Daniels Pitches $1,000 Club, Promises Open Door to Donors
'What It Does Git You Is Access,' Candidate for Sheriff Says
I was born to be sheriff of Clay County.—Darryl Daniels
If you’ve got a thousand bucks lying around, and you want to cozy up to the Clay County Sheriff’s Office for some reason, former sheriff, Darryl Daniels, has got a deal for you.
While Daniels has been living out of state since he was involved in a scandal and thus became a one-term sheriff, he’s back visiting and wants to be our sheriff again.
He’s been a little wishy-washy about his political party leanings. First, he was a Democrat, then registered as Republican when he successfully ran for sheriff. Last February, he registered to vote as a No Party Affiliation (NPA). Shortly after, he signed up to run for sheriff for again.
According to his latest financial disclosures with the Supervisor of Elections, Daniels is his own campaign treasurer and has no contributions or expenditures. But he’s been very active on Facebook.
Besides Facebook, the former sheriff is working a plan to make up for lost time and lack of funding.
At a $100-a-plate dinner at the Hilltop Restaurant on November 30, Daniels laid out his plan to pay for his election campaign and revealed it to those who bought their dinner.
“I wish that everybody in this room gave a thousand dollars tonight,” he said. “And then if they were a business, let their business give a thousand, and if their wives are in with them, let their wife give a thousand dollars, and if your kids are old enough, let your kids give a thousand dollars.”
Daniel’s desire for a $1,000 contribution was a déjà vu for folks in the Clay County Sheriff’s Office. When Daniels was sheriff and running for his second term, employees said, the sheriff bypassed the wishing and strongly suggested that employees and their family members should give him $1,000 each.
But at the Hilltop, Darryl wasn’t asking money for nothing and offered an incentive.
“You’ll get a return on that investment,” he said. “What it does git you is access.”
The wanna-be-sheriff-again said if the people who gave him thousands had a problem and he was sheriff, they could pick up the phone and call him.
As evidenced by his actions during his only term in office, Daniels is not exactly observant of Florida laws. Chapter 104 of Florida Statutes says you shall not offer or receive money or other benefits in exchange for a vote or “directly or indirectly give or promise anything of value to another intending thereby to buy that person’s or another’s vote or to corruptly influence that person or another in casting his or her vote.”
This is called “selling access.” Perhaps Daniel’s has been taking notes from our elected leaders in Washington.
Most of you know Daniel’s story. He had a young woman arrested for stalking him when his wife found out the two had been comingling fluids for about six years. After a year-long investigation, all the while campaigning to keep his job, he was charged with evidence tampering, false reports to law enforcement and lying to law enforcement. He was subsequently arrested. When he was released, then lost the election, he and his wife moved to another state awaiting trial.
Daniels employed super-lawyer Matthew Kachergus from one of the foremost firms in Jacksonville. Kachergus earned his big money. The attorney got an acquittal for the former sheriff. It also helped that the young prosecuting attorneys from down in South Florida didn’t seem to know too much about the case.
During the Hilltop fundraiser, Daniels had stories to tell as to why the Hilltop folks should pony up their thousands to help him get elected again.
He said during his time as sheriff, the community was “proud of their sheriff’s department.” This despite the fact that every print and TV media in and around Northeast Florida constantly carried a gaggle of the sordid details about the case with words like “embarrassing” and “shocking.”
Some folks were even less charitable after it was revealed that Daniels had thousands of calls to females during his workday and all hours of the night, along with videos that could make a stripper blush. These were all on his work phone.
Records indicate Daniels was born and raised around Miami. But at the Hilltop, he was fired up like a tent-revival preacher on a hot summer night in Louisiana as he avowed Clay County was his destiny.
“I was born to be the sheriff of Clay County,” he avowed. “I believe this with my whole heart. I believe I was born to be the sheriff of Clay County. I was born to be sheriff of Clay County.”
He shared another compelling reason for folks to make the large donations.
He said in 2016, his wife found a picture of him when he was about three-years-old with several of his cousins. In the picture he was “front and center” and on the front of his shirt was a sticker. Seems the sticker wasn’t exactly clear in the picture, but he believes it was a sheriff’s badge.
There is a picture of me when I was six. On the front of my shirt, which hung down below my knees, was a big “S.” I had actually salvaged a t-shirt from my older brother’s hand-de-downs and used a red crayon to create the S. I also fashioned a cape from a towel and secured it at the front of my neck with one of my baby brother’s large diaper pins. My arms were outstretched as if ready for flight.
I don’t like to brag, but more than a few people suggested I had super-powers. They said I was super annoying.
With Daniels’ past performance still fresh in people’s minds, I’ve probably got a better shot at becoming Super Girl than he does to become the next sheriff.