Buchanan/Goodman/Gruters/Power
Power's Gang of four - DePriest/Goodman/PAC Man Robinson/Pedicini
THE SARASOTA BASED BUCHANAN ESTABLISHMENT MACHINE HAS DESTROYED THE MANATEE MAGA AMERICA FIRST MOVEMENT
The in depth narative of the take down of the Manatee County MAGA America First movement
Buchanan with George W. Bush
Republican MAGA America First activists in Manatee County need to wake up to the painfully obvious reality: the Vern Buchanan political machine runs the political bloodstream in Manatee County as it does in Sarasota County. And let’s drop the fantasy — it’s not some MAGA inspired populist machine uprising. It’s a Buchanan/Bush/Cheney throwback syndicate, a polite, corporate, country‑club Republican apparatus dressed up as “local leadership.”
In other words: The machine isn’t MAGA. It’s Moderate Republican Preservation Society, LLC — headquartered in Vern’s donor Rolodex operating out of a the Buchanan Building in Downtown Sarasota.
The MAGA folks need to wake up and face the facts: the Sarasota‑based Buchanan machine didn’t just outmaneuver the America First activists in Manatee County — it crushed them in the past Republican primary.
The so‑called “2024 Manatee Revolution” didn’t trip, didn’t wobble, didn’t fade. It was steamrolled with the cold efficiency of a political dynasty reclaiming territory it never intended to surrender.
The MAGA activists showed up with Trump flags, MAGA hats, and all the fiery enthusiasm of a grassroots uprising in 2024. They ran off the Carlos Beruff/Anthony Pedicini Gang of Seven like they were clearing out the old guard. They celebrated, declared victory, and convinced themselves they had rewritten the political order.
And then reality arrived.
David Ramba
The Buchanan machine didn’t just stroll back in — it lumbered onto the field like some overfed political relic, lacquered in decades of establishment gloss. Backed by the Tallahassee Republican hierarchy — The Pat Neal/Randy Benderson lobbyist David Ramba and his eager protégé, RPOF Chairman Evan Power — the operation arrived with the kind of institutional muscle that doesn’t bother pretending it’s grassroots. Serious money is behind it. Not pocket change. Not local fundraising. $Millions in support, the kind of financial firepower only a long‑standing political network can summon.
And with that, the old order snapped back into place.
Once Buchanan's political operative Max Goodman stepped in as ringmaster, the whole county transformed into a political circus — a full‑scale, big‑top disaster. Manatee will not be governed; it will be performed, spiraling into another Shit Show so chaotic it will make the The Pedicini/Beruff Gang of Seven look like a dress rehearsal for the Goodman/Pat Neal/Beruff Gang of Five.
THE MAX GOODMAN/NEAL/BERUFF GANG OF FIVE
Take a long, unblinking look at that the Buchanan approved Goodman/ Buchanan/Neal/ Beruff Gang of Five — a political clown car stuffed with familiar faces, recycled operatives, and opportunists who blow with the wind like loose lawn signs in hurricane season.
First, you’ve got three original members of the old Pedicini/Beruff Gang of Seven: Mike Rahn, Amanda Ballard, and George Kruse. Kruse, of course, was tossed out of the Pedicini/Beruff orbit after his infamous drunken collision with a tree — but like every wandering exile in Manatee politics, he’s found his way back “home,” welcomed with the same enthusiasm you’d give a raccoon returning to your attic.
Then comes Tal Saddlque, the human weathervane — a finger‑in‑the‑air specialist who waits to see which direction the political wind is blowing before pretending he’s been standing there all along. And rounding out the circus is Tara Poulton, yet another Buchanan‑world alum, a multi‑millionaire who treats the origins of her fortune like a state secret, as if transparency were a contagious disease.
