NRA sent a thank you for this Democrat’s ‘no’ vote. Her opponent put it on a mailer.

A political mailer arrived in mailboxes in Southwest Miami-Dade this week depicting a thank you letter sent from powerful NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer to state Sen. Annette Taddeo, a Democrat.

Hammer, in a letter dated Sept. 21, thanked Taddeo for her vote “against gun control legislation this past legislative session.” She was referring to Senate Bill 7026, known as the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act, an omnibus bill that included restrictions on gun purchases as well as provisions to arm school staff, a measure Taddeo has openly criticized.

“We cannot thank you enough for voting with the NRA and against gun control,” the letter read. “Please accept our sincere appreciation for your outstanding pro-gun vote.”

The mailer was paid for by a political action committee supporting Mariana “Marili” Cancio, Taddeo’s Republican challenger for the Senate District 40 seat on the Nov. 6 ballot.

NRA support is the hot button issue in this state senate race. Cancio has contended that Taddeo sided with the NRA in voting against the bill and against the 17 families from Parkland who supported the bill. Taddeo has said that it’s Cancio who sides with the NRA’s position of arming school staff.

But Taddeo’s campaign charges that Cancio “is in full coordination and scheming with the NRA to purposely and deliberately lie and deceive voters in SD40,” wrote her senior adviser, Christian Ulvert, in an email. State Sen. Gary Farmer, D-Fort Lauderdale, claimed the same when he received a similarly worded letter from Hammer on June 27.

Reached directly at the phone number listed on the letter shown on the mailer, Hammer said that she sent thank you letters to Taddeo and Farmer for voting against the bill earlier this year. Asked why Taddeo’s letter was dated six months after that legislation was passed in March, Hammer said she resent the letter because both legislators said they never received it.

“Apparently they claim they didn’t get it,” she said. “So I sent it again.”

Ulvert said Taddeo’s office had not previously received a letter from Hammer.

Hammer acknowledged that Taddeo had received an F grade from the NRA for voting in favor of another bill banning assault weapons, but said she thought Taddeo deserved a thank you for her no vote. “When you have a gun control bill that includes three gun control measures and someone votes against it,” Hammer said, “don’t you think it deserves a thank you?”

Hammer said she was unaware the letter was used for a political ad.

“I communicate with a lot of Democrats a lot of times,” Hammer said. “We really on a personal level don’t get disagreeable trying to work together.”

Taddeo’s campaign said Taddeo’s senate office received a public records request Oct. 16 from the Republican Party of Florida’s general counsel, Coates Law Firm, for correspondence the senator received from Marion Hammer specifically between Sept. 1 and Oct. 1. The mailer came out Monday, a quick turnaround, the campaign said.

Cancio confirmed that she was in on the effort to make the records request but provided the Herald with an email showing that the records request came back unresponsive two days later.

Ulvert, Taddeo’s adviser, said the request initially came back unresponsive because the keywords “Marion Hammer” appear nowhere in the email, and that the letter was an attachment that was not searchable.

Cancio said Hammer’s letter “was delivered anonymously to my office.”

“She is trying to confuse the voters, and basically I just want people to know that basically she was congratulated by the NRA for her vote,” Cancio said. “This is something I keep repeating: That she voted against the 17 grieving families.”

Cancio said she has never met Hammer and says she would be tougher on gun control with endorsements from Moms Demand Action, the parent organization for Everytown for Gun Safety, founded by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Taddeo, however, also received an endorsement from Moms Demand Action.

Cancio says it’s Taddeo who is a liar and has been promoting radio ads and mailers attacking her, calling her “dangerous.”

“She is the one who’s running away from her record and her vote,” Cancio said. “At the end of the day the voters need to know that she’s a liar. That she’s attacking me and my integrity and all the years that I have been working for the community.”

This story was originally published October 23, 2018 at 5:41 PM.