DeSANTIS TIES TO ESTABLISHMENT REPUBLICANS’ TROUBLES AMERICA FIRST GRASSROOTS ORGANIZERS IN FLORIDA
WILL FLYNN BE A MAJOR PLAYER IN FLORIDA PRESENDENTAL PRIMARY?
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis ties to the Florda Republican Establishment is troubling America First grassroots organizers.
Neal
What is troublesome is DeSantis receiving a 2022 Statesman of the Year award in Sarasota from multimillion local developer Pat Neal, who has called former President Donald Trump; "an incredibly vulgar candidate who is leading our party off a cliff.”
Neal is a former Democrat Florida State Senator, who served for 12 years before being defeated by a Ronald Reagan Republican Florida State Senator in 1986. Since then, Neal has become a establishment Republican backing Republicans such as Charlie Crist, Bill McCullum and Jeb Bush. Neal was also a major financial supporter of Adam Putnam when he ran against DeSantis for Governor in 2018.
Neal with Adam Putnam campaign for Florida Governor in 2018 against DeSantis
NEAL'S TROUBLESOME REMARKS CONCERNING TRUMP
What is troubling to America First grassroots organizers in DeSantis ties to Neal and other establishment Republicans are Neal’s comments about Trump. In a TAMPA BAY TIMES article, Neal, who was two years behind Trump in business school at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, says this about Trump; "He (Trump) is the same Don Trump then as he is now... He was just a rich, obnoxious, high roller."
NEAL: "TRUMP IS DESTRUCTIVE"
Neal went on to say, "It's impossible to find any political philosophy or public policy goals (for Trump). I think it's all about Donald Trump. But as he is popular; it seems very destructive and what I hate is the message it sends as to what the Republican Party is."
NEAL: "TRUMP IS NOT GOOD REAL ESTATE DEVELOPER"
Neal scoffed at the suggestion that he and Trump are both real estate success stories. "I like real estate developers, but he's not a good real estate developer," Neal said.
NEAL: "TRUMP LOST MONEY FOR INVESTORS"
Neal continued, "Not only did he (Trump) lose money for people he borrowed from, but for a period there he lost money for his investors, particularly in the casino deals. That isn't the way you do it, and I would not say he is a credit to the real estate industry."
NEAL "TRUMP INCREDIBLY VULGAR CANDIDATE"
Then when Neal announced that he would not be a candidate for the State of Florida CFO position, he stated in the Sarasota Herald Tribune that he was “dispirited with what I see every morning having to do with the Trump campaign.”
He went on to tell Sarasota Herald Tribune reporter Zach Anderson that he viewed Trump "as an incredibly vulgar candidate who is leading our party off a cliff.”
DeSantis involvement with establishment Republicans like Neal in Florida and beyond could put him at odds with retired General Michael Flynn and his Republican grassroots supporters.
Since moving into the bastion of Republican conservative grassroots organization in Southwest Florida, Flynn has got involved with the America First grassroots organizations. Flynn has become very active in the Florida political scene and beyond.
Flynn has become a major figure in leading a grassroots America First agenda in Florida, which Flynn calls; “conservative values that emphasizing religious freedom, family values and economic prosperity.”
FLYNN OUTDRAWS DeSANTIS
Recently on 2/28/2023, Governor DeSantis and Flynn made appearances in the same Republican conservative area of Florida. At the DeSantis event in Venice to promote his recently released book, DeSantis drew over 500 in attendance.
At an event a few miles away in Manatee County, on the same day as the DeSantis event with little publicity as with the DeSantis event, which was heavily advertised in local, state and national media, Flynn drew over 700 in attendance.
Brunni
Flynn recently backed local political activist Connie Brunni in leading a local grassroots organization that led to the takeover of Sarasota County School Board with a 4-1 Conservative majority. The present Chairman of the local School Board is Bridget Ziegler.
The Zieglers
Bridget Ziegler is one of the founders of Moms for Liberty and the wife of Christian Ziegler, who is the recently elected Chairman of the Republican Party of Florida (RPOF).
Oakes
Flynn and Alfie Oakes, who is a major America First organizer based in Naples (Collier County) led a takeover by America First candidates of local REC organizations in the heavily Republican conservative Southwest Florida counties of Charolotte, Lee and Collier.
Flynn also backed Brunni in her attempt to defeat the Chairman of the Sarasota REC, Jack Brill. Brunni lost by less than 25 votes out a total of over 250 votes cast.
Ryan Chamberlin and family
In a recent special election for a Florida State Representative in Marion County an American First candidate Ryan Chamberlin defeated four opponents. Chamberlin grassroots campaign was led by a major Trump organizer in 2016 and 2020, Annie Maria Delgato.
Delgato
Marion County, which includes Ocala is part of a three-county area of strong Republican conservatism in Central Florida. Marion County along with Lake and Sumter counties went for former President Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020 by over 65% in each county.
The Villages, which is America’s premier active adult community is located in parts of all three counties. The Villages have over 125,000 residents with a historically high 80% turnout rate in elections. Republicans outnumber Democrats two-to-one in the Villages
Concerns of DeSantis ties to Establishment Republicans
Concerns about DeSantis ties to establishment Republicans began back on 8/3/2022 when Governor DeSantis received the Sarasota County Republican Executive Committee (SREC) Statesman of Year award from Neal.