And here’s the punchline: None of these characters lifted a single finger when the local Republican Party headed by America First actvists was shut down — when the elected State Committeeman and Committeewoman were replaced, and a long‑time Buchanan loyalist was installed as Chairman of the MREC. Not a peep. Not a protest. Not even a polite objection
These five aren’t leaders. They’re accessories — part of the Buchanan/Neal/Beruff entourage, or any other million‑dollar donor entourage that can wind them up, point them in a direction, and spin them like decorative dolls on a shelf.
Wayman/Spier/Heisse
The Buchanan machine began clearing out Manatee County’s Republican America First activists the moment word leaked out in late 2024 that Eddie Speir would become Chairman of the Manatee County
Republican Executive Committee — and that duly elected State Committeeman Trent Wayman and State Committeewoman Jackie Heisse were headed into the RPOF structure.
Kocher/DePriest/Flanigan
Naturally, the RPOF Chairman Evan Power responded with all the subtlety of a wrecking ball: he shut down the MREC, erased the elected leadership, and installed Mark Flanigan as his appointed Chairman of his created MREC, Pedicini errand boy Jennings DePriest in Wayman’s seat while shoving Heisse aside for yet another Power‑program mannequin, Jayne Kocher whose only qualification was obedience.
Pedicini, never one to miss a chance to weaponize paperwork, launched a lawfare circus — lawsuits flung at The Bradenton Times, Jon Susce individually, the Sarasota Phoenix, former Manatee County Commissioner Betsy Benac, and a “Purple Puppet” who happened to be standing nearby the above.
Schorsch/Andrade/Matt and Don Gaetz
These lawsuits were filed by Florida State Representative Alex Andrade — a Tallahassee swamp creature hatched from the Don‑and‑Matt Gaetz political petri dish political machine in Florida’s Panhandle— working hand‑in‑glove with Pedicini and his "Pay to Play” journalist Peter Schorsch.
The entire operation was designed as intimidation theater: a warning shot to anyone foolish enough to challenge the Buchanan–Pedicini–Beruff–Pat Neal axis. The message was simple: Speak up, and we’ll bury you in lawsuits until you forget your own name.
And the tragedy? It worked.
Ballard and Rahn two of the Pedicini/Beruff Gang of Seven
A depressing number of those who once helped take down the Pedicini/Beruff Gang of Seven eventually folded — some even
endorsing Ballard and Rahn for re‑election in 2026, proving that fear, pressure, and developer money can still make people forget what they fought for.
Lara Trump
President Donald Trump’s daughter‑in‑law, Lara Trump, was flown into Manatee County for “unity” or “party building.” She was brought in like the final strike of a demolition crew — the glossy, camera‑ready finisher sent to bless the Power‑led RPOF purge of the legitimate MREC and the wiping out of Manatee’s America First activists.
Inside the event hall where the takeover and purge got official, the handpicked replacements applauded on cue. Outside, in the parking lot, the purged activists — the people who actually built the movement — stood protesting on the asphald, watching the machine they helped elect now erase them with a smile and a keynote speech.
The symbolism couldn’t have been darker: The establishment inside, air‑conditioned and catered. The grassroots outside, exiled to asphalt.
And Lara Trump’s presence sealed the message: The purge wasn’t just authorized — it was celebrated
The Buchanan Rainmaker -- Goodman
Max Goodman, long‑time operative in the Buchanan orbit, then marched in and flattened the uprising with all the subtlety of a wrecking crew. He didn’t need theatrics. He didn’t need slogans. He had the machinery — the networks, the alliances, the donor class, the institutional backing — already built.
Conveniently aligned beside him were Pedicini — Beruff’s ever‑obedient political mechanic — and DePriest, the Republican Party of Florida Chairman Power’s eager little understudy who shuttles cash like a bellhop for Florida’s dark‑money aristocracy.
