A political committee that supports Sheriff Michelle Cook has raised about $427,000 since 2019. State records show it paid for consulting and polling in the 2020 sheriff’s race. It shared a consultant and an accountant with Cook’s own campaign. Since 2023, its books have been kept by Tallahassee political operative William “Stafford” Jones.
Today the committee sends money well beyond Clay County. It has given to the Republican Party of Florida and to committees in Jones’s network. That includes $2,500 this fall to the committee campaigning for the school district’s one-mill renewal.
The committee is called the Committee for Professional Law Enforcement. CN&V reviewed its state registration papers, its campaign finance reports from 2019 to 2026, and Cook’s own campaign reports from 2020 and 2024.
Formed Before Cook Entered The Race
The committee registered with the Florida Division of Elections on Oct. 8, 2019. Its chairman was Charles R. “Scotty” Taylor Jr. of Middleburg. The Republican Party of Florida lists Taylor as the Clay County Republican Party’s committeeman.
Tom Nolan of The Nolan Group, a Jacksonville political consulting firm, was its first treasurer. Six days later, the committee told the state it had replaced Nolan with Steve DuVal of DuVal Fields CPA Group in Green Cove Springs.
The committee’s registration listed the candidates it would support as “to be determined.”
Within weeks, the committee began spending on the sheriff’s race. In October 2019, it paid for polling and legal work. Its reports label those payments “Clay County Sheriff.” By mid-December, it had spent about $31,800 on the race.
Cook, then the Atlantic Beach police chief, filed to run for sheriff on Jan. 8, 2020.
The Same Consultant And Accountant
From October 2019 through September 2020, the committee spent about $141,000 on items labeled “Clay County Sheriff.” That included:
About $105,000 to The Nolan Group for consulting
$16,350 to Barcelo & Company for polling
$15,350 to On Target Messaging for a website
About $5,500 to DuVal Fields for accounting
About $2,900 to Meyer, Brooks, Blohm and Hearn for legal work
Cook’s 2020 campaign used the same firms. Her campaign paid The Nolan Group $107,543. That was more than half of the $171,000 it spent. Her campaign also paid On Target Messaging $44,601 and DuVal Fields $2,250 for accounting.
The payments sometimes ran side by side. On June 17, 2020, Cook’s campaign paid The Nolan Group $40,000 for media buys. On June 29, the committee paid The Nolan Group $40,000 for “consulting” labeled “Clay County Sheriff.”
The committee also drew donors who had already given Cook’s campaign the legal maximum. Under Florida law, a person or group can give a county candidate no more than $1,000 per election. There is no such limit on gifts to a political committee.
The committee’s largest donor is George “Clay” Chandler, a former lieutenant with the Clay County Sheriff’s Office. He gave Cook’s campaign $1,000 in January 2020. He has given the committee $131,000 since 2019, mostly in $5,000 checks.
During the 2020 race, then-Sheriff Darryl Daniels’s campaign called the committee “a political action committee controlled by St Johns County resident Michelle Cook.” Cook lived in St. Johns County at the time.
The state records do not show that Cook controlled the committee. They do not list her as an officer.
Florida law treats in-kind help to a campaign, such as paying for its services, as a contribution. Whether any of the committee’s 2019 and 2020 spending counts that way depends on facts the records do not show, including whether it was coordinated with Cook’s campaign.
Cook won the Republican primary on Aug. 18, 2020. Ten days later, she gave the committee $5,000. She gave it $5,000 more in January 2021, $5,000 in December 2021, and $1,000 in October 2022. In all, she has given $16,000.
A Late Report And A Fine
In June 2020, during the campaign, the committee filed a required report 10 days late. The state fined it $3,650. A second late report brought a $150 fine.
The $150 fine was paid in August 2020 with a check from DuVal Fields Consulting, LLC, the treasurer’s firm.
The committee appealed the larger fine. It told the Florida Elections Commission that the COVID-19 pandemic made it hard to reach its office computers. In February 2021, the commission rejected that reason but reduced the fine to $500.
In April 2021, with the fine still unpaid, the state warned it would cancel the committee’s registration. The fine was paid in May 2021. The committee’s reports list a $500 “payment of fine” from DuVal Fields Consulting in April 2021.
DuVal resigned as treasurer in September 2020. He was replaced by Erika Alba, a Jacksonville attorney with Foley & Lardner. The committee’s activity slowed through 2022.
