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Mike Gelin Seeks Return to Tamarac Commission as Morey Wright Defends District 2 Seat

Former Tamarac Commissioner Mike Gelin and Tamarac Commissioner Morey Wright. {City of Tamarac}

Tamarac Commission candidate Mike Gelin is suing to disqualify his opponent, incumbent Commissioner Morey Wright Jr., from the Nov. 3 election, alleging that Wright failed to properly appoint himself as a deputy campaign treasurer before signing the campaign check used to pay his qualifying fee.

A successful challenge would leave Gelin unopposed in his bid to regain his former seat. He and Wright are the only candidates who qualified for the District 2 election.

Filed Sept. 8, Gelin’s emergency complaint names Wright, the city of Tamarac, and Broward Supervisor of Elections Joe Scott as defendants.

A hearing to decide the matter is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 9, at 1 p.m. before Broward Circuit Judge Michael A. Robinson at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale.

Wright’s attorney, Joseph Geller, had urged the court to give Wright sufficient time to prepare his defense, arguing that Wright should not face a “trial by ambush.”

Scott is taking no position on whether Wright should be disqualified, court records show. But attorneys from the Broward County Attorney’s Office, representing Scott, warned in a Sept. 11 response that Gelin’s requested relief “presents significant election-administration concerns at this advanced stage of the election process.”

The election ballots have already been printed, Scott’s attorneys wrote.

The lawsuit comes amid a race already marred by allegations of political smears. As Tamarac Talk previously reported⁠, Wright accused unnamed political opponents of exploiting his father Morey Wright’s criminal record and their shared name to mislead voters. In a first-person article published by Tamarac Talk in June, Wright did not identify those responsible for the alleged smear campaign.

Gelin’s legal challenge could decide the District 2 race, and reflects the culture of bare-knuckle political maneuvering in Tamarac. Wright is endorsed by Mayor Michelle Gomez, while Gelin has a longstanding alliance with Gomez’s political rival, Commissioner Marlon Bolton, as Tamarac Talk previously reported⁠.

Gelin’s attorney, Dedrick Straghn, argues in the lawsuit challenging Wright’s candidacy that Wright did not properly appoint himself as deputy campaign treasurer before personally signing the $1,192.77 campaign check submitted for his candidate qualifying fee. Wright’s earlier campaign paperwork identified Michelle Burns as his campaign treasurer.

The lawsuit focuses on the treasurer-appointment form Wright filed on June 12, the final day of candidate qualifying. Wright’s name appears in the section identifying the proposed campaign treasurer or deputy treasurer, but neither appointment checkbox is marked, according to court records.

Elsewhere on the same form, the deputy-treasurer box is checked and Wright’s name is signed on the line intended for the appointee’s printed name, the records say. A separate signature line below is blank.

Straghn argues that Wright’s paperwork did not validly appoint him as a deputy campaign treasurer, or document his written acceptance of that role. Without that appointment, Straghn contends, Wright was not authorized to sign the campaign check used to pay his qualifying fee.

The lawsuit also alleges that Wright’s treasurer-appointment forms were incomplete in other respects, including missing information identifying District 2 and designating the campaign’s bank depository.

A separate allegation in the lawsuit concerns Wright’s candidate oath. Wright checked a box stating that he is a citizen of another country in addition to the United States and wrote “British Overseas” when asked to identify that country.

Gelin argues that the answer does not identify a particular country and therefore fails to satisfy the disclosure requirement.

The complaint also points to an unsigned “treasurer” section on the city’s candidate electronic-filing form, but acknowledges that the issue does not independently establish grounds for disqualification.

The city of Tamarac accepted Wright’s qualifying documents and payment and identified him as qualified, the complaint says. Gelin argues that the city’s acceptance does not prevent a court from reviewing whether Wright met the statutory requirements ahead of the candidate-qualification deadline.

A Sept. 7 demand letter from Straghn seeking the withdrawal of Wright’s “qualified” status was addressed to Tamarac City Manager Levent Sucuoglu, City Attorney Hans Ottinot, City Clerk Kimberly Dillon, and Scott.

The lawsuit asks the court to declare Wright unqualified and to direct election officials to remove his name from the ballot if practicable. If removal is no longer possible, Gelin seeks measures that would prevent votes cast for Wright from being counted, according to the court records.

Scott’s attorneys noted that Gelin filed the suit nearly three months after qualifying closed and just 11 days before the Sept. 19 deadline for sending ballots to military and overseas voters.

They said Broward’s election preparations have involved 429 ballot styles across 346 precincts, including ballots with Spanish and Haitian Creole translations. More than 1,500 precinct voting machines and 12 central-count tabulation machines are also specially programmed to handle ballots in the upcoming election, records show.

Changing ballot content could require reprinting ballots and reprogramming and retesting equipment while election officials remain bound by mailing deadlines, Scott’s response said.

Scott’s attorneys asked the court to follow the statutory procedure applicable when ballots have already been printed. If Wright is ultimately disqualified, they said, election officials could include notices with vote-by-mail ballots and post notices at early voting sites and precincts explaining that votes for him would not count.

“That statutory procedure permits implementation of a final determination regarding candidate qualification without requiring alteration of ballots that have already been printed,” they wrote.

Wright’s Sept. 28 response to the lawsuit addressed issues of preparation in the case, rather than the underlying facts. His attorney, Geller, said he initially sought to depose Tamarac City Clerk Kimberly Dillon and Deputy City Clerk Monica Barros on Sept. 22. Straghn was unavailable, which required rescheduling for Sept. 25, according to the filing.

Geller wrote that he then learned one of the witnesses would be out of state. The city offered to have her appear by Zoom, but Geller elected to postpone the depositions until Sept. 29 because of concerns about her being apart from her counsel and having limited access to exhibits, the records show.

Geller also requested witness and exhibit disclosures early enough to allow Wright to prepare and, if necessary, depose additional witnesses.

“Although the hearing is to be expedited, as previously determined by the Court, that does not mean that basic elements of due process must not be afforded to Defendant Wright,” he wrote.

Straghn previously won an election challenge involving a different qualifying-payment defect. In December 2024, he persuaded a Palm Beach County judge to disqualify five Riviera Beach candidates who paid their qualifying fees with debit cards instead of the bank checks required by state law. The Fourth District Court of Appeal upheld the ruling.

Gelin’s lawsuit cites a separate case involving Hector Medina, who was running for the District 2 seat on the North Miami City Council in the Nov. 3 election.

In that case, brought by incumbent Councilwoman Kassandra Timothe, Medina was disqualified after personally signing his qualifying checks while his wife was the designated campaign treasurer, according to Florida Politics⁠. Straghn also represented Timothe.

Gelin argues that the same requirement for an authorized signature applies to Wright.

Gelin represented District 2 from 2018 through 2022 before leaving the seat to run unsuccessfully for mayor against Gomez. Wright won the open commission seat that year and is seeking a second term.

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Kevin Deutsch

Kevin Deutsch is an award-winning journalist and author of two nonfiction books. He covers general assignment news and Jewish community issues for Talk Media. He has also worked as a staff writer at The Miami Times, the Rio Grande SUN, the New York Daily News, Newsday, The Miami Herald, The Palm Beach Post, The Riverdale Press, and Bronx Justice News.