FL GOP officials to meet in 12 days to decide the fate of besieged Chair Christan Ziegler

A tsunami is building against Republican Party of Florida Chair Christian Ziegler, who remains under investigation over alleged sexual battery against a woman in Sarasota in October. And now, party officials have scheduled a meeting in mid-December to decide what to do about his status as chair, including expulsion from the party.

The majority of the GOP executive board has called a special meeting for Sunday, Dec. 17 at 1 p.m. at the Rosen Centre Hotel in Orlando to consider “discussion and appropriate actions for censure or discipline of Chairman Christian Ziegler due to cause,” according to a memo sent by GOP vice chair Evan Power.

The cause to be considered may include the “Chairman’s misconduct; neglect of duty; conduct that renders him unfit for the office of Chairman,” among other disciplinary action.

The executive board members also could appoint a special investigative committee to “conduct a confidential investigation and issue a report recommending or not recommending formal charges of cause against Chairman Ziegler and a date certain for the Executive Board to hear evidence and consider discipline including but not limited to removal from office or expulsion from the party.”

Other measures include suspension of the chairman’s authority and pay as well as a vote of no confidence and formal censure of the chairman.

The special meeting will be held in confidential, closed executive session.

Meanwhile, more and more top Florida GOP officials say that Ziegler needs to step down immediately.

“You’re innocent until proven guilty,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said on Tuesday while taking questions from reporters after unveiling the highlights of his proposed fiscal year 2024 budget. “There’s clearly things that are lodged against people that aren’t necessarily true. But I think when you have an investigation of crimes of this magnitude, I think that the mission has got to come first. It is not helpful to the mission to have this hanging over his head, and so I’ve said he should step aside. Paul Renner, the speaker, Kathleen [Passidomo], the Senate President – I think most people acknowledge that it’s just an untenable situation when you have things like that there and so we’ll see what ends up happening, but I don’t know that you have any real standing with that hanging over you.”

Florida Republican U.S. Senator Rick Scott also said Ziegler needs to step down now.

“I’m very concerned about the reports I’ve read,” Scott said in a statement sent to the Florida Phoenix. “The allegations are very disturbing. Everyone deserves their day in court and Christian and Bridget have been friends of mine throughout my career. The Party has a very important decision before it, and the decision has to be made on what is best for winning elections in 2024. I don’t see how Christian can continue to successfully act as Chairman while this cloud hovers over him. I’m praying for everyone involved in this.”

And The Messenger is reporting that all three members of the Florida Cabinet – Attorney General Ashley Moody, Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis and Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson – are now also calling for Ziegler to step down.

The Republican Party of Florida has been in crisis for the past five days, after the Florida Trident reported that Zeigler, the chair of the Republican Party of Florida and the husband of Sarasota County School Board member and Moms for Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler, is under criminal investigation after a woman filed a complaint with the Sarasota Police Department alleging that he had raped her.

According to a search warrant affidavit shared with the Phoenix by the Florida Center for Government Accountability, the accuser told police that she had previously had a three-person sexual encounter with both Zieglers. The woman had said she’d agreed to have sex with the couple again on October 2, but canceled when she learned that Bridget Ziegler could not attend.

Ziegler wrote to party members on Saturday, saying that he is innocent of the accusations that he committed sexual assault and that he would not be stepping down from his position as party chair. “We have a country to save and I am not going to let false allegations of a crime that put that mission on the bench as I wait for this process to wrap up,” he wrote.

Members of the Florida Democratic Party said Tuesday that it’s past time for Ziegler to step down.

“These allegations are serious and criminal, and we commend the victim’s bravery in coming forward against a political figure as powerful as Christian Ziegler,” said Nikki Fried, the FDP chair in a Zoom conference call. “No one can continue to lead a major state party under those conditions.”

And Fried and other Democrats on the call lambasted the Zieglers for their “hypocrisy,” as the conservative power couple has been critical of the LGBTQ+ community in recent years.

“Christian and Bridget Ziegler have led the charge in attacking the LTBGQ community,” Fried said. “Targeting and harassing school board members. Banning books, and bathrooms. Eliminating conversations about gender and sexuality in schools. For years, the Zieglers have promoted a strain of purity politics not even they can live up to.”

Former Orange County Democratic state Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, who is running in 2024 for a state Senate seat, said that not only does Christian Ziegler need to resign from his role as RPOF chair, but Bridget Ziegler needs to step down from her position on the Sarasota County School Board.

“Bridget Ziegler’s crime is what she inflicted on students and on families with her hypocrisy, her rhetoric and her extreme agenda,” he said on the Zoom call. “That harm is indisputable.”

DeSantis originally called on Ziegler to step down from his position on Thursday night following his debate in Georgia with California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

House Democratic Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell said that it showed how the Florida governor has fallen over the past year as he has struggled in his bid for the Republican nomination for president this year.

“Less than a year ago, Ron DeSantis was the most powerful political force Florida had seen in decades,” she said on the Zoom call. “And now? He can’t even get his embattled party chair to resign.”

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