A ethics complaint was filed against Representative, District 52 Ritch Workman (FL-R) with the State of Florida Commission of Ethics by Ronald Thomas.

According to the press reporting by Politico on 7/8/16, after the close of the 2016 Legislative Session, Rep. Workman used over $3,500 taxpayer dollars to hire a lobbyist who doubles as his campaign consultant to mail a newsletter to voters. However, in violation of the law, this mailing was sent outside of Rep. Workman’s House District and into the Senate District that he was actively campaigning for at the time.

It continues to say they believe Workman did it on purpose:

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This was clearly intended to introduce Workman to voters that did not know him and was meant to benefit his candidacy, as evidenced by hiring his campaign consultant/lobbyist to perform the work.

According to the complaint Workman admitted it to Politico:

Rep. Workman admitted that he sent a taxpayer funded newsletter outside the district into the seat he is campaigning for; admitted that he used taxpayer money to pay his campaign consultant/lobbyist to perform the work at the same time he was being paid with Workman’s campaign funds.

The complaint also included a copy of the Politico story which can be read here.

Ritch Workman is seeking State Senate seat, District 17. He is currently running against republicans Debbie Mayfield and Mike Thomas. Democrat Amy Tidd also filed to run for the seat.