Where is Jackie Toledo? The answer is — or at least was — not in Tampa

Former Rep. Jackie Toledo wants voters to believe she’s been hard at work at home campaigning for a seat on the Hillsborough County Commission. But photographs and social media posts reviewed by Florida Politics show she was instead spending much of the Summer on an extended trip through France and the Balearic Islands.

Toledo, a Republican, is running for the District 1 seat currently held by Democrat Harry Cohen. They are the only candidates in the race.

In multiple social media posts, Toledo has included “in Tampa” or “at Tampa Bay, Florida” as locations. But a birthday invitation and photo obtained by Florida Politics show she was actually in France at the time the posts were made.

The posts are made even more disingenuous by their inclusion of recycled photographs from previous campaigns. While she has never explicitly written that she was currently participating in events, or that the events photographed were current, the posts imply she is on the ground meeting with voters.

Further, the photographs are clearly doctored to remove references to previous campaigns.

For example, a photograph shared on July 19 showed Toledo holding a campaign sign, wearing a green blazer and campaign T-shirt. The photograph is from her 2020 bid for Florida House. The “for State Representative” line on the sign is colored out in a similar shade of blue to obscure the words.

Similarly, a post on July 15 shows Toledo standing with about three dozen or so supporters with campaign signs similarly colored to remove the office sought. The signs in that photo have her name written in green, differentiating them from her 2020 Florida House bid, when her name was written in white. That photo is from her 2022 congressional bid. The supporters photographed are wearing campaign T-shirts; upon zooming in, the word “congress” can be made out on the shirts.

The campaign is likely resurfacing old photos because Toledo has spent much of the campaign in France celebrating her 50th birthday. A birthday invitation obtained by Florida Politics outlines a series of planned activities in Paris from July 11-17.

Planned events included an itinerary of high-end dinners and champagne tastings, including a birthday dinner on July 14 at Lafayette’s Restaurant, located in what was once the private mansion of the Marquis de La Fayette. Its chef, Mory Sacko, is Michelin-starred.

Other high-end experiences on the itinerary include a private chef dinner at the Eisenhower Residence and various champagne tastings of Veuve Clicquot and Moet & Chandon. There are also luxury shopping days and a private cruise.

Though her current whereabouts are unclear, Toledo is now widely believed to be taking repose in Ibiza.

Let’s be clear, a 50th birthday is a milestone worth celebrating. A lavish birthday trip is not the problem here — if she can afford it, good for her. The problem is how disingenuous Toledo’s social media presence has been.

There is something inexplicably gratuitous about fabricating disinformation meant to hide her whereabouts. The dizzying lengths gone to execute a botched cover-up do not suggest the perpetration of a crime as much as they expose a compulsion to lie.

And it’s not the first time Toledo has found herself embroiled in scandal, or at least adjacent to it.

Toledo first ran for office in 2015, in a bid for Tampa City Council she lost. She went on to win a seat in the Florida House in 2016, but left the Legislature before term limits required to run for Florida’s 15th Congressional District in 2022, which she lost.

Toledo in late 2021 admitted to irregularities in two personal financial disclosures after an ethics complaint and Commission on Ethics investigation. At issue was Toledo’s failure to report a $540,000 home sale on her 2017 disclosure and missing assets on her 2018 disclosure that Toledo said would be listed in an attachment, which was never attached.

Toledo blamed what she described as oversights on a contentious divorce from José Toledo, a permanently disbarred lawyer presently facing legal proceedings after he fled the country and went into hiding in 2019. José Toledo surrendered himself to authorities in Miami earlier this year.

Cohen has represented District 1 since 2020 and is known for his focus on affordability, infrastructure, public safety and essential services. The district includes South Tampa, downtown, West Tampa, Seminole Heights, Town ‘N’ Country, Westchase, Davis Islands and MacDill Air Force Base.

Cohen is one of only two Democrats on the Hillsborough County Commission. He was first elected to the Commission in 2020, replacing former Commissioner Sandy Murman, a Republican.

Prior to his service on the Commission, Cohen served two terms on the Tampa City Council. He ran for Tampa Mayor in 2019, finishing third before now-Mayor Jane Castor went on to defeat the late David Straz overwhelmingly in a runoff election.

Cohen survived his 2022 re-election bid — just two years after his successful election, which flipped a seat from red to blue — in a cycle that was the political version of Game of Thrones’ red wedding.

He won by less than a percentage point, a razor-thin victory that looked like a landslide compared to two of Cohen’s Democratic colleagues. Former Commissioner Mariella Smith lost her seat by nearly 6 percentage points, while former Commissioner Kimberly Overman lost hers by about 5 percentage points.