Have you gotten a scary mailer warning against a Rays stadium deal? Beware, it’s from a dead guy

As time winds down on the Tampa Bay Rays’ self-imposed deadline to strike a stadium deal by June 1, critics of the project are claiming the Rays are engaged in a “pressure campaign” to drum up support.

What’s really happening is quite the opposite.

An opposition campaign has propped up against the proposed stadium deal, which would include a new stadium and mixed-use development at the Hillsborough College Dale Mabry campus. Public money would fund about $1 billion of a $2.3 billion stadium project in Hillsborough County, to be split about 75%-25% between the county and city of Tampa, respectively.

Just who is behind the new opposition effort is opaque at best, and its tactics are both misleading and aggressive in its effort to influence public perception and elected official votes.

Hillsborough County residents have been receiving mailers targeting at least three Hillsborough County Commissioners who have either publicly supported a deal with the Rays or expressed a willingness to do so. Those targeted, at a minimum, include Commissioners Chris Boles, Harry Cohen and Ken Hagan. The mailers include phone numbers for the Commissioners and urge constituents to call “and tell him what you think of his broken promises to taxpayers,” according to one such mailer directly targeting Boles.

In a mailer targeting Cohen, voters are asked to call “and tell him what you think of his $1 billion stadium-giveaway.”

But what’s worse about the mailers and the overall opposition campaign is its lack of clear, transparent disclosure about who is funding or directing the effort.

The mailers do include a required disclaimer announcing (in fine print) who is sponsoring them. All of the mailers obtained by Florida Politics attribute the mailers to Ax the Tax, an Orlando-based entity that is now defunct.

The political committee for the organization is listed as revoked in state records, which cite “unpaid penalties in the amount of $34,000.” A notice of intent to cancel the committee sent in late December 2017 was returned as undeliverable, says the revocation from January 2018.

The political committee Chair, Treasurer and registered agent — Doug Guetzloe — died in 2018. Guetzloe was a well-known tea party guy from Central Florida who had fought deals seeking public funding for stadiums and arenas. He was controversial, being the subject of accusations that sold opposition, support or endorsements, essentially, to the highest bidder.

A URL included on the mailers directs recipients to VoteHillsborough.net, which is suspiciously similar to the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections website at VoteHillsborough.org. When going to the “.net” version, users are redirected to the Eye on Tampa Bay blog run by Sharon Calvert and Tom Rask, both prominent critics of tax increases, including for transit. Calvert has been vocally opposed to the current stadium deal negotiations.

Meanwhile, Ax the Tax Inc., a Florida corporation, was dissolved in 2023.

Ax the Tax also has long-standing ties to Sam Rashid, a prominent East Tampa political figure and donor who has been publicly opposed to a variety of anti-tax initiatives over the years, especially transit-related taxes.

Rashid was so involved in efforts back in 2016 to kill the All for Transportation sales tax referendum that Tampa Bay Times columnist Sue Carlton wrote that he “sometimes seems like the eighth commissioner.”

Already, Rashid has threatened to fund opposition campaigns against any Commissioner who supports Rays stadium funding.

Ax the Tax ran ads in 2010 attacking Republican then-Commissioner Mark Sharpe over his support for Go Hillsborough, a transit referendum that ultimately failed at the ballot box.

The group’s opposition campaigns have often been misleading. Responding to the group’s 2010 Go Hillsborough opposition campaign, PolitiFact rated the mailer attacking Sharpe “barely true,” later changing it to “mostly false” after the outlet reconfigured its rating system.

It found the claim that the proposed sales tax would cost taxpayers “up to $300 million per year” was a gross overinflation of the actual sales tax revenue to be generated and ignored that only about half the proceeds would go toward rail, potentially less in future years once service was up and running. The rest would have funded buses and road improvements.

Now, mailers appear to follow that same playbook: Overstate threat, omit key details and use fear-based messaging to drum up opposition.

Compare that to the Rays’ alleged “pressure campaign.” The team has transparently conducted community engagement sessions across the county and has released detailed project information and a financial framework for the project, that includes significant team buy-in. The team has also emphasized a “no harm” approach to public safety and infrastructure, which would protect existing funding for police, fire and emergency services.

Taken together, it is clear that one side is participating in a public-facing process while the other is using anonymous opposition and misleading information.

To be clear, the residents and voters of Hillsborough County are free to form their own opinions on the current proposed stadium deal. There will always be those who disagree. That’s OK.

But Rashid, it would appear, seems to be reviving a defunct political organization for the sole purpose of affecting upcoming elections, as evidenced by his threat to fund opposition campaigns against Commissioners who don’t vote his way.

Constituents impacted by whatever is ultimately decided deserve to form their opinions based on facts and transparency, not scare tactics and dark money.