The 2023 Reorganization
In April 2023, Taylor notified the state that the committee had held a “reorganizational meeting.” Alba resigned. Stafford Jones became treasurer. Richard Coates of Coates Law Firm became the committee’s registered agent. Taylor stayed on as chairman.
The committee moved its address to 1722 NW 80th Blvd., Suite 90, in Gainesville. Jones lists that address for several of his committees. Coates’s law firm sits at 115 East Park Ave., Suite 1, in Tallahassee, the mailing address for most of Jones’s committees.
For the first time, the committee’s registration named a candidate. It listed “Michelle Cook, Clay County Sheriff, Republican” as the candidate it supports.
Jones is a former chairman of the Alachua County Republican Party. He has been listed on the paperwork of more than 85 Florida political committees.
Fundraising Picks Up
After the reorganization, the committee raised $123,500 in 2023 and $118,000 in 2024. That was more than it had raised in any earlier year.
Chandler continued as its largest donor. Other contributors included:
Heart Utilities of Jacksonville, an electrical contractor: $25,000
William D. Gardner Jr., a Green Cove Springs real estate developer: $20,000
The Carpet Man, a Jacksonville flooring company: $12,500
Avecina Development Company: $10,000
Summit Contracting Group and its owner: $10,000
It also received money from committees tied to Jones, including The Responsible Leadership Committee, Strong Leadership and Women Building the Future. First Coast Conservatives, the committee of former state Rep. Travis Cummings of Fleming Island, gave $3,000 in 2021.
The committee’s most recent contribution came on Oct. 21, 2026. The Stellar Companies, a Jacksonville construction firm, gave $5,000.
Where The Money Goes Now
Since 2023, the committee has used Jones’s compliance firm, Electioneering Consulting, and Coates’s law firm. Its spending has moved away from Clay County.
In 2024, Cook ran for re-election. That year, the committee paid On Target Messaging $4,000 a month for consulting. Alexander Pantinakis, who has served as political director of the Republican Party of Florida since March 2024, owns On Target. The committee has paid the firm about $43,000 since 2020.
Cook’s 2024 campaign also used On Target. It paid the firm about $99,000. Her campaign paid Electioneering Consulting about $9,300 for compliance work.
In October 2024, the committee gave the Republican Party of Florida $100,000 in two $50,000 checks. That is nearly a quarter of everything the committee has raised.
It has also given to committees in Jones’s network:
$5,100 to Accountability In Government, Inc., in June 2024
$4,250 to Florida Forward in March 2024
$2,500 to Believing in Clay’s Kids PC on Sept. 21, 2026
Accountability In Government paid for this fall’s “Cap Politicians Pay” mailers on the county’s commissioner salary charter amendment. As CN&V reported, the mailer told voters the opposite of what the amendment does. Believing in Clay’s Kids campaigned for the school district’s one-mill renewal.
Accountability In Government also gave Cook’s re-election campaign $1,000 in March 2024. Leading For Our Future, another Jones committee, gave her campaign $1,000 that May.
The committee remains active. Based on its reports, it has more than $100,000 unspent.
Questions The Records Raise
Who formed the committee, and why? It registered three months before Cook entered the race. It began paying for polling for the sheriff’s race before she filed.
Did the committee and Cook’s campaign coordinate in 2020? They shared a consultant and an accountant. The consultant briefly served as the committee’s first treasurer.
Who decides how the committee spends its money today? Taylor is its chairman. Jones keeps its books. Its registration names Cook as the candidate it supports.
Does Cook approve of where the money goes? The committee that names her as its candidate has sent money to the state party and to the Jones committees behind this fall’s local ballot campaigns.
Responses
CN&V emailed questions to Sheriff Cook, Taylor, Nolan and DuVal, with a deadline of Nov. 9th.
Nolan responded but did not answer the specific questions. He said he has known Cook since 2010 and considers her “a friend and outstanding Sheriff.” He said he met Taylor as Taylor prepared to retire from the Gainesville fire department and considers him “a friend and dedicated community supporter.”
“Florida law does not prohibit communication between political committees and candidates,” Nolan wrote. “If you are seeking evidence of impropriety, you will not find it here.”
In a second email, Nolan said, “Everything was disclosed as required by Florida statute. I have nothing further to add.”
Cook, Taylor, and DuVal did not respond by the Nov. 9th deadline.