Kevin Cichowski’s brief candidacy for the special July 27 election for Palm Coast mayor ended today as oddly as it began a week or so ago–with cryptic statements, a back-handed endorsement of candidate Alan Lowe, and the proposal for an “active shooter system” in the schools.
Dropping out two days after qualifying ended also created a problem for Supervisor of Elections Kaiti Lenhart, whom Cichowski had not informed. Lenhart’s office had on Tuesday sent the ballots for the special election to be printed, to its printer in Orlando. What was already estimated to be an election that could cost up to $188,000 might have cost quite a bit more had Cichowski dropped out a day or two later.
“Luckily they had not been printed yet although we sent them the files yesterday,” Lenhart said this morning. Lenhart had been very concerned that had ballots been printed, the city would have had to bear the additional cost. Had those ballots been printed, City Clerk Virginia Smith and Lenhart would have had to decide whether to beep the ballots bearing Cichowski’s name and insert a slip of paper with each ballot, informing voters that Cichowski had dropped out, or run off an entirely new batch. As it is, the ballots will be redesigned without Cichowski’s name.
There may not be an additional cost to the city. That doesn’t mean Cichowski’s decision won’t be costly, in time especially: The supervisor’s office has to prepare the ballot, analyze and proof it and test it before sending it to the printer, as staffers at the office did starting Monday afternoon and all day Tuesday, and go through the process again when it returns. So Cichowski’s decision will have the office go through that process all over again, with the new ballot.
It may also delay mailing out the ballots overseas. “This is an accelerated schedule,” Lenhart said. “We were hoping to meet the 45-day deadline for our overseas voters and our overseas voters in uniform.” To meet the deadline the ballots would have had to be mailed by Friday. That may still happen. Otherwise, they’ll be mailed Monday. And there’ll be a $250 fee to resend the ballot to the printer.
Cichowski, meanwhile, is out $1,140, the election qualifying fee that does not get refunded when a candidate drops out, Smith said.
He first revealed his decision to drop out in an early-morning email to FlaglerLive. The full, unedited email reads as follows: “‘i’m dropping out of the race, due to a family’s members health. I do think Palm coast should install, an active shooter system on it’s schools. It’s basically gps for the police. They would know instantly if someone f’ed with our schools. I do endorse Allen lowe. I think he’s sorry for hating America, and he’s ready to show us, it’s only a short term let’s see what Allen can do giving a second coming I mean chance’ I’ve included pictures for you to look over.. city wide, it’s got issues.. smaller school sized system would be highly accurate.” (Cichowski had previously explained that his dyslexia caused him to make a lot of spelling errors.)
The email followed the pattern of similarly cheeky notes from Cichowski in previous exchanges with FlaglerLive. He would not speak by phone. On June 1, though he’d already filed to run, he wrote that he had “yet to announce my run” and was researching issues. Pressed for some explanation of his interest in running, he plied a reporter with questions about the city instead, and only described himself as “a person that invests in distressed businesses.”
He’d registered two businesses with the Florida Department of Corporations: The Happy Catts LLC, in 2018, and Pearce Holding Group, the same year. Both appear to have been inactive since.
Asked again about his profession, he replied with a one-liner: “I know this, My job is not ambassador Christ.” The line seemed to be a slight against Alan Lowe, who had abjured his citizenship and declared himself a sovereign citizen in the early 1990s, and declared himself an “ambassador for Christ.”
That note from Cichowski was on June 1. His next email came this morning, again referencing Lowe’s past. He was asked if his back-handed endorsement of Lowe was sincere. “Yes I am.,” he replied.
Lowe said this morning that he did not know Cichowski and did not think he’d ever met him. ” I have never ‘hated’ America,” Lowe wrote. He said his first awareness of the endorsement was in the statement Cichowski had made to FlaglerLive. “Having said that, I would accept his endorsement,” Lowe said.
Cichowski’s abandonment of the race leaves six candidates: Lowe, David Alfin, Kathy Austrino, Cornelia Manfre, Carol Bacha, and Doug Courtney. (See: “Candidates from the Obscure to the Expected Piling Up to Run for Palm Coast Mayor in Winner-Takes-All Election.”)
Mike Cocchiola says
After reading his comments, PC dodged that bullet. He’s surely half a bubble out of plumb.