DePriest dutifully dragged the money from Eric “The Prince of Dark Money” Robinson’s Venice CPA office, funnelled it into a Wyoming black hole, and then spits it back out onto the streets of Manatee County in the form of those laughably fraudulent voter guides stitched together by a “friendly” Goodman media outlet in Maryland — all dirty, all fake, all part of the same rancid assembly line
Meanwhile, the “Pay‑to‑Play” media chorus sang on cue: Schorsch dutifully buried Buchanan’s opponents under glowing coverage of Buchanan‑aligned candidates, while the mainstream press sat politely in the corner, watching the 2024 revolt get smothered — not with drama, but with silence. A silence so complete it guaranteed the revolution wouldn’t be resurrected anytime soon.
The former Florida Democrat State Senator now local RINO-Pat Neal
The MAGA activists didn’t just lose. They were outclassed, outgunned, and outmaneuvered by a political structure that has been shaping Sarasota–Manatee politics for ever since Pat Neal was run out of Tallahassee as a Democrat State Senator and became a RINO.
The Buchanan/Bush/Neal/Cheney establishment Gang of Five didn’t “return.” They simply resumed their natural position — because they were never gone.
Steube
The Sarasota‑based Buchanan machine joined up with Neal/Beruff Gang didn’t “enter” Manatee County — it invaded it, swaggering in like it owned the deed and didn’t care one bit that a Manatee‑born, Manatee‑raised U.S. Congressman Greg Steube already had a successor in mind for the retiring Buchanan U.S. Congressional position. Why bother respecting local roots when you can just ship in a pre‑packaged loyalist?
In shoving out Steube’s pick and in the re-establishment of the Pedicini/ Beruff Shit Show led by Buchanan operative out came the wife of Buchanan long time waterboy Joe Gruters, Sydney Gruters. A tidy little dynastic bundle, wrapped and delivered like a political subscription box.
Sydney Gruters’ husband isn’t just Joe Gruters — he’s the ever‑obedient Florida State Senator who now chairs the National Republican Committee, a man who’s spent his entire political life polishing other men’s shoes and calling it strategy.
The Gruters and Buchanan's at a Selby Gardens Gala
Before he was “Chairman Gruters,” before the glossy titles and the national stage, he was Buchanan’s personal step‑and‑fetch valet — the political aide who hovered around Vern Buchanan back when Buchanan was running Sarasota Ford, fetching whatever needed fetching, carrying whatever needed carrying,
The Goodman packaged Sydney Guters
The message was clear: Manatee County’s preferences were irrelevant. The machine had its chosen Sarasota heir to Buchanan, its insider pedigree, and its well‑oiled donor Rolodex. Local autonomy? Heritage? Representation? Please. The Sarasota apparatus had already decided who would fetch, carry, and continue the Buchanan legacy in Washington D.C.
THE GANG OF FIVE
This isn’t some MAGA “Gang of Five” that is about to take over Manatee once again. Please. It’s the Buchanan/Neal/Bush/ Cheney Republican Establishment Gang of Five, the same polished, donor‑soaked apparatus that’s been running Sarasota–Manatee politics since flip phones were cutting‑edge.
Beruff the local builder who once built homes with defective Chinese drywall
It is almost poetic — in the tragic, face‑palm sense — how the so‑called “America First” activists, waving their Trump flags and sporting their MAGA hats, managed to chase off the Beruff/Pedicini Gang of Seven… only to watch the old Buchanan/ Neal/Beruff aligned establishment stroll right back in through the front door.
All that noise, all that fury, all that “taking back the county,” and what did it accomplish? It cleared the runway for the Buchanan/Bush/Cheney Gang of Five to glide back into their familiar seats of influence, polished and waiting, like nothing had ever changed.
So now, after all the shouting and flag‑waving, the result is simple: The establishment they thought they defeated is right back where it always intended to be. They’re just waiting for 2028 like vultures perched on a branch, ready to dump their MAGA hats and snap back into their County club familiar positions the moment Trump exits the stage.
They’re not really waiting for Trump to leave in 2028 — they’re salivating for it. The moment he steps off the stage, the old guard will snap back into place like a steel trap, reclaiming their familiar thrones with the smug confidence of people who believe the county is their inheritance.
