MAY THROWS A HOUSE PARTY FOR THE GRUTERS‑LED SARASOTA BUCHANAN MACHINE AS IT ROLLS INTO CLAIM MANATEE COUNTY
The Pedicini/DePriest/Gruters/Goodman Gang
At the recent Manatee Patriots gathering, Sydney Gruters finally staggered out of the political isolation chamber she’d been hiding in — a hermetically sealed bunker of silence and avoidance she treated like sacred ground during the Republican primary. For months, she behaved as though sharing a stage with Eddie Spier was some kind of contamination risk, ducking him with the precision of someone dodging biohazards.
When she finally emerged, it wasn’t a triumph after spending over $2.5 million with at least half of it dark PAC money. It was the brittle, blinking reappearance of a politician who’d spent far too long pretending the outside world didn’t exist.
At the recent gathering of the Manatee Patriots, Gruters finally crawled out of her carefully engineered political isolation chamber — the same bunker she used to avoid her opponent Spier during the Republican primary — the same one she advoided Spier during Republican primary like it was a fallout shelter.
Goodman
Her public appearances — the few that weren’t smuggled in under cover of darkness — were pre‑washed, pre‑screened, pre‑sanitized venues, approved only by her handler Max Goodman, whose approach to candidate exposure mirrors the museum‑curator philosophy of his colleague Anthony Pedicini: limit the sunlight, limit the damage, limit the surprises.
The whole Gruters “Coming Out” spectacle was stitched together by Jack May — the self‑appointed ringmaster of the Manatee Patriots, a group he cobbled together after the Manatee County Tea Party collapsed under its own weight.
And now, in a plot twist nobody had on their bingo card when May was out there pom‑pom waving for Mike Rahn and Amanda Ballard, two charter members of the Carlos Beruff / Anthony Pedicini “Gang of Seven,” the crew that turned the Manatee County Commission into a full‑time civic dumpster fire —May has decided that wasn’t enough.
No, now he’s doubling down, upgrading his loyalty package to the Goodman / Anthony Pedicini / Jennings DePriest U.S congressional special, Sydney Gruters as if the local chaos wasn’t already spilling over the edges. It’s the political equivalent of watching someone run back into the burning building they helped ignite, proudly carrying a fresh can of gasoline.
Same machine, same operators, same smoke — just a bigger stage for the rerun.
Two of Goodman's packaged clients-Rahn and Gruters hanging out at May's coming out party for Gruters
Watching May reverse his previous stance on the local political circus in 2024 is like watching someone sprint back into a burning building because they suddenly decided they miss the ambiance. It’s a complete, whiplash‑ inducing pivot — the kind that makes you wonder whether the political compass in Manatee County is being spun by hand.
Rahn and Ballard who have never found a problem with developers destroying wetlands
Rahn a Pedicini/Beruff/Neal Gang of Seven leftover-the next KVO?
(Kevin Van Osterbridge-former Beruff/Neal/Pedicini flunky)
Kruse/Ballard/Rahn/Saddequ/Poulton
Gang of Five with Rahn being the next KVO all aided by May
Sources report, Rahn has crowned himself the new KVO of the incoming Gang of Five, a fresh sequel to the same KVO/Beruff/Neal circus — just with fewer ringmasters and the same recycled script. Instead of the old 7‑0 Pedicini/Beruff/Neal Shit Show, we now get the 5‑2 Rahn/Beruff/Neal circus, like a downgraded theme park ride that still manages to fling the same debris in every direction.
It’s the same production, same backstage donors, same choreography — just a new marquee slapped on the front, pretending the smell isn’t identical.
The May and Stanoch Team
A May political escapade that made one thing brutally clear: after endorsing the "Pay to Play" duo--The Amanda Ballard and Mike Rahn, he didn’t just “switch teams” — he executed a full‑scale political jailbreak straight into the establishment’s waiting arms.
And the pièce de résistance? Helping his Manatee Patriots associate Mark Stanoch by entering the same Republican primary as an “Independent,” a move so bizarre it felt like performance art.
Arnold
But the tactic wasn’t incompetent — it was calculated. May never intend to run a campaign, raise money, or even pretend to be a candidate. His only objective was to slam the door shut on Democrats and Independents who might cross over and vote for Stanoch’s opponent, Liz Arnold. It was political gatekeeping dressed up as a candidacy — a paper‑thin disguise for a maneuver designed to rig the voter pool.
