Culbreath Using REC Position to Push Fake Voter Guide

There is a Republican Primary on August 20, and this is right around the corner, along with early voting starting this Saturday, Aug 10. We are in the thick of election season, and daily, we are being bombarded with mailers and text messages. Chaos is everywhere: vote for me, attack my opponent, use third-party marketing and grassroots recommendations. Which way do I turn? Who do I believe? 

It’s not enough to read the marketing rhetoric in your mailboxes and believe it as factual truth. Nor can you trust that we have an honest political system in which each candidate gets equal representation. We must become informed citizens and voters. Some Republicans think the best way to get real conservative information is to turn to the Republican Party for the answers.

A primary election is one or more Republicans running against each other to see which one will win the vote and be advanced into the general election. The Republican candidate will then go up against someone in either the Democratic Party or one with No Party Affiliation (NPA). Typically, the Republican party does not endorse any candidate in the primary. The local Manatee Republican party did not vote to change their policy and did not endorse any candidates during this primary election. 

April Culbreath, Chairman of the Manatee Republican Executive Committee, is also running for a county commission seat in D3. She is featured on a voter guide that was put out by a PAC not approved by the Florida Republican Party even though it has the RPOF logo attached to it. The Bradenton Times reported on this “Fake” voter guide targeting voters by Political Action Committees hoping to influence their vote. 

This guide has been mailed out to residents, shared on social media, and was also found on the desk at the Manatee Republican Headquarters in violation of the policy not to endorse. You can read here how members from the Manatee Republican party questioned why this voter guide was being given out by the volunteers who work in the office that April Culbreath oversees. One of the volunteers who is affiliated with the office is also running for the state committee woman position, Alice Kaddatz. 

The Manatee Republican Party does not endorse one Republican over another. Despite this policy, the PAC-generated “voter guides” are being handed out at the headquarters. When committee members found this out and disapproved, April Culbreath responded by closing the Republican office to ALL Republicans in the county for the remainder of the election season. 

It should be noted that committee members were concerned about this conflict of interest and asked April Culbreath to step down from being chair due to running for a commissioner seat. She did not. Her continued financial malfeasance, current unapproved expenses, and a formal demand letter from the treasurer show her general contempt for the committee, and because of this, the members passed a nearly unanimous vote of “No Confidence,”.

April Culbreath decided on her own to close the office doors without any warning, nor was there a vote by the committee. Other members volunteered to work the office to help direct the citizens to places where they could get accurate information on ALL the candidates, but April Culbreath is the only one who has the code to the door. Read here how she refused to give the board members access to their own Republican Headquarters by keeping them locked out. Volunteers then set up a table outside the Republican Headquarters to help any voters who arrived looking for assistance.

After the office closed down, should anyone call, it was then realized that the phone had been rerouted to April’s delegate volunteer. Here is the experience of a recent caller…

As a 30-year-old woman new to this county, I’m traumatized by the abrupt development that has occurred, the total disregard for the lands, waters, and wildlife. I decided enough was enough, so I called the MREC office for information.

A woman named “Sue” answered. I told her that I was interested in getting the names of the candidates running but had heard that the office was now closed. She said that’s because liberals were coming in and harassing the volunteers. 

So, I ask again for the candidate’s information. She told me that she can’t give me that information, but I could find it on DonaldJTrump.com. This does not make sense, so I looked it up while I was on the line with her. I told her the website gives no information on Manatee County candidates. She then said that she can text me a list of people that she “doesn’t recommend” but thinks are the most conservative…um, that sounds like a recommendation to me… 

So, I asked her where I could go to get yard signs if I couldn’t visit the office. She told me the best way is to contact the candidates directly, but also that KVO doesn’t do yard signs; he only puts up big ones. But April Culbreath has yard signs. So, I’m already starting to see a pattern of recommendations.  

My next question to her was what were they going to do about the development, and this is where my jaw hit the floor. She told me that in order to stop the development, the lawsuit to do so would have to come out of the taxpayers’ pockets because it’s taking away the rights of the developers. Rights that were set in place in 1990, according to her. She said they were granted access to build on this land, and the timeframe for that project is about to be up, so they have no choice but to “use it or lose it.”  

I told her that I would be willing to pay more taxes if it meant the halt of the UNETHICAL development. Her response was, “but they’re building now, so it’s okay.” I said, “I don’t want the development! I have solar panels and subdivisions on either side of me now.” She was flustered and said, “I used to be you, pissed off and angry with them. Sometimes, I still get angry with them. But I understand now how the law works.” I cut her off again and said “well the law needs to change.” And she said, “yes, but that takes time, and with DeSantis, they can do that.” What????

Soon after the call, I received the article, Developers’ Million Dollar Con Job Targets Republicans to Elect Incompetent Commissioners by Joe McClash. Again… to say I’m disappointed really doesn’t quite nail the fear, sadness and rage within me. I’m starting to wonder if the MREC office was closed intentionally to steer citizens toward the developer endorsing candidates. And I’m THRILLED that my call with “Sue” ended with her saying, “We’re in deep doodoo.” Because yes - WE are!

Joe Mc Clash even says, “Republicans Need To Clean Up the Republican Mess We’ve Made in Manatee County. “Our county government has been corrupted, and we, as Republicans, are at fault. It is our Republican majority that has elected the worst commissioners in our county’s history after disguising themselves as conservatives when they are really the least conservative and most anti-democratic group of elected officials I can recall.”

This is what I ask of you - PLEASE do your homework! Investigate the candidates who are running that call themselves Conservatives - Wrapped in a Flag - Carrying a Bible. 

How is all this possible when we have a Republican chairman and candidate on her mailers saying she is a “Conservative Cop” who claims to stand with Trump and Sheriff Wells but who is continuing with the same attitude that is displayed in her disciplinary report — it’s my way or the highway. 

April recently said at a Q and A event at Freedom Village, “Nobody is going to tell me what to do,” apparently not even the law. 

Deanna Brinkley
Manatee County