With No Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free Card, Doug Guetzloe is No Lindsay Lohan

Political consultant Doug Guetzloe was ordered to begin serving a 60-day jail sentence Wednesday, the final act in a long-running legal saga.

Orange County Circuit Judge C. Jeffery Arnold's order came a month after Guetzloe's latest petition to the Florida Supreme Court was denied.

The case against Guetzloe involved a 2006 mailer he sent anonymously during a Winter Park election. Because the flier did not state it was a political electioneering communication, Guetzloe was hit with a misdemeanor. He appealed, and 13 of the 14 counts were dismissed in 2008 by the 5th District Court of Appeal.

But with one charge still outstanding, Geutzloe was summoned to court and sentenced to 60 days. His attorney, Fred O'Neal, said the time will likely be served in a work-release program.

O'Neal and Guetzloe were instrumental in launching the Florida TEA (Taxed Enough Already) Party, which fielded several candidates in the 2010 election.

Though there is no love lost between the TEA Party and the tea movement at large over complaints that TEA improperly co-opted the name, at least one tea partier sympathized with Guetzloe:

"Lindsay Lohan can get off time and time again, but let a guy hand out some fliers and he goes to jail."

O'Neal, an Orlando attorney, told Sunshine State News Thursday morning:

"I think the Legislature needs to take a fresh look at the Election Code and decide whether it's advisable to make every violation of every provision of the Election Code a criminal offense. [Guetzloe] committedno fraud and made no misleading statement."