NO ONE KNOWS MORE ABOUT THE SARASOTA/MANATEE POLITICAL SCENE THAN THE SARASOTA PHOENIX
Ballard/Poulton'Rahn
GOODMAN AND PEDICINI CAN PUT LIPSTICK ON PIGS BUT THEY CAN'T HIDE THE MILLION DOLLAR DONORS WHO PUT THE LIPSTICK ON THE PIGS
BALLARD/POULTON/RAHN CONNECTED TO DARK MONEY PAC
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THOSE DRINKING THE PEDICINI KOOL-AID ARE NOW DRINKING THE GOODMAN KOOL-AID
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GOODMAN/DOSTER/JONES REPLACE PEDICINI AND DePRIEST
Phony MAGA America First activists, who drank the Ybor City political operative Anthony Pedicini's Kool-Aid in 2022, which turned the Manatee County Commission into a Shit Show, are now drinking the Max Goodman Kool-Aid and backing Amanda Ballard, Tara Poulton, and Mike Rahn for the Manatee County Commission.
Pedicini's handpicked Gang of Seven
A member of the Pedicini handpicked Gang of Seven, George Kruse along with a now Kruse talking head on the Manatee County Commission Tal Siddiqui have endorsed and contributed to Ballard, Poulton, and Rahn, along with a few others who call themselves MAGA America First grassroots activists.
Galvano looks on as Pedicini observes elections results
There is little doubt the Manatee County Republican establishment is not behind Ballard, Poulton, and Rahn, as State Representative Bill Conerly and local attorney Bill Galvano are endorsing and contributing to their campaigns.
Pedicini got a foothold in Manatee County from the former President of the Florida Senate Galvano, who introduced Pedicini to the "Pay to Play" developer from Miami Beruff and his cronie, Pat Neal.
As the phony MAGA America First activists along with Kruse and Siddiqui began to drink Republican establishment political operative Max Goodman's Kool-Aid, let's look at who they are backing to be elected to the Commission this year.
Let's begin by looking at the three dark PACs associated with Manatee County Commission candidates Ballard, Poulton, and Rahn, aligned with and supported by the Manatee County Republican establishment.
The three PACs are FLORIDA COURAGE, KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, and FRIENDS OF SARASOTA.
BALLARD AND JONES' FLORIDA LOYALITY MANAGED PAC
Ballard has received $1,000 from a PAC called FLORIDA LOYALITY, managed by William Stafford Jones, who is part of the Republican Party establishment moving dark PAC money from one PAC to another. Jones is laundering money from multimillion-dollar donors as they stuff politicians into their pockets, completely corrupting Florida politics.
For example, Jones' managed PAC, FLORIDA COURAGE, is one of more than 100 PACs Jones has managed and presently manages. It has received more than $4.8 million in contributions from PACs and LLCs. Jones then moves that $4.8 million in contributions into more than $4.5 million in expenditures to candidates like Ballard, who are stuffed into the pockets of "Pay to Play" developers.
That same Jones-managed FLORIDA COURAGE PAC, stuffing $1,000 into Ballard's pockets, has sent more than $430,000 to Ballard's 2022 political operative, Pedicini's PAC, CITIZENS ALLIANCE FOR FLORIDA, at P.O. Box 3785 in Stuart, Florida. Pedicini then moves thousands onto to his handpicked candidates.
The same Pedicini who made Ballard one of his handpicked seven Manatee County Commissioners, stuffed into the pockets of the Carlos Beruff/Pat Neal/Randy Benderson/Rex Jensen Gang, turning the Commission into a total Shit Show.
There is also another $20,000 going to Pedicini's Ybor City partner Thomas Piccolo's BUILDING A BRIGHTER FUTURE, who has the same address as Pedicini's CITIZENS ALLIANCE FOR FLORIDA PAC in Stuart, Florida—2055 Diamond Creek Drive.
Ballard says she has changed her Pedicini/Beruff/Neal "spots," but her voting record still has the Pedicini/Beruff/Neal "spots" all over it.
Jones has also pumped $50,000 into Florida Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson's reelection campaign. Republican establishment candidate Simpson is running against Republican America First candidate Matt the Welder.
BALLARD/POULTON AND DOSTER'S KNOWLEDGE IS POWER PAC
Ballard and Poulton have both received the maximum $1,000 contribution from another political operative out of the Tallahassee swamp at 526 East Park Avenue, Matt Doster.
