St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch has filed a defamation lawsuit against political operative Peter Schorsch in Pinellas County Circuit Court, accusing him of falsely claiming in a since-deleted Facebook post that Welch cheated on his wife with the woman who later became his deputy mayor, Stephanie Owens. The suit seeks a jury trial and damages exceeding $50,000, landing in the middle of Welch's reelection fight against former Gov. Charlie Crist.
According to Yahoo News, Schorsch wrote a post titled “Stephanie Owens” on his personal Facebook page on July 23, then deleted it about an hour after it went up. Welch's complaint alleges the post was defamatory, and his attorney, Robert Persante, said the timing of the lawsuit was not about the campaign calendar. “I think this was filed purposely to bring the truth out,” Persante told the outlet. Welch himself framed the stakes in personal terms, saying, “This is personal. It's my reputation. It's my family.”
Schorsch has not denied writing and removing the post. In comments reported by Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, he said, “Yes, I made a comment about Ken Welch and Stephanie Owens on social media. Yes, I deleted it.” Welch publicly called on Crist to disavow the post, saying, “Condemn the lie publicly, and unequivocally.”
A Lawsuit Tangled Up in the Mayor's Race
The legal fight is unfolding as Welch tries to close a gap against Crist, whom the same Yahoo News report says led Welch by 14 percentage points heading into the race. Schorsch is not a neutral bystander in that contest. Per Yahoo News, he volunteers and does paid work for Crist's campaign, and state expenditure reports cited by the outlet show the Crist-aligned political committee St. Pete Shines paid close to $1 million to businesses owned by Schorsch and his wife for campaign work.
Those financial ties run deeper than the committee payments alone. Creative Loafing Tampa Bay reports that Michelle Todd Schorsch's political consulting business was the second-largest recipient of funds from Crist's PAC, and that Extensive Enterprises Media, the parent company of Schorsch's website Florida Politics, received more than $24,000 from the same PAC according to campaign finance records. Bay News 9 separately notes that Schorsch is the husband of Crist's campaign chair, underscoring how closely the operative is woven into the opponent's operation.
Who Is Peter Schorsch
Schorsch is known in Florida political circles as the founder of Florida Politics, a site that NPR has reported has been expanding its reach across the Southeast. That visibility has made the dispute over his deleted post a flashpoint well beyond St. Petersburg's city limits, with Welch pressing Crist directly to address his ally's conduct rather than treating it as a private spat between two operatives.
The St. Petersburg mayoral election was scheduled for August 18, according to Bay News 9's reporting on the race's fundraising landscape. That same report detailed how much money was flowing through statewide contests at the time, noting that Ashley Moody's campaign had raised $10.8 million and held more than $8 million in cash at the end of June, while Alex Vindman's campaign had raised more than $14.6 million and held more than $7 million in cash during the same period — figures that illustrate the financial scale surrounding Florida's broader political season even as Welch's local fight played out separately.
What Schorsch Says He'll Do Next
Schorsch indicated he isn't backing down quietly. Per Yahoo News, he said his attorneys are taking a look at Florida's anti-SLAPP laws, a legal avenue typically used to challenge lawsuits seen as targeting speech on public matters. Any response will have to contend with Florida's defamation framework, which sets a high bar for public officials like Welch: court filings reviewed from Florida's court records system identify the actual-malice standard, meaning Welch must show Schorsch published a false statement knowing it was false or with reckless disregard for the truth.
Florida law also requires plaintiffs to clear a procedural hurdle before suing over libel or slander. Under Florida Statute Section 770.01, a plaintiff must serve written notice on the defendant at least five days before filing suit, identifying the publication and the specific statements alleged to be false and defamatory. Whether Schorsch pursues an anti-SLAPP motion, and how any court might ultimately rule, remains to be seen as the case moves through Pinellas County Circuit Court.
