Striking out on two previous attempts to win a seat on the Eustis city commission, Smith hopes voters will elect him to the seat vacated earlier this year by retired commissioner Homer Royals.

If Smith wins, he will get to sit next to his wife, Evelyn, a four-times-elected commissioner and former mayor of Eustis, a northwest Lake County city of 15,000 residents, 32 miles northwest of Downtown Orlando.

But the contractor's opponent, Frank Royce, a chief deputy in the Lake County Property Appraiser's office, argues if Johnny Smith is elected, the Smiths will be violating Florida's Government in the Sunshine law which bans discussions of government business by commissioners outside the public meeting chambers.