NO ONE OVER THE YEARS KNOWS MORE ABOUT THE SARASOTA/MANATEE POLITICAL SCENE THAN THE SARASOTA PHOENIX/NO LOCAL MEDIA "VETS" AREA POLITICANS LIKE THE SARASOTA PHOENIX
DO VOTERS IN US CONGRESSINAL DISTRICT 16 DESIRE ANOTHER STEUBE (SPIER) IN WASHINGTON OR ANOTHERBUCHANAN (GRUTERS)?
With the primary days away, the most striking dynamic in District 16 isn’t the contrast between Sydney Gruters and Eddie Speir — it’s the silence of Greg Steube. He has endorsed Mike Beltran in District 14 yet refuses to endorse his own former aide in District 16, Sydney Gruters.
A choice that speaks louder than any press release: Gruters was never Steube’s pick, and endorsing him would contradict Steube’s political loyalties, brand, and factional alliances.
Gruters
With the primary days away, the most revealing dynamic in District 16 isn’t the contrast between Sydney Gruters and Eddie Speir — it’s the calculated silence of Steube. He’s perfectly willing to endorse Mike Beltran in District 14 yet pointlessly refuses to endorse his own former aide in District 16. In political terms, that’s not neutrality; it’s a message.
What Steube is really telegraphing is that Sydney Gruters was never his candidate, never inside his political orbit, and never someone he planned to send to Washington as an ally. In Sarasota GOP politics, who you elevate is as revealing as who you refuse to elevate, and Steube’s refusal here is deliberate.
By withholding endorsement, Steube is drawing a bright line around his own factional loyalties. He’s signaling that Gruters wasn’t groomed by his team, wasn’t part of his inner circle, and wasn’t the person he wanted beside him in Congress. Backing Gruters now would require Steube to:
Contradict his own loyalty network Endorsing Gruters would mean abandoning the candidate he actually favored — a move that would fracture relationships inside his faction and undermine his credibility.
- Break with his brand as a disciplined, loyalty‑first operator Steube’s political identity is built on consistency within his faction. Publicly supporting a candidate chosen by others would make him look like he’s bending to outside pressure.
- Validate a process he didn’t control Gruters’ selection is widely viewed as engineered by other power brokers. For Steube to endorse that choice would be to bless a decision made without him — a symbolic concession he’s not willing to make.
- Regardless of Steube not endorsing Gtruters or even coming out for Gruters a day or day before the 8/18/26 primary, the central question is whether voters in U.S. Congressional District 16 want another Greg Steube‑style presence in Washington — Eddie Speir — or another Vern Buchanan‑style figure — Sydney Gruters.
It’s a remarkably simple contrast, though the political class keeps acting like it’s some unsolvable riddle. Strip away the consultant fog, and it’s a brutally simple choice. Yet the Buchanan‑aligned machine keeps pretending this is some mystical puzzle only insiders can decode — as if ordinary voters can’t tell the difference between a Steube‑aligned disruptor and a Buchanan‑brand institutional caretaker.
It is an embaraseement to Steube and his orgamztion that this Vern Buchanan machine was about as hidden as a billboard on U.S. 41: • Consolidate control of the open FL‑16 seat now that Vern Buchanan has stepped aside • Install a Sarasota‑aligned successor to keep the machine humming without a single hiccup • Block a Steube‑aligned Manatee challenger — namely Eddie Speir — from muscling into the seat and blowing up the Buchanan’s Sarasota machine carefully engineered pipeline
Pedicini/Schorsch/Goodman
What is significant and telling is that Steube is taking on the Buchanan, SREC Chairman Jack Brill, the Goodman/Pedicini/ Schorsch machine in Sarasota, who Steube along with Sarasota County Sheriff Kurt Hoffman are endorsing for the Sarasota County School Board, Terese DeWitt.
Brill
It was no surprise that DeWitt found herself squaring off against Heidi Brandt — a candidate buoyed not by grassroots momentum but by a familiar constellation of Sarasota power brokers.
McFarland
Brandt’s backing came from SREC Chairman Jack Brill, Florida State Representative Fiona McFarland, and Sydney Gruters’ husband, Florida State Senator and Chairman of the National Repulican Committee Joe Gruters, each part of the same tight political orbit that has long relied on consultant Max Goodman, another well‑placed operative whose client list reads like a directory of establishment Republicans. Goodman is a counsutant to Brandt campaign.
In this race, DeWitt wasn’t just running against Brandt. He was running against the machinery behind her — the endorsements, the operatives, the Tallahassee‑aligned network that seemed determined to script yet another “pre‑selected” outcome for Sarasota County.
Brandt
What makes Brandt’s endorsement by figures tied to the Buhanan machine especially disgraceful is the documented fact that Sarasota County School Board candidate Heidi Brandt serves as the managing member of Pleasure Texting LLC, a New York company marketing adult‑content services and explicit messaging apps aimed at both teenagers and adults.
The same Goodman running the campaign for the managing member of Pleasure seeking LLC is the same Goodman part of the Buchanan machine running the Gruters Sarasota command center.
Peter Schorsch supplied the Tampa‑based media megaphone, and the Ybor City Anthony Pedicini — once run out of Manatee County and now quietly slipped back in — completes the trio. Together, they operate like a roaming political roadshow, dutifully expanding the Buchanan brand wherever they can plant a flag.