Thos MAGA Republican America First activistist have absolutely no clue what they’re been dealing with this Buchanan machine. Who has been playing then like a violin They think they were creating a new political order’re discovering Florida politics; meanwhile, they’re stumbling into a dynasty.
The newcomers -- the wide‑eyed transplants don’t understand that Joe Gruters wasn’t just “around” Vern Buchanan — They don’t understand that Gruters wasn’t just a local Republican figure — he was practically Buchanan’s valet, carrying his luggage, polishing his shoes, and running his political errands back when Buchanan was steering the Sarasota’s GOP ship. Gruters was a foot soldier in the Buchanan political ecosystem long before he slapped on his “Statesman of the Year” sash for Trump.
The Ybor City based political operative Pedicini
The “Pay to Play” developers who saw Beruff/Pedicini handpicked candidates get wipe out in 2024 had no problem allowing the Buchanan operative Goodman lead the crushing of the Republican America First candidates. Beruff operative Pedicini take no prisoner approach in 2024 was replaced by how Neal did it in Manatee County when Mac Stevenson was ring mater turning Manatee County into a Shit Show.
Unfortunately, the authentic America First Republicans — the ones who actually busted their backs to take out the Pedicini/ Beruff Gang of Seven — never figured out the one basic rule of political warfare: you don’t beat a machine by scattering into the wind.
Instead of aligning under one banner, instead of forming a unified front behind Speir to take on the Buchanan machine’s crown jewel candidate Sydney Gruters, they splintered. They wandered off into their own little side quests, convinced that individual heroism would somehow overpower a decades‑old establishment network.
And the result? Predictable. Brutal. Mathematically ugly.
Arnold
Except for Commission candidate Liz Arnold, every single one of them was politically vaporized — some losing by margins so lopsided they looked like typos. Seventy to thirty. Landslide losses. Not competitive defeats — obliterations.
The Buchanan machine didn’t even break a sweat
It didn’t need to.
While the America First activists were busy arguing over strategy, purity tests, and who deserved to be “the face” of the movement, the Goodman‑led establishment marched in with institutional muscle, Tallahassee backing, donor firepower, and a unified slate.
The MAGA activists brought enthusiasm. The Buchanan machine brought infrastructure. And infrastructure wins every time.
Buchanan and Whitmore
What’s truly pathetic is watching the long‑time Buchanan loyalists — Carol Whitmore and Donna Koner Hayes — perform their latest political costume change.
Hayes
After spending years posing on the Trump/MAGA train for show, waving the flag just long enough to look relevant, they didn’t hesitate for a second before sprinting back to the Buchanan/Bush/Cheney establishment express, clutching their first‑class tickets like they never left.
The moment the winds shifted, the moment the Buchanan machine started humming again, these two didn’t just jump — they leapt back aboard, eager to reclaim their comfortable seats in the old Republican order. Their MAGA phase wasn’t a conviction; it was a photo op, a temporary accessory, a political Halloween costume they peeled off the second the Buchanan machine flashed its headlights.
Because in the end, they were never MAGA. They were never America First. They were Buchanan groupies playing dress‑up — and the second the establishment train rolled back into the station, they came running like it was a reunion tour.
Wright/Stanoch/May
The final nails in the coffin of the crew that took down the Pedicini/Beruff Gang of Seven weren’t hammered in by the Buchanan machine alone — no, the last blows came from their own supposed allies, a trio who folded faster than wet cardboard: Kevin Wright, Jack May, and Mark Stanoch.
These three didn’t just drift toward the local Republican establishment — they signed on like eager interns, proudly aligning themselves with the very machine the America First activists were fighting. Wright and May went all‑in, endorsing Ballard and Rahn — two original members of the Pedicini/Beruff Gang of Seven — as if the past two years of political warfare had been nothing more than a warm‑up act.
Wright even took it a step further, endorsing Poulton, a long‑time Buchanan‑aide for the County Commission.
