Developer PACs Mislead Voters for the Sake of Profit

Developers Pat Neal and Carlos Beruff are investing around a half-million dollars in this year’s election cycle. From personal contributions, contributions by companies associated with these developers, and from their relatives, not only are the monies funding candidates with limits of $1,000, they are heavily funding no-limit Political Action Committees. Contributions to these PACs are known as "dark money" because of how funds can be moved between them to obscure the original donors.

Here is what we know from the public records about the current state of such pay-to-play politics in Manatee County. Beruff's interests contributed a total of $42,000 to efforts to elect Manatee County Commission District 7 candidate George Kruse, while Neal's kicked in $8,000. Beruff and Neal have also heavily invested in the election efforts of district 3 county commission candidate Kevin Van Ostenbridge, district 1 candidate James Satcher and incumbent District 5 commissioner Vanessa Baugh, to the tune of around $20,000.

However, the real investments by these two developers are not given directly to the candidates but in dark money paid to PACs. There are no contribution limits on how much money they can give to political action committees. Neal has paid $300,000 to the Conservatives PAC. Beruff takes a different approach and has two companies paying into the Trump Committee PAC, totaling over $130,000. It should be noted the Trump Committee PAC funds appear to then be going toward the efforts to elect local candidates.

This is all possible through a maze of PACs who then employ a company operated by political consultant Anthony Pedicini who orchestrates the attack ad campaigns on those opposing the chosen candidates of these two developers, or he produces the fluff pieces on their favored candidates. The company, Strategic Image Management (also known as SIMWINS), can also be found on the expenditure reports of Kruse, Baugh, Van Ostenbridge, and Satcher.

According to Pedicini, his PACs are by law allowed to coordinate with these candidates and in a recent email to TBT explained, "State and local candidates are governed by state and local laws which allow full coordination." So, all those negative mailers, text messages, social media posts, and even ads in newspapers can be carefully coordinated by the PAC and the candidate that pays Pedicini.

Pedicini has been paid almost a million dollars from the PACs, which are focused on one issue: getting the developer-backed candidates elected. For example, CITIZENS ALLIANCE FOR FLORIDA’S ECONOMY PAC, which Pedicini is the chair of, has paid $600,000 to his company SIMWINS. No wonder the developers have control of your county commissioners. And if you are not with them, you are against them and can expect to be targeted with negative mailer after negative mailer, along with misleading texts and other attack vehicles, all sent out by Pedicini to get you to vote for the developers’ darling.

Case in point, District 3 candidate Matt Bower. Bower–a Republican who refused to take developer money and pledged to run a clean, issue-based campaign, free fromscurrilous attacks–has suffered an onslaught of negative campaigning produced by Pendicini's company, which has been employed not only by Van Ostenbridge's campaign but by the six-figure PACs assisting him in attacking Bower's character with baseless, demonstrably-false claims.

In District 1, Satcher, who is the Republican candidate, is expected to win not because he is the most qualified, but because he got the nomination in a heavily-Republican district and is funded by developers that want to count on his vote. Dominique Brown, a Democrat, has superior qualifications that should earn your vote if you get past the fact that she is not a Republican.

Brown joined the United States Air Force at the age of 17 and served a combat tour in Kandahar, Afghanistan in 2007. Prior to returning to Manatee County, she earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in Criminal Justice from Florida A&M University in Tallahassee. Brown went on to earn her Juris Doctorate from North Carolina Central University and was as an Assistant District Attorney in Cumberland County before returning home to start a local practice in Palmetto, where she also serves as the Secretary for Memphis Washington Park Neighborhood Association. The majority of Dominique's adult life has been spent serving her country and her community.

Satcher, other than being a Republican, shares no information about his qualifications on the Supervisor of Elections' website, and on his website touts the same platform buzz as most candidates but with no solutions offered. He claims to be a successful business person but, according to his financials, makes only around $42,000 and has a net worth of around $28,000. That would suggest that the commission seat, which is worth around $100,000 in pay and benefits per year, would be like hitting the lottery. Voters should be asking, do the developers support him for his qualifications or because he will vote favorably on their issues.

Board votes to increase the allowed density on a large piece of land are worth millions of dollars. Kruse recently defended Beruff’s recent controversial project in a floodway with a recent statement defending his backer casting aside the codes, along with the valid concerns of citizens in the surrounding area. The density went from 199 to 315 units. At a value of at least $50,000 a unit, the vote was worth $5.8 million for the additional 116 units to be built. That is precisely why developers throw a few hundred thousand dollars into a county commission race. Kruse, still technically a candidate, seems to be signaling that he is willing to pay back his largest donor even before he gets sworn in.

So as you get those dark money-funded PAC mailers and texts, now you know the intent is not in educating our citizens before they vote. Rather, it’s about the millions more in money these developers can make at a cost to our society in failing infrastructure, crowded schools, degraded environment, and the mantra of less government.

Here is how some of the money flows in the maze of PACs all ending with SIMWINS/Pedicini (click here to enlarge).