Their Buchanan machine was about as hidden as a billboard on U.S. 41: • Consolidate control of the open FL‑16 seat now that Vern Buchanan has stepped aside • Install a Sarasota‑aligned successor to keep the machine humming without a single hiccup • Block a Steube‑aligned Manatee challenger — namely Eddie Speir — from muscling into the seat and blowing up Sarasota’s carefully engineered pipeline
Their objectives weren’t just visible — they were practically screaming from that billboard on U.S. 41, the kind you can spot from half a mile away even in August haze. What they were really doing was executing a three‑part choreography that anyone paying attention to Sarasota–Manatee politics could see unfolding in real time:
Consolidate control of FL‑16 — With Vern Buchanan stepping aside, the seat didn’t simply “open”; it became a once‑in‑a‑generation opportunity for Sarasota’s political machine to lock in its dominance. Securing the district meant preserving donor networks, committee influence, and the quiet but potent infrastructure that has kept Sarasota at the center of regional GOP power.
Install a Sarasota‑aligned successor — The goal wasn’t just continuity; it was seamless succession. They needed someone who would keep the gears turning exactly as designed — no improvisation, no ideological freelancing, no sudden loyalty shifts toward Manatee or outside factions. A Sarasota‑friendly successor ensures the machine keeps humming, the fundraising pipelines stay warm, and the local hierarchy remains undisturbed.
- Block a Steube‑aligned Manatee challenger — And then there’s Eddie Speir, the wildcard from Manatee with Steube’s orbit behind him. His entry threatened to reroute influence northward, disrupt Sarasota’s carefully engineered succession plan, and introduce a rival power center.
Preventing Speir from muscling into the race wasn’t just tactical — it was existential. A Manatee win would fracture the Sarasota pipeline they’ve spent years constructing. - Taken together, the strategy wasn’t subtle, accidental, or improvised. It was a deliberate effort to preserve Sarasota’s dominance, maintain internal cohesion, and prevent a rival faction from seizing a rare moment of vulnerability.
The central question is whether voters in U.S. Congressional District 16 want another Greg Steube‑style presence in Washington — Eddie Speir — or another Vern Buchanan‑style figure — Sydney Gruters.
Strip away the consultant fog, and it’s a brutally simple choice. Yet the Buchanan‑aligned machine keeps pretending this is some mystical puzzle only insiders can decode — as if ordinary voters can’t tell the difference between a Steube‑aligned disruptor and a Buchanan‑brand institutional caretaker.
The Buchanan machine — that well‑oiled, Sarasota‑to‑Tampa conveyor belt of manufactured inevitability — now runs with such mechanical precision that you can practically hear the gears grinding.
At the center sits Max Goodman, presiding over the Sarasota command center like a stage manager who thinks democracy is just another lighting cue. Peter Schorsch provides the Tampa‑based media megaphone, blasting out whatever narrative the machine needs that day, whether it’s boosterism, character assassination, or the occasional puff piece dressed up as journalism.
And then there’s Anthony Pedicini — once run out of Manatee County, now slipped back in like a consultant who thinks the audience forgot the last act — completing the trio. Together, they’re so synchronized they’ve practically stuffed Gruters in a broom closet just to prevent any meaningful debate with Speir, because nothing ruins a perfectly scripted political production like an unscripted conversation.
Together, they operate like a roaming political roadshow, dutifully expanding the Buchanan brand wherever they can plant a flag.
Their Buchanan machine was about as hidden as a billboard on U.S. 41: • Consolidate control of the open FL‑16 seat now that Vern Buchanan has stepped aside • Install a Sarasota‑aligned successor to keep the machine humming without a single hiccup • Block a Steube‑aligned Manatee challenger — namely Eddie Speir — from muscling into the seat and blowing up Sarasota’s carefully engineered pipeline
Their objectives weren’t just visible — they were practically screaming from that billboard on U.S. 41, the kind you can spot from half a mile away even in August haze. What they were really doing was executing a three‑part choreography that anyone paying attention to Sarasota–Manatee politics could see unfolding in real time:
Consolidate control of FL‑16 — With Vern Buchanan stepping aside, the seat didn’t simply “open”; it became a once‑in‑a‑generation opportunity for Sarasota’s political machine to lock in its dominance. Securing the district meant preserving donor networks, committee influence, and the quiet but potent infrastructure that has kept Sarasota at the center of regional GOP power.
Install a Sarasota‑aligned successor — The goal wasn’t just continuity; it was seamless succession. They needed someone who would keep the gears turning exactly as designed — no improvisation, no ideological freelancing, no sudden loyalty shifts toward Manatee or outside factions. A Sarasota‑friendly successor ensures the machine keeps humming, the fundraising pipelines stay warm, and the local hierarchy remains undisturbed.BOTTOM LINE
Block a Steube‑aligned Manatee challenger — And then there’s EddieSpeir, the wildcard from Manatee with Steube’s orbit behind him. His entry threatened to reroute influence northward, disrupt Sarasota’s carefully engineered succession plan, and introduce a rival power center. Preventing Speir from muscling into the race wasn’t just tactical — it was existential. A
Manatee win would fracture the Sarasota pipeline they’ve spent years constructing.
BOTTOM LINE
DOVOTERS IN US CONGRESSINAL DISTRICT 16 DESIRE ANOTHER STEUBE (SPIER) IN
WASHINGTON OR ANOTHER BUCHANAN (GRUTERS)?
Jon Susce
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