Doster's KNOWLEDGE IS POWER PAC has received a $150,000 contribution from CITIZENS FOR FLORIDA PROSPERITY, which is managed out of the office of Eric "The Prince of Dirty Dark PAC Money," Robinson, who serves as the PAC's agent and treasurer.
The PAC moves more than $1.8 million in dark PAC money to Republican establishment candidates. Robinson's has also received forty-five $400 payments for auditing the CITIZENS FOR FLORIDA PROSPERITY PAC.
Doster's PAC contributions to Ballard and Poulton also include the maximum $1,000 contribution to the Republican establishment candidate James Buchanan, candidate for Florida State Senate District 22.
Buchanan, who is running against Republican America First candidate Vic Rohe, has political operatives Pedicini and Goodman running his campaign, just as Rahn has Pedicini's "waterboy," Goodman, running his campaign.
There is also a $1,000 contribution to State Representatives Conerly and Fiona McFarland, who are so deep in Carlos Beruff, Pat Neal, and Randy Benderson's pockets that Conerly and McFarland need a flashlight to find their way out.
The Doster PAC's contributions to Neal, Beruff, Benderson, Jensen flunkies Ballard, Poulton, and others are topped by $2,500 in contributions to the Manatee County Republican Party, which every political observer understands is a totally disgraceful phony political operation, who cou;ld have their meetings in a phone booth.
Poulton has taken advantage of her political connection to U.S. Congressman Vern Buchanan and his political operative, Goodman, by receiving ten $1,000 contributions from Buchanan family members and business entities, including eight dark money Buchanan LLCs operating out of Buchanan's office in Downtown Sarasota..
POULTON PART OF THE MAX GOODMAN LOCAL "ENTOURAGE"
Poulton has joined Rahn, Buchanan, Jim DiNiro, who is Pat Neal "Pay to Play" handpicked candidate running for the Sarasota County Commission, and Sydney Gruters, who is running for U.S. Congress, in having Goodman as her political operative. Goodman is also working with Pedicini on Buchanan's State Senate campaign.
RAHN AND "THE PRINCE OF DIRTY DARK MONEY" ROBINSON
Rahn has received a $1,000 contribution from the FRIENDS OF SARASOTA PAC, which lists Eric "The Prince of Dirty Dark PAC Money" Robinson as chairman, agent, and treasurer. The PAC operates out of the Robinson CPA office at 133 Harbor Drive in Venice, Florida.
FRIENDS OF SARASOTA PAC has directed more than $70,000 to Rahn's political operative, Max Goodman. There is also a $1,000 expenditure from the PAC to major Republican establishment attorney Bill Galvano's golf tournament, which complements Galvano's own $1,000 contribution to Rahn's campaign.
Over $70,000 in expenditures to the political operative out of Gainesville, Florida, Pat Bainter’s DATA TARGETING RESEARCH LLC is also found at FRIENDS OF SARASOTA along with the before mentioned Rahn ccontribution.
Bainter, a powerful longtime Republican establishment political operative based in Gainesville was recently involved with former Florida Senator Frank Artiles being criminally convicted and sentenced for election campaign violations concerning a "Ghost" candidate in Miami.
FRIENDS OF NEIL RAINFORD AND FRIENDS OF TERESA MAST PAC
Mast and Rainford raised $120,000 in dark PAC money and, along with $20,000 from Ybor City political operative Pedicini, funneled more than $140,000 in dark PAC money into a PAC called MAGA PC to endorse themselves while falsely claiming endorsements from Governor Ron DeSantis and then-former President Donald Trump.
Rahn's FRIENDS OF SARASOTA PAC also has more than $20,000 in expenditures going to Sarasota State Representative Fiona McFarland, who is another local politician stuffed into the pockets of "Pay to Play" developers.
McFarland wrote the amendment to HB 180, and DeSantis signed it into law. The amendment prohibits counties from enacting construction moratoriums on redeveloping storm-damaged properties. McFarland received a "kiss" for her efforts in the form of more than $250,000 in developer and developer-related PAC contributions to her 2024 campaign.
ROBINSON CONNECTION TO DePRIEST
Rahn's contribution from the FRIENDS OF SARASOTA PAC managed by "The Prince of Dirty Dark PAC Money," Robinson, is at the same location as another PAC called KEEP FLORIDA WINNING, which lists Pedicini flunky Jennings DePriest as chairman and agent, with Robinson serving as treasurer.
