On May 16, 1996, Linda Hudson, the current Mayor of Fort Pierce, formed Media Arts Group INC. with her nephew, Charles Wilson. On September 26, 1997, the state of Florida Division of Corporations administratively dissolved the company for failing to renew corporate filings. The company listed P O BOX 65114 VERO BEACH, FL 32965 as its mailing address.
In April 2022, Michael Broderick, a candidate for Fort Pierce City Commission District 2, began paying Media Arts Groups for campaign marketing.
According to candidate financial reports from the St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections, Broderick's campaign paid $18,173.88 to Media Arts Group between April and August 2022.
On August 15, 2022, Fort Pierce voters in District 2 received a letter from "The Desk of Linda Hudson" endorsing Broderick. That same day, it was reported to the Supervisor of Elections Office that Broderick paid Media Arts Group $6,245.70 for campaign mailers.
Even though Broderick paid Media Arts Group over $18,000, he came in second in the August primary election to James Clasby.
Broderick and Clasby are vying for retiring commissioner Tom Perona's seat on the Fort Pierce City Commission and head to November's general election amidst growing controversy over Broderick's campaign finances.
"Paying a company linked to the Mayor before receiving her endorsement erodes public confidence in our elected officials," Clasby said.
The Dish reached out to Mayor Hudson to question if there is a conflict of interest. Charles Wilson returned The Dish's call.
He told the Dish that Media Arts Group has existed under fictitious names since 1996.
The Dish checked state filings and found the following:
On July 19, 2010, Charles Wilson registered the fictitious business name Media Arts Group of Florida and listed P O BOX 65114 VERO BEACH, FL 32965, as its mailing address. The company's registration with the state of Florida expired on December 31, 2020.
With one dissolved company and another company with
an expired registration, Wilson formed Media Arts Group of Indian River County on August 3, 2022 - just days before mailing Linda Hudson's letter of endorsement and after receiving $11,928.18 from Broderick. And all of Wilson's companies share the same PO Box with Mayor Hudson's original company from 1997.
Wilson cautioned The Dish about reporting this story. In a Facebook post dated August 9, 2022. Wilson posts, "All tyranny rule through fraud and force, but once the fraud is exposed, they must exclusively rely on force.
