![\"Jaylen](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/6d1b5b1c-a0f8-4487-b902-c29c12294d18_1763750529.jpg\")
<\/a>CAPE CORAL, Fla. \u2014<\/p>\nWith less than a month until Cape Coral voters decide their next mayor, candidates Lisa Cohen-Adkinson and Rick Erickson are addressing allegations of threatening messages and campaign tactics.<\/p>\n
Cohen-Adkinson told Gulf Coast News in an interview that she felt unsafe and threatened by messages she attributed to Erickson. The messages included statements such as, \u201cStop it fully or else,\u201d \u201cThere will be a higher price to pay, trust me,\u201d and \u201cBetter not underestimate me.\u201d <\/p>\n
Erickson denied the claims, stating the messages were not directed at Cohen-Adkinson but were part of a group chat involving a local nonprofit chair. <\/p>\n
\u201cFirst of all, I was talking to Kyle. If you see the messages to Kyle, not even her,\u201d Erickson said. \u201cMy statement was, take all this stuff down, or I’m going to seek legal counsel, which is what I’ve done already, because it’s just it’s not the right way to run a campaign.\u201d <\/p>\n
Cohen-Adkinson questioned Erickson\u2019s response, asking, \u201cIf this was the case, why did Erickson not apologize and move on from it? Why take legal action?\u201d <\/p>\n
Erickson alleged that Cohen-Adkinson\u2019s claims were part of a smear campaign. \u201cShe said, gloves off. I don’t do that. There’s no reason for me to threaten anybody. I don’t have to. I’m basically pretty level-headed. I think it’s all part of her campaign smear. And I think what she’s done has been illegal. And hopefully that Cape Cod police will pursue that,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
In a statement, Cohen-Adkinson responded, \u201cThe State has since determined there is not enough evidence to support a criminal threat charge. Mr. Erickson has claimed the messages were directed at someone else, a claim I believe is simply untrue and an attempt to walk back on what was said.\u201d <\/p>\n
Erickson also addressed Cohen-Adkinson\u2019s claim that she felt threatened by a \u201ctrained killer,\u201d referring to his background as a Green Beret. \u201cGreen Berets are more than trained killers. We actually go in foreign countries and train people. We rebuild their infrastructure, and we do good things,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Erickson and Cohen-Adkinson emphasized that their campaign will not engage in smear tactics.<\/p>\n
Both candidates said they want what is best for the city and its residents as the election approaches.<\/p>\n
DOWNLOAD\u202fthe free\u202fGulf Coast News app<\/a>\u202ffor your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app<\/a> to stream news, entertainment, and original programming on your TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cape Coral mayoral candidates dispute threatening messages and campaign tactics CAPE CORAL, Fla. \u2014 With less than a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355627,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[7886,209,211,210,19017,18786,145093,145092],"class_list":["post-355626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-campaign","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-dispute","tag-mayoral-candidate","tag-messages","tag-texts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}