PAC texts, 'animal' group and AI mugshots: Who's behind the campaign against Liz Arnold?

The first days of early voting for the Primary Election opened over the weekend, and local Republican candidate Liz Arnold, an activist who worked alongside late Commissioner Carol Ann Felts before Felts was elected in 2024, appears to have become the target of a disinformation campaign aimed at undermining her candidacy. Voters in Manatee County’s Commission District 1 will cast ballots to choose a candidate for the seat that came back up for election following Felts’ unexpected death earlier this year.

Arnold may be just the latest victim of a coordinated shadowy effort to dissuade voters from casting their ballots for her, including political committee-funded (PAC) text messages, a deceptive website made to resemble an animal advocacy organization (only it doesn’t really exist), and, as of polls opening this weekend, signs placed near polling locations that contain misleading claims about Arnold and her husband.

Arnold has been involved in District 1 issues for years, regularly appearing before the County Commission to speak on matters affecting the district. A Parrish resident who also owns a farm in Myakka, Arnold has ties to both of the district’s rural communities. Her engagement with local leadership over the years has included efforts to draw attention to the impacts of rapid growth in Parrish and to caution against development approvals she believes could permanently alter Myakka.

In the week leading up to polls opening, two unsolicited political text messages were sent to District 1 Republican voters, stating that the Arnolds were “the subjects of an open investigation by Manatee County Animal Welfare” and to “protect defenseless cats and dogs” by “opposing Liz Arnold.”

Both texts included the required sponsorship disclaimer, disclosing that the communications were paid for by the Parents for Accountability in Education PAC, based in Fort Myers, Florida.

The PAC is chaired by Terry Miller, a Southwest Florida political consultant and partner lobbyist with Ballard Partners. Miller joined Ballard Partners in 2023, and according to publicly available lobbyists' registrations and statements filed with the Lee County Clerk of Court, Miller has represented numerous development and construction-related businesses and entities, including local residential developer Pat Neal’s Neal Communities. 

For more on Miller’s controversial political activities in Southwest Florida, the Fort Myers News Press published this report in 2024.

All of the contributions reported in 2026 to Miller’s Parents for Accountability in Education came from other political committees. The Southwest Florida Jobs Alliance, which contributed $17,500, is also chaired by Miller, and it shares the same registered agent and treasurer as his Accountability in Education PAC. Another PAC, the Conservative Leadership Caucus, is not chaired by Miller, but has the same reported treasurer and agent as the aforementioned PACs, and contributed $8,000 in 2026.

PACs passing money between PACs is not unusual, though it can make it difficult to track exactly where the funds have come from—specific individuals, entities, or special interests—and how they’re being spent. Critics have frequently characterized PACs as a legal shell game or money-laundering scheme that enables significant amounts of dark money to move to political candidates and causes, or against them. The practice can make the required sponsorship disclosures, like those that appeared at the bottom of the texts sent regarding Arnold, all but useless to voters trying to understand who actually funded them.

Besides telling voters that Arnold and her husband were subjects of an open Manatee County Animal Welfare investigation, the first text sent by Miller’s PAC also claimed a “police report” verified that there was an “active case” involving the Arnolds.

The text went on to claim, “Lawrence (Liz Arnold’s husband) has been known to quarantine loose dogs and turn them loose elsewhere.”

to view the police report.

During the previous election cycle, voters encountered similar efforts in which political operatives used PAC-funded communications and newly created websites that presented themselves as independent or grassroots organizations. In one instance, a PAC tied to political operative and self-proclaimed ‘professional propagandist’ Jennings DePriest distributed voting guides attributed to a purported organization called the Christian Fathers Foundation. The organization’s website and election endorsements appeared shortly before the election, but reporting at the time found that