And in doing so, May flushed whatever remained of his Republican America First credentials straight down the drain. Because the person this stunt actually hurt wasn’t the establishment — it was the Republican America First candidate, Arnold, while simultaneously boosting the pay‑to‑play developers and the West Coast Builders Exchange, who backed Stanoch like they were picking a contractor for a new strip mall.
Arnold, meanwhile, is that rare Manatee County figure who — despite being a staunch Republican America First activist — can pull Democrats and Independents into the same room without them immediately remembering everything they disagree on. She’s the kind of candidate who can get people to stop fighting long enough to do what’s actually best for Manatee County, which is precisely why the Goodman led Buchanan political machine keeps trying to trip her and others on the way to the starting line.
May by closing the primary made it impossible for Democrats and Independents--who did not desire another County Commission Shit Show-- to vote for Arnold.
May is the same political wanderer who before he jump in bed with the newly Gang of Five Shit Show, May spent months trying to cobble together a “ground game” to take out candidates like Ballard and Rahn — the chosen products of the revamped Manatee County Republican Executive Committee, rebuilt under the watchful eye of the Republican Party of Florida chairman, Evan Power.
The Goodman "good government" donor developer machine
But when May’s grand crusade shriveled down to two or three people huddled in a corner, he quietly folded up his operation like a failed yard sale and started flirting with the idea of siding with the local Republican establishment — the same donor establishment backed by Pat Neal, Carlos Beruff, Randy Benderson and others.
Don't worry Manatee County-May has contacts in the Tallahassee swamp
State Representative Bill Conerly/State Senator Jim Boyd/State Representative Jordan Varnadore
May didn’t “network.” He executed the oldest grovel‑and‑grin routine in Florida politics. A few phone calls, a little boot‑licking, and suddenly Florida State Senator Jim Boyd and his Tallahassee errand‑boy clique — the Beruff‑Neal courier service — were assuring him they’d return his calls whenever he puckered up properly.
And just like that, May wasn’t an outsider anymore. He was absorbed into the machine — another eager little cog who sold his spine for the privilege of being called “one of their boys.”
A perfect promotion for a man whose only qualification was knowing exactly how low to bow.
May then shut down the Manatee Patriots right in the middle of the primary season — a move so backwards it practically left skid marks. Instead of holding meetings where Republican America First candidates could gather supporters, coordinate strategy, and actually build momentum to take on the Buchanan‑aligned machine led by Goodman, May simply turned off the lights and walked away.
It was the perfect gift to the establishment: no venue, no organizing, no rallying point — just silence. America First candidates begged May to host debates through the Manatee Patriots. Debates that Gruters and other Goodman‑aligned hopefuls were desperately avoiding. And every time, May shut the door. No debates. No forums. No sunlight. Just a conveniently timed blackout that protected the very candidates the America First base wanted to challenge
May didn’t just fail to support the grassroots — he kneecapped them. He took what could’ve been a hub of political energy and turned it into a ghost town, leaving America First candidates stranded while the establishment machine marched forward unopposed.
It was a masterclass in political sabotage disguised as “strategy,” and Manatee County is still living with the fallout.
Dann/Rahn/Gruters/May celebrating the Rahn/Gruters victories
And then came the pièce de farce — May’s grand “master plan,” starring his so‑called “money man,” the ever‑present, lumbering sidekick Phil Dann, trailing behind him like a misplaced stage prop. This was the genius operation: Phil Dann, the political refugee from Massachusetts, was supposed to raise money for May’s Manatee Patriots — yes, the same Dann who stubled into the Manatee Patriots after his radio talk show folded and had already been politically run out of Massachusetts by figures like Democrat progressives Congressman Barney Frank, Senator Ed Markey, and Governor Maura Healey.
Dann and Rahn "thumbs up" for Gruters
It was marketed as a fundraising strategy, but the whole thing looked more like a traveling roadshow of political misfires. May presenting Dann as his financial savior was the kind of dark comedy you’d expect from a late‑night sketch — a man chased out of one political ecosystem being repackaged as the rainmaker for another. The irony dripped so heavily you could mop it off the floor.
May seemed to think this was some kind of strategic flex. But who exactly was supposed to be impressed by a "Money Man" who got politically steamrolled by Massachusetts Democrats? It’s not a résumé — it’s a cautionary tale. Nobody in Manatee County is throwing money at someone who got chased out of the Northeast by a pack of ideological wolves.