The issue now is Lowe. He has not reformed. He dropped out of America. He never voted. He attempted to scam the U.S government and Suntrust bank. He’s a really dedicated trumper. That means he supports the Big lie and he is in spirit if not in person a supporter of the assault on our U.S.Capitol building and thus, our Democracy.
Lowe is Flagler County REC’s worst nightmare. Don’t make him Palm Coast’s.
Montecristo says
Wow,
What a con or a setup to mock fun of other candidates.
This Kevin guy is a joke. Not even a real person likely at least not on Facebook.
This joke of a wannabe candidate almost cost us a pile of money.
Your endorsement of Allan Lowe is an insult and certainly not welcomed.
James M. Mejuto says
Why is there an ‘election qualifying fee’ of $1,14.00? What is the reason for this fee?
It seems to me and probably thousands more, this ‘fee’ is a controlling mechanism
making it difficult for citizens to get on the ballot if they do not belong to either party.
Where does that money go ? . . .
Why should we even have it ? . . .
One candidate has already withdrawn but he will never see that money!
James M. Mejuto
USA says
So a flake endorsed Alan Lowe even though he admits he hated America.
What’s wrong with this picture?
Skibum says
Wow, the GOP is chock full of scientific wonders. This guy, who can hardly construct a single sentence that makes sense. And the guy who he now endorses, is one of the mental geniuses who refers to themselves as “sovereign citizens”, who do not believe in government authority to make and enforce laws. That membership typically drive without drivers licenses, vehicle registration or insurance and do not believe they are driving, just “traveling” and immune from traffic laws. They do not recognize our courts and judges as having any authority over them, usually mouthing that they are not involved in “commerce” and are individuals not under the laws of any state or the United States of America. In other words, they are their own entities who make up their own rules as they please for their own enjoyment, and everything else be damned. What a wonderful, insightful promise to come for one of these nuts who now wants to be mayor of the city… NOT!
Bartholomew says
The mayor has nothing to do with the schools. He needs to run for…wait a minute no he doesn’t.
Steve says
Hes not Sorry for hating America. Hes Sorry for being called out for hating America.
Ray W. says
My first contact with the sovereign citizen movement came as a division chief in the SAO in the early ’90’s. An 18 year old male motorcyclist who had just graduated from high school was pulled over in southeast Volusia County for speeding. He told the female officer that he set his own speed limits. When he refused to sign the speeding citation, he was arrested. A search of his saddlebags yielded a “Federal N—–r Hunting License” printed on heavy stock paper, purportedly issued by a sovereign citizen court. He had been granted six months to hunt a named female former high school classmate and time remained for him to complete the hunt. The FBI (DOJ) took over that part of the investigation. The Court Administrator had to scramble to find the appropriate metal detector to install at the courthouse entrance before his arraignment on the MM charge and a number of deputies were assigned to provide additional security. Though the young man did not appear in court, a significant number of people stood when his name was called to announce that they were appearing on his behalf as counsel, but they refused to give their own names or walk through the gate to speak to the judge, as that act could be interpreted as acknowledging the court’s authority. At that time, if a sovereign citizen acknowledged a court’s authority, it invalidated his or her sovereign citizen status, which one obtained on his 18th birthday by declaring himself a sovereign citizen. The judge refused to recognize them as attorney of record and issued an arrest warrant, to their loud protests. I don’t claim to know the sovereign citizen invocation process today and it may have changed. Law enforcement officials told me they were aware of no more than 250 sovereign citizen families living in the rural region between southeast Volusia County and Orlando.
Years later, I was called into a DeLand courtroom to stand by in case a man asked the court to appoint me. He was accused with contempt of court after allegedly filing three sovereign citizen court judgments as liens against real property with the county clerk’s office: one against his opponent in a civil case, another against his opponent’s lawyer, and the third against the judge presiding over the civil case. I don’t know how he obtained the judge’s home address. He would not seek the services of the public defender, because asking the judge to appoint one would mean he recognized the authority of the court, which to him would invalidate his sovereign citizen status. He appeared in court using a name different from the one he answered to in the civil suit. He explained to the judge that he had dissolved his former being and incorporated as a new person, thereby invoking sovereign citizenship after reaching the age of majority. Apparently, as he explained it to the judge, he had not chosen sovereign citizen status when he turned 18, so the only way he could become a sovereign citizen as an adult was to dissolve the existence of his prior adult person and file corporation paperwork as a brand new person with a sovereign citizen court. He adamantly refused to answer the contempt summons in his prior name, as that person no longer existed.