And then there’s Mark Stanoch, who ran against Liz Arnold — the one candidate who actually stayed loyal to the America First cause.
With the backing of the Gulf Coast Builders Exchange, Stanoch wasn’t just another candidate; he was a potential sixth spoke on the Goodman/ Buchanan wheel. If he had won, the Goodman Gang of Five could have easily become the Goodman Gang of Six, a fully upgraded establishment ensemble.
In the end, these three didn’t just betray the movement — they helped bury it. They didn’t just break ranks — they handed the Buchanan machine the shovel.
THE LARA TRUMP HOUSE KEEPING SEAL OF APPROVAL
The Manatee America First crowd should have seen they were just foot soldiers in a MAGA movement not trusted to lead. The moment Lara Trump strutted in as keynote speaker for the Evan Power‑manufactured MREC, the warning sirens should’ve been deafening. This wasn’t a celebration of MAGA — it was a Republican America First funeral disguised as a pep rally.
After all, this “new” MREC wasn’t some organic grassroots rebirth. It was the RPOF Chairman’s Frankenstein creation, stitched together only after he shut down the real MREC, abolished the elected officers, and replaced them with his own hand‑picked loyalists. A full political takeover wrapped in a shiny red bow.
But the America First activists — exhausted from fighting the Pedicini/Beruff Gang of Seven — didn’t want to believe it. They wanted to believe MAGA still meant something. They wanted to believe the movement still had teeth.
Instead, they got a stage show.
MAGA had been reduced to a brand name, a convenient sticker slapped onto the Buchanan/Bush/Cheney establishment to make the old guard look “patriotic” again. A marketing tool. A costume. A way to legitimize RINOs and repackage the same establishment Republicans who’ve been running Sarasota–Manatee politics since dial‑up internet.
By the time Lara Trump took the podium, the fix wasn’t just “in.” It was bolted down, welded shut, and gift‑wrapped.
THE APPROVED GOODMAN/BUCHANAN
NEAL/BERUFF MANATEE LEGISLATORS
Connert/Boyd/Varnadore
It wasn’t just the Manatee County Commission devolving into a 5–2 circus — a full‑blown political Shit Show dressed up as governance. No, the rot ran deeper. Because the Buchanan machine quietly shipped three loyal state legislators off to Tallahassee like obedient foot soldiers:
State Senator Jim Boyd, State Representative Bill Conerly, State Representative Jordan Varnadore.
These weren’t representatives of the MAGA base. They weren’t champions of the America First movement. They were hand‑selected ambassadors of the Republican establishment, dispatched to Tallahassee to ensure the Buchanan/Bush/Cheney order stayed firmly in control.
The message was clear: Manatee didn’t send MAGA to Tallahassee. Manatee sent the establishment’s traveling sales team, perfectly polished, perfectly loyal, and perfectly uninterested in representing the America First activists who thought they were driving the movement.
While MAGA supporters waved flags and believed they were reshaping the future, the Buchanan machine was already three steps ahead — installing its people, securing its influence, and tightening its grip on state power. The activists didn’t lose slowly. They didn’t lose subtly. They lost completely, while the establishment smiled, nodded, and pretended everything was still “grassroots.”
THE 2024 PEDICINI/BERUFF SHOW HAS BECOME THE 2026 APPROVED BUCHANNAN LED GOODMAN NEAL/BERUFF SHIT SHOW
The “Pay‑to‑Play” developer class — the same geniuses whose hand‑picked candidates got wiped off the map in 2024 — didn’t blink when the Buchanan machine rolled back into town. Of course they didn’t. They happily let Buchanan’s operative Goodman lead the charge in crushing the America First candidates, as if loyalty to the donor class mattered more than loyalty to the voters.
And naturally, the Beruff‑aligned operative Pedicini — famous for his “take no prisoners” routine — didn’t bother updating his script. Why innovate when you can recycle the same scorched‑earth tactics with Buchanan’s waterboy Goodman assistance?