May’s entire maneuver — from the failed ground game to the sudden establishment pivot — reads like a political GPS stuck in “recalculating” mode. It’s a dark comedy of misfires, reversals, and tactical pratfalls dressed up as strategy.
May didn’t even pretend to hide it. He could care less that his sudden groveling toward Gruters and her Pedicini/Goodman/DePriest political‑operative carousel — all conveniently financed by the usual pay‑to‑play developers like Neal, Beruff, and Benderson — meant tossing his old allies overboard without a second thought. The developers have stuffed County Commissioners in their pockets so many times it’s practically a tradition, and May was more than happy to play along.
Gibellina/Ference/Bailey
In the process, he jammed a knife straight into the backs of Ed Bailey, Ed Ference, and Glen Gibellina, who watched the Gruters‑aligned political machine spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to wipe them off the map, as Manatee County Commissioner. May didn’t blink. Loyalty, principle, consistency — all of it went out the window the moment he decided the establishment buffet looked more appetizing.
And now Manatee County gets to brace for the latest installment of this political circus — the new “Gang of Five,” a fresh batch of hand‑picked establishment darlings who will absolutely not be busting their backs to root out corruption. No, that would require integrity, spine, and a pulse. Instead, Manatee County gets another round of prepackaged governance, shrink‑wrapped and delivered straight from the developer class.
It’ll be a cold day in hell before this county sees candidates like the ones who actually fought to clean up the mess — the ones May helped shove off the cliff so he could enjoy his moment basking in the glow of the establishment spotlight.
May’s latest brainstorm is almost poetic in its absurdity. After torching his America First credibility and turning the Manatee Patriots into a revolving door for whatever political fad he’s chasing this week, he now wants to reinvent the group as — get this — an anti‑Communist brigade. A noble cause on paper, sure. But with May’s track record, folks might want to keep both eyes open and one hand on their wallet. Because every time May “opens his arms,” the wrong people seem to walk right through.
Just look at what happened when he embraced Rahn and Ballard now Sydney Gruters and the Buchanan‑aligned machine — the Goodman/Pedicini/DePriest political‑operative carousel, all conveniently financed by the usual pay‑to‑play developers who treat Manatee County like their personal Monopoly board. Neal, Beruff, Randy Benderson — the whole developer class that has stuffed County Commissioners into their pockets so many times it’s practically a local sport.
And now May wants to pivot the Manatee Patriots into an anti‑Communist crusade, complete with his “money man” Dann wandering around the rooms like a wandering fundraiser, allegedly collecting cash for the movement — with rumors swirling that Phil gets a little “piece of the action” for his troubles. Because nothing says “anti‑Communist purity” like a fundraising operation that looks suspiciously like a side hustle.
It’s the same old May pattern: grand declarations, dramatic pivots, and a trail of political wreckage behind him. If history is any guide, this new anti‑Communist rebrand will last exactly as long as it takes for the next shiny political alliance to wander by.
NO SHOWS AT MAY'S HOUSEWARMING FOR GRUTERS
Steube
BTW, not present at May’s little housewarming for Gruters? None other than Manatee's born and raised U.S. Congressman Greg Steube — the hometown political heavyweight who once had Gruters fetching coffee as his aide for years. Yet somehow, Steube still hasn’t managed to cough up an endorsement, but has for Mike Beltran up in Hillsborough County running against Democrat Betty Castor.
Miller and Kinnan
Also, not present were a pair of Manatee “legends” -- former Congressman Dan Miller — the guy who owned that seat long before Vern Buchanan ever sniffed D.C. — and Joe Kinnan, the local football deity whose shadow still covers half the county. Funny thing, though: both of them did manage to show up when it came time to endorse Gruters’ Democratic opponent, Kelly Kirschner, right alongside seventeen other prominent local Republicans.
Another BTW, Gruters former President Joe Biden’s hiding in the basement campaign did not impress Manatee County’s most read and respected media outlet—The Bradenton Times—" We find Sydney Gruters unqualified for an office for which the bar should be infinitely higher than the post-Citizens United landscape has made it. She struggled to articulate any sort of coherent platform, routinely falling back on tired MAGA talking points. The fact that she has been so intensely protected from having to communicate in all but the safest of spaces, and that her rare ventures into even the most tepid of forums suggest that the reason her handlers have kept her on such a short leash is that she simply does not know very much about the issues at stake."
Jon Susce