In the race for Pasco school board District 3, it’s the story the candidates don’t want to talk about.
But in a fast growing county where gossip travels faster than one can drive from Zephyrhills to New Port Richey, it’s spreading throughout the highest levels of government, as well as those with no apparent ties to the players.
The issue centers on allegations of marital infidelity that three women — none of whom still live in Pasco — have made against hopeful Mollyana Ward, a real estate agent making her first run for office.
The women say Ward’s past actions render her morally unfit for the job.
Ward hasn’t denied the details, including an affair with a married man while caring for her dying husband.
Instead, she called it “unfortunate” that people are making a political statement out of “a decision I made in my personal life” nearly a decade ago. She said what matters in the election is her focus on strengthening academics, improving safety and protecting taxpayer dollars.
“I took responsibility for my actions, sought forgiveness, drew closer to God and worked to move forward with those closest to me,” Ward, 50, said via email in response to questions. “That chapter in my life did not define me then nor does it define who I am today.”
She then had lawyers send letters to one of the accusers and to the Tampa Bay Times seeking to kill the story.
Opponent Matt Geiger has declined to touch the subject.
“I don’t go in the dirt,” said Geiger, who led Ward by more than 6,000 votes in the primary. “Whatever you have on her, I don’t care.”
But the women said voters deserve to hear what they know.
“It’s coming out now because she brought it out,” said Kim Brierley, who said she learned of Ward’s affairs while working in the same real estate office. “She put herself out there to be scrutinized.”
The buzz first emerged three days before the August primary, when Scarleth Johnson, also a real estate agent, shared on Facebook that an unnamed District 3 candidate caused “tremendous pain and damage to my family.”
“Pasco County, BEWARE,” her post began.
“Talk to people who have actually known the candidates. Ask questions. And most importantly, PAY ATTENTION TO CHARACTER, not just credentials and big endorsements,” she wrote, generating curious comments in response.
Brierley shared Johnson’s post, adding, “Know who you’re voting for!!!”
County Republican leaders knew the story, according to Shawn Foster, Pasco Republican state committeeman. Ward told them. Still, the party backed her.
“We have all made mistakes in our lives,” Republican Executive Committee chairperson Troy Stevenson said. “This campaign should be about policy items and what to do to continue to improve educational opportunities for our children.”
Johnson explained in an interview that Ward had an affair with her husband, Eric Johnson, in 2019 while Ward was caring for her own ailing husband, who died of cancer not long afterward. Johnson learned about the relationship, she said, after the Johnsons’ teenage daughter discovered explicit Instagram messages on a phone she got from her father.
Before telling Johnson, her daughter and sister had a private investigator follow Ward and Eric Johnson to confirm their suspicions.
Johnson, 47, said her husband handed over the messages, which included graphic sexual conversations, photos and videos, after she confronted him. She said the relationship appeared to last about six to eight months.
Eric Johnson verified the information provided by his wife but declined to comment further.
If it had been just about sex, Johnson said, she might have let it go. The family already had left Wesley Chapel behind.
But knowing Ward had shared racy photos of herself taken in bed beside her husband nagged at Johnson. People were volunteering to clean Ward’s house and cook meals for her family, yet this was going on in the background, Johnson said.
“It’s dysfunctional. It’s wrong,” she said.
When Brierly saw Johnson’s Aug. 15 post, she said she agreed to corroborate the information. She said Ward talked at the time about being afraid of a woman who was angry after finding out Ward was messing around with her husband.
That woman was Johnson.
“The more I got to know, the more I wish I didn’t know,” said Brierley, 55, who no longer lives in Florida but has family members attending Pasco schools.
Ward did not address Brierley’s allegations in her statement and did not respond to follow-up questions.
A second woman said Ward accelerated her family’s 2021 breakup. Kelly Powell, a nurse practitioner, who now lives out of state, said Ward’s relationship with her ex-husband proved one of the final straws in a strained relationship.
Her then-husband, former U.S. Rep. Vance McAllister of Louisiana, lost his seat after being caught on video kissing a married staffer. The family packed up to leave the scandal behind, moving to Wesley Chapel.
Powell, 51, stayed behind to close the house sale.
Occasionally, she said, she’d pull up her husband’s location on the iPad. She noticed it stationed at a place she didn’t know, including on nights and weekends. After moving to Florida, she discovered it was Ward’s home.
Ward did not address Powell’s allegations in her statement and did not respond to follow-up questions. McAllister could not be reached for comment by phone or instant message.
Powell, too, expressed concerns about Ward making decisions for other people’s children.
“I know people change. Lord knows,” she said. “I’m a person of faith. You ask for forgiveness and you move on. But I don’t know with that.”
Conversations about Ward’s actions dot the Pasco political landscape.
Some wondered whether those who endorsed Ward — a who’s who of the Republican establishment including Sheriff Chris Nocco and Sen. Ed Hooper — knew when they offered their backing.
Superintendent John Legg, whose endorsement appears on much of Ward’s online advertising, said he started hearing rumors about Ward’s past after the August primary. He didn’t pry.
“I worked in the Legislature a long time. I have seen people’s personal lives before,” Legg said. “That’s why I am a very private person and I don’t look at other people’s personal lives. If it is true, it would be very disappointing.”
Johnson questioned whether it would even matter.
“Will people care? I don’t know,” she said. “But this is what I know.”
Ward contended people should look at who she is now.
“I am a wife, mother, and grandmother,” she said in her email, “and my focus is on serving Pasco County’s students and families.”
