Scott Ellis to Seek Re-Election for Brevard County Clerk of Court

BREVARD COUNTY, Florida - Brevard County Clerk of Court, Scott Ellis, has announced that he will seek re-election in 2016, signaling that he is dissatisfied with the current field of candidates who want to replace him.

Ellis had retired as Clerk of Court in 2008 and moved to West Virginia. However, Ellis returned to Brevard County to run again in 2012 to oust Mitch Needelman from the Clerk's Office after Ellis discovered that Needelman had awarded a multi-million dollar scanning contract to BlueWare for the digitization of court records even though the company had no equipment to scan the documents at the time. One year after Ellis defeated Needelman, Needelman was arrested for bribery and bid tampering related to that contract award.

Ellis had expressed his desire to leave office to retire once again to West Virginia after his current term ended but showed disdain towards the idea of Brevard County Commissioner Trudie Infantini, the popular favorite among Brevard County conservatives in the Clerk's race, replacing him.

Ellis then threw lukewarm support towards the only candidate opposing Infantini, Clerk of Court Finance Director Steve Burdett. But over the weekend, Ellis wrote in an email to Brevard Times that he was unsatisfied with the way Burdett's campaign was headed.

Ellis said that he will file his election papers with the Brevard County Supervisor of Election's office this week. 

One other candidate, Mary E. Kelly, withdrew from the race in March.