The dirt bag Chairman of the RPOF Power and his "Professional Propagandist" DePriest in the Tallahassee swamp. You can put lipstich on pig, but you can't disguise the stench.
According to The Bradenton Times on August 15, 2024, "Jennings Lawton DePriest, the 'Professional Propagandist,' created the phony 'Real Manatee County Conservatives' website/blog and Facebook page, which was used for various propaganda campaigns here locally."
The DePriest KEEP FLORIDA WINNING PAC, managed out of Robinson's office in Venice, with over $1.5 million in contributions and expenditures has funneled more than $345,000 to a Pedicini-managed LLC, SIMWINS.
The same Pedicini who stuffed Rahn and six other Manatee County Commissioners into office as flunkies for the Beruff/Neal/Benderson/Jensen Gang.
In addition, Robinson pulled in fourteen $400 payments for auditing the DePriest KEEP FLORIDA WINNING PAC.
In 2024, the DePriest/Robinson KEEP FLORIDA WINNING PAC financed text messages promoting Pedicini's handpicked candidates through a phony DePriest entity called THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY COALITION OF MANATEE COUNTY, which was registered at 30 N. Gould Street in Sheridan, Wyoming.
This is a picture of the building in Sheridan, Wyoming, where THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY COALITION OF MANATEE COUNTY is registered.
It is also the same location where Pedicini's flunky DePriest moved more than $300,000 from his KEEP FLORIDA WINNING dark money PAC locaated at "The Prince of Dirty Dark PAC Money," Robinson office's in Venice to his HERITAGE STRATEGIES AND CONSULTING LLC at 30 N. Gould Street in Sheridan, Wyoming.
The site is little more than a mailbox and corporate registration hub, used by countless shell companies that exist only on paper. It is extremely difficult to trace operators like DePriest.
It is nearly impossible for voters to know that political operatives like Pedicini, DePriest, and Goodman are using dark-money PACs operating through this Wyoming address to elect Republican establishment candidates.
Each week, the Sheridan County Chamber of Commerce receives about five calls from customers desperate to get a hold of a company at 30 N. Gould Street to get their money back. Owners and answers are hard to find.
THE DePRIEST/POWER/ROBINSON DARK PAC CONNECTION IN WYOMING
DePriest, who with Robinson manages the KEEP FLORIDA WINNING PAC operating out of the Robinson CPA office in Venice, has funneled more than $200,000 from another PAC named FLORIDA COMMITTEE FOR ACCOUNTABILITY, at UPS P.O. Box 284 in Tallahassee, to the Sheridan, Wyoming address.
That $200,000 came from a $760,000 contribution from the DePriest/ Robinson-managed KEEP FLORIDA WINNING PAC and the following DePriest PAC and the before metioned Ballard contributor Willim Stafford Jones PAC's---FLORIDA'S VALUES/AMERICANS FOR LIBERTY AND PROSPERITY/ FREEDOM FIRST/LIBERTY LEADERSHIP FUND COMMITTEE, INC
The total dirt bag Chairman of the RPOF Power with wife and the DeSantis's
The FLORIDA COMMITTEE FOR ACCOUNTABILITY PAC lists DePriest as chairman and Melissa Power, wife of Republican establishment RPOF Chairman Evan Power, as its agent and treasurer.
Melissa Power's husband, Evan Power, purged more than 150 Republican America First activists from the Manatee County Republican Executive Committee (MREC). Power also deposed the elected MREC State Committeeman, Trent Wayman, and replaced him with Pedicini's "Professional Propagandist," DePriest.
Financial disclosures for the FLORIDA COMMITTEE FOR ACCOUNTABILITY PAC show that the DePriest/Melissa Power managed PAC paid more than $7,000 to DePriest's marketing firm, Top Lobster LLC in 2024
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COMMISSIONER McCANN AND WAYMAN TAKE ON THE LEFTOVER PEDICINI/DePRIEST/BERUFF GANG OF SEVEN
Jon Susce
The Sarasota Phoenix team is the last media guardian in the Sarasota/ Manatee area and beyond laying bare for all to see how the Sarasota/ Manatee area and beyond is controlled by a UNI Party financed by millionaires and billionaires turning Florida into Paradise Lost..
As usual, Jon Susce offers great insightfound nowhere else in Suncoast and State Republican politics." Kevin Wright of the Manatee Republican Liberty Caucus.