I am Jon Susce the Publisher of Sarasota Phoenix Media Inc. We are currently being sued by a political operative Anthony Pedicini. Pedicini is using the legal system with "lawfare" tactics to damage or delegitimize Jon Susce and the Sarasota Phoenix. They are wasting their time and money. In using lawfare tactics, Pedicini has access to the $ millions from Pedicini PACs and LLCs and from the Florida Republican establishment centered in Tallahassee. This is a standard tactic deployed to damage or delegitimize their opponents. Mr. Susce and the Sarasota Phoenix needs these vital funds to continue to take on the likes of Pedicini and this lawfare lawsuit.
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Trump's Fight Against Corruption Must Come Home to Florida
The RPOF Is As Corrupt As Anything "47" Will Find Across the Country.
“In the event no county committeeman or committeewoman is elected or a vacancy occurs for any other cause in the County Executive Committee, the vacancy shall be filled by a majority vote of those present at a regular or special meeting of the County Executive Committee at which due notice of the meeting has been given to all members and at which a quorum is present.’’
In Manatee County, NO meeting was held, regular OR special, with or without special notice. Quorum? Wouldn’t have mattered, as you see.
The Republican Party of Florida has removed the people’s official choices, and inserted their own.
There was NO reason to remove any of these people. The RPOF simply sent a notice, filled with vague lies, via email, on March 13, to Trent Wayman, the duly elected State Committeeman of Manatee County, as follows:
“This letter is to inform you that after careful consideration …pursuant to the powers granted to the RPOF Grievance Committee, adopted unanimously at its March 6, 2025, meeting…I have accepted their recommendation that you be removed from the Manatee REC DUE TO DISRUPTIONS IN REC OPERATIONS AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE (NEW) TURNAROUND PLAN (from the RPOF Executive Board.”
They declared an immediate vacancy and Mr. Weyman was replaced by a young RPOF sycophant, Jennings DePriest, from Bradenton, not even the same precinct. What’s a small detail like this when everything else done is so wrong?
DePriest, as it turns out, lives in a luxurious home in a million dollar neighborhood, on which there are three years of unpaid tax liens which total just under $97,000. Is this a good person to put in charge of a county REC?
The other replacements were a scattering of party “pros” (you know the kind), NOT the choice of the voters of Manatee County. This gang included the appointment of Agatha Mantanes as treasurer. Hold that name. The Chair is to be Mark Flanagan, VC, Matt Kezar; Secretary, Jordan Vanadore; and Committeeman and -woman, DePriest and Jayne Kocher. Funny how they were all waiting at the ready for this…
Ms. Mantanes was involved in the drowning of a pro-MAGA meeting attendee’s ipad which had been used to take notes of a contentious meeting prior to the election of the MAGA candidates. It went missing but was later discovered, hidden in a house owned by April Culbreth, the former chair. The sheriff was informed, and the owner of the ipad, upon retrieval, found water running out of the computer’s ports. No charges, of course. Also, no notes of the important meeting.
Frankly, if I ever so much as hear DeSantis use the word, “constitution”, my scream will send my feline research assistants running for cover. The Republican Party of Florida is being run by very skillfully corrupt people.
So, to summarize, last week, it was the RPOF-sponsored legislation to remove verifiable audits from elections, and put controls on who may meet with whom. THIS week, they have broken their own “rules” to remove the Republican Executive Committeeman of Manatee County.
What especially infuriates me is this.
While our President is in Washington DC literally risking his life to remove the corruption from our federal government, HIS party in HIS home state is seemingly as corrupt as anything he is finding in the nation. They are a danger to every Floridian.
Donald Trump MUST be informed of this. Why he does not already know may be an indication of the depth of the depravity in the state.
Blessings,
Kat
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The Sarasota Phoenix team is the last guardian in Sarasota of the vital fourth estate. While the rest of local, mainstream media outlets have been overtaken by profit driven directives, the Sarasota Phoenix is the only local media outlet laying bare for all to see how Sarasota local government is operat like a Latin American Junta..