Longtime Polk County Tax Collector Joe Tedder files to run for eighth term

Polk County Tax Collector Joe G. Tedder has filed to run for re-election.

Tedder, 61, was first elected as tax collector in 1996 and has been re-elected six times, running unopposed in recent races. No other candidate had filed to enter the race as of Friday afternoon.

Tedder is running as a Republican. Tedder, who served in the Florida House from 1992 to 1996 as a Democrat, changed his party registration to Republican in December 2022, according to the Supervisor of Elections Office.

Polk County’s five constitutional officer elections had been nonpartisan for 20 years, but Florida’s Department of State directed the Polk County Supervisor of Elections Office in August to administer those elections as partisan. Polk County’s charter specifies that the elections are nonpartisan, but the Department of State cited a 2019 court ruling determining that Orange County must run its constitutional officer elections with candidates listed by party as applying to Polk as well.

In ethics complaint Polk commissioner accuses former chair of illegally pressuring others

Two other constitutional officers running as Republicans so far face no challengers: State Attorney Brian Haas and Sheriff Grady Judd. County Commissioner Bill Braswell, also a Republican, has not drawn a challenger in seeking re-election for District 3.

Blair Allen, a Republican, is the only current candidate for public defender. Incumbent Rex Dimmig is not seeking re-election.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Longtime Polk Tax Collector Joe Tedder files to run for eighth term