Neal awarded DeSantis the Statesman of the Year award at the same Hyatt hotel that Donald Trump received the award in 2012. Trump had come to Sarasota on the eve of the Republican National Convention in Tampa.
Trump drew more than 1,000 people to hear him attack President Barack Obama for
leading the nation in the wrong direction. The event brought national exposure
on all the major networks and cable television programs like never before for
the local GOP.
Gruters awarding Trump the Statesman of the Year award in 2017
In 2017 Trump received another Statesman of Year award before a gathering of 1,700
at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Center in Sarasota. At both of the events, then SREC Chairman Joe Gruters introduced Trump to those gathered at the events.
At the 2022 DeSantis event, the then Florida Senator and Chairman of Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) Gruters was in the background as was the then Vice Chairman of the RPOF, Christian Ziegler. Both have strong loyalties to Trump and not so with DeSantis.
Brill
The Vice Chairman of SREC, Jack Brill ran the DeSantis event. Gruters had turned over the daily operations of the SRRC to Brill when he became a Florida State Representative. The event drew over 600 for the fundraiser with some tickets being give-a-ways to fill the venue.
Since, Brill began to run the day-to-day operations of the SREC major financial contributions have come from Neal and other DeSantis establishment supporters. Neal and multi million dollar Mall developer Randy Benderson have contributed over $100,000 to the local SREC in taking control of SREC.
Wiles and Trump
Problems between DeSantis and Gruters began back in 2019 after DeSantis learned that Gruters and Trump political operative Susie Wiles were staffing the RPOF with operatives loyal to Wiles and Gruters.
Casey DeSantis
These tensions and suspicions became a reality for Wiles and Gruters, especially after the two most important political advisers in DeSantis’ orbit — Chief of Staff Shane Strum and DeSantis wife, Casey DeSantis — went to the Florida GOP headquarters in Tallahassee in April of 2019 to check it out.
What they found was an organization stacked with “Susie people" and Gruters was following in line by hiring "Susie people" and replacing political operative George Riley with the handpicked Wiles and Gruters political operative from the Sarasota REC, Jennifer Locetta.
Even after Locetta and Wiles were sent packing to Washington D.C tensions continued to worsen but were kept out of public view, as not to create a rift between various RPOF factions during the the 2020 political cycle.
BERUFF WHO DeSANTIS CALLED A "SHADY BUSINESSMAN" SHARE CENTER STAGE WITH NEAL
Beruff
Also sharing center stage at the Statesman award ceremony for DeSantis was Carlos Beruff, who is another major multimillion dollar establishment developer in the area.
Before breaking bread with Beruff in 2022, back in 2016 when Beruff ran for the U.S Senate against Marco Rubio, then U.S Congressman DeSantis made these comment about Beruff:
“Whether it’s the issue of Beruff’s liberal contributions to his support for Barack Obama’s disastrous foreign policy, his track record of using political donations to get preferential appointments to line the pockets of himself and his friends, or his history of shady business deals; we’re going to make sure Florida conservatives know the truth about the shady businessman, crony capitalism and liberal Carlos Beruff.”
Rubio
DeSantis in 2016 was planning on running for U.S Senate if Rubio decided not to run for re-election. Rubio did run for re-election and DeSantis decided not to run. Beruff continued to run against Rubio and lost 71% to 19%, while expanding $8 million of his own money.
This is how DeSantis buttressed his claim that Beruff is a “shady businessman” with a link to a story from the Sarasota Herald Tribune. The linked story reported on Beruff’s company, Medallion Homes, being accused of building homes using contaminated Chinese drywall, and then refusing home owners please to replace it. The story says that Medallion attempted to intimidate homeowners from complain about the situation.
Kompothecras
Gary Kompthecras is another multi milion dollar establishment Republican, who also shared the center stage with Neal and Beruff in awarding the SREC Statesman award to DeSantis.
Kompothecras was a major supporter of Crist when he ran as an Independent against Rubio for the U.S Senate in 2010. Kompothecras, Beruff and Neal, all supported Crist when he ran for the U.S Senate as a an Independent against Rubio. Kompothecras also supported Crist in his campaign as a Democrat for Florida Governor against Rick Scott in 2014.
Kompothecras has recently held a major fundraiser for DeSantis and and along with Neal and Beruff are major financial supporters for DeSantis. Neal also has recently held a fund raiser for DeSantis.
DeSANTIS'S NEAL/BERUFF AND OTHER ESTABLISMENT DONORS "MAKING A LOT OF MONEY"
DeSantis is tapping real estate donors and attracting money from the industry. Of his contributions, more than $2.5 million came from the real estate industry. Neal in a recent POLITICO article stated “The biggest reason I can think of is that we are all making a lot of money."
Concerning the DeSantis fundraiser, “I promised a small, intimate event, but we had to move it, there were a lot of builder and developer type who wanted to attend.” Beruff stated In the same article,“We absolutely support the busines policies the governor adopted.”
There is no doubt that Flynn and his America First Republican conservative grassroots supporters in Florida are paying attention to DeSantis being winned and dinned by Neal, Beruff, Kompothecras and other establisment multi million donors. Donors, who appear to having a history of only interested in "making a lot of money" and nothing else, ----especially Neal who called Trump a " Incredibly vulgar candidate."
Jon Susce
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