Campaign season is also high season for dirty tricks. With Election Day around the corner, a roundup of some recent Sunshine State campaign shenanigans:

Too close for comfort

Opposition research is par for the course in the campaign arena, but an Escambia County man took it too far this past April, when he allegedly tried to enter the home of Karen Sindel, a member of the Escambia County Planning Board who is running for county commissioner. According to media reports, Mark Clabaugh, a 47-year-old "self-employed consultant" and supporter of one of Sindel's opponents, allegedly tried to enter Sindel's Pensacola home through a rear door. "What got my attention was the noise. The noise of somebody grabbing the door and shaking it hard. I looked up, and this person I'd never seen before had a camera pressed against the doors and was taking pictures."

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Sindel called the sheriff's department and later picked Clabaugh out of a photo lineup. Clabaugh, who apologized, ended up pleading no contest to a reduced misdemeanor charge of trespassing and is serving six months' probation.

Clabaugh has said he informed Sindel's opponent, George Touart, that he was going to Sindel's house the morning of the incident when the two were having breakfast, but Touart, a former Escambia County administrator, has denied that he sent him there.

Four days after the incident, Sindel noticed another man watching her house and called the police. A search of the car's license plate number showed the owner was a private investigator. Sindel says he stopped coming around after about a week, but the experience has left her shaken.

Candid camera

Trackers — videographers who follow candidates in hopes of catching an embarrassing gaffe on film — have become common among campaigners. But some candidates are taking issue with the paid operatives, whose behavior, they say, amounts to harassment. In June, state Sen. Al Lawson, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress, snatched a camera from a tracker who showed up at a campaign rally outside his headquarters. The tracker, Ralph Mason, who works for incumbent Rep. Allen Boyd's (D) campaign, eventually got his camera back, and both sides claim the other was out of line. (Click here to see video of the incident.) Boyd's campaign claimed that Lawson committed a "theft" when he took the staffer's camera and filed a complaint with the Tallahassee police. Lawson retorted that Boyd's campaign had "crossed the line" by filming him on private property and said he'd press harassment charges. While the state attorney dismissed Boyd's complaint on a lack of "merit," grainy video footage of the incident remains.

Web antics

State Sen. Carey Baker's abbreviated run for agriculture commissioner was dealt a low blow earlier this year when an audiotape appeared on YouTube in which he appears to be inviting someone to a fundraiser while commenting, "I know you've got some ... legislation that's moving through and will be coming through my committees." Baker says the tape's hint at a quid pro quo was false and that the audiotape, which has since disappeared from the internet, was manipulated and edited to sound that way. He dropped out of the race for agriculture commissioner shortly afterward.

"I was shocked beyond belief to have gone through some of what we've gone through — but the more shocking part is when your opponents try to explain to you that's just how politics are done." — Karen Sindel

As Marc Johnson recently learned, political cybersquatting is an increasingly popular weapon in the campaign arsenal. The Lithia Republican, who challenged Florida Rep. Rachel Burgin in their primary race, fell victim to the tactic earlier this year when someone used the website domain votemarkjohnson.com to display a site identical to that of his opponent, Burgin. The website was tracked to Wildfire Marketing Group, which has earned $1,225 from the Burgin campaign. While it's unclear whether cybersquatting laws apply to political campaigns in the same way that they do to commercial ventures, the site has since been taken down.

Sham opponents?

U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, a top GOP target in 2010, is facing stiff competition in his re-election bid. But would the first-term Democratic lawmaker go so far as to lend his support to a "sham" Tea Party candidate to try to siphon votes from Republicans to boost his own chances?

Grayson says no, but that's what some Grayson critics, Republicans and self-proclaimed "bona-fide" Tea Party activists believe is happening.

Supporting their conclusions, they say, is the fact that Grayson's campaign paid $11,000 to an Orlando-based political polling shop called Public Opinion Strategies. The company was formed by Victoria Torres, who recently declared herself a Florida Tea Party candidate for a seat in state House District 51. Torres, 44, has said she created the company in 2008 with help from Doug Guetzloe, a controversial political consultant who, along with Windermere attorney Fred O'Neal, created the official "Florida Tea Party" last year. Republican Tea Party activists, however, have sued Guetzloe and O'Neal, claiming their party organization is not affiliated with true grassroots Tea Party movement and that the duo hijacked the name for their own purposes. Guetzloe and O'Neal deny those charges, and Guetzloe filed a defamation suit against his detractors.

A June 14 article by the Orlando Sentinel points out several connections between Grayson and Guetzloe: Grayson appointed Guetzloe to a small-business advisory panel; one of Guetzloe's sons interned in Grayson's congressional office; Grayson's campaign has purchased several thousand dollars worth of campaign ads to run during Guetzloe's radio show.

Grayson's campaign says that any suggestion of a link between him and the Tea Party is preposterous and nothing more than a "conspiracy theory." Peg Dunmire, the Tea Party candidate running against Grayson in November, also denies that she's a spoiler candidate in the race.

Sign of the times?

Greg Brown and his wife were caught removing an opponent's campaign signs.?Go to the next page to see video of the incident.

Campaign yard signs are easy targets. In North Miami, vandals defaced several "Scott Galvin for U.S. Congress" signs with anti-gay slurs. Galvin, an openly gay Democrat who serves on the North Miami City Council, was seeking the Democratic nomination for Congress in Florida's 17th district. Meanwhile, across Alligator Alley, someone defaced three campaign signs for Collier County Commission candidate Georgia Hiller, changing the first "l" in her name to a "t" so that it would read Hitler. The perpetrators also painted a small black mustache on a photograph of the GOP candidate.

In July, Doug Broxson, a Republican candidate in Florida state House District 1, videotaped his opponent, Greg Brown, and Brown's wife removing several signs by Highway 87 in Milton. Broxson says signs had been disappearing for some time and that his son put an infrared video camera in the bushes to see who was responsible.

Brown says the Broxson signs in question were located on the property of one of his supporters, and that Broxson did not have permission to place his signs there so he and his wife were removing them. Brown told a Pensacola TV station that the video was "deliberately taken and distributed" to the media, various e-mail lists and the sheriff's department to make it appear as if he had "participated in some type of juvenile campaign trick." The sheriff is looking into the matter.

Next page: Video of the incident with state Sen. Al Lawson and the Broxson sign-stealing.

Video clip from YouTube of the incident with state Sen. Al Lawson:

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