who is employed by Lake Jem Nursery, which is owned by Keith Truenow. Ana Germeroth is the ONLY person who has been blocked from membership in the Lake County Republican Party in the past 5 years.
Obviously, each of these facts taken separately amount to little or nothing. But, in light of the final results, removing Carey Baker from office and replacing the Lake County Republican Party leadership ( Ed: by adding enough new Republican Committee members loyal to Cabal members, and will vote for Cabal nominated Republican leaders in late December, 2024), it is clear that there are powers in Lake County (and probably in Tallahassee) that do not want the conservative, grass roots citizens of Lake County to have a voice in either the Republican Party of Florida or in the halls of the state government.
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NOTES FROM CAREY BAKER, 2024-10-02
Did not sign personally
Arrive 11:20
12:01 time stamp
Jordan brothers 11:50
Mark Jordan Qual for hospital board on Monday
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Final Comment by FiscalRangers.com Editor Vance Jochim
This is my personal opinion and not that of any other person or organization.
At the Sept. 24 monthly meeting of the Lake County Republican Party in Tavares, FL, the above mentioned Dirty Tricks Cabal member Ana Germeroth insisted on videoing the meeting even though she was asked at least four times to desist, and a security guard was asked to escort her from the meeting. She kept coming back in and videoing the meeting, causing disruption. All her interruptions were noted in the minutes prepared by retired (and accurate) Court Reporter June Lang.
I (Vance Jochim) and another REC member approached her to BLOCK her cell phone making the videos. She then pushed her phone into my clipboard, then claimed battery and filed a police report even though she was not touched or harmed in any way. Her husband, Jon Germeroth, who works for new Senator Keith Truenow, threatened me with physical harm if I touched her, which I did not. The Tavares Police wrote up her statement, my statement and those of four witnesses (who all supported me), then said there was no intent to harm her, and she was not harmed, thus took no further action. However Cabal member Germeroth insisted the police file the complaint with the State Attorney's office for battery, and now I am involved in unraveling that issue. As mentioned above, due to actions she took against the South Lake Republican Club, Ana was previously denied membership in the Lake County Republican Party. In my opinion, she and some other Cabal members should be voted out from any Republican entity. They act unethically and against the interests of the Republican Party, conservatism and their objectives.
Germeroth likes to play dirty tricks but she probably didn't know I was an anti-corruption manager in both Iraq and Afghanistan, plus a Certified Fraud Examiner and I have dealt with many dirty tricksters and assembled evidence for the prosecution of fraud perpetrators.
Ana Germeroth has a Real Estate firm at: https://www.facebook.com/GermerothRealty?_rdr
She has a Mt. Dora mortgage brokerage firm at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/livingmg/overlay/background-image/
You would think she would be subject to real estate and mortgage broker professional ethics codes, but apparently not (yet).
You would think new FL Senator Keith Truenow would be subject to ethical guidelines by the Florida Senate, and would disassociate himself from the Cabal, and the Germeroths.
So I will be sharing more research on the Cabal, including Ana Germeroth in future posts.
Boy, I wonder how a grand jury would review these issues and actions by the Cabal.
By the way, every person discussed above is a political participant, whether an elected official, elected REC member or filed as a political party committee member, thus any thoughts of defamation are REALLY hard to prosecute for politicians. And, the best defense to defamation is "Truth" and we "have the receipts" or witnesses as Steve Bannon would say.
Dirty politics go both ways. I am ready to bring out more truths, including research on ALL the new Cabal precinct members. The best resolution would be if both Jordan brothers resign, and all the Cabal new Republican Committee members drop out before the pending elections. Ana Germeroth should withdraw her complaint about me and drop out of the REC. I already have a 63 page security background report on Ana Germeroth and it raises many questions for this retired Federal anti-corruption manager. I even have generated an AI developed strategic plan to take on the Cabal. I am tired of dirty politics in Lake County. We need ethical political officials, not unethical Cabal members.
Please post comments.
Vance Jochim
Dec. 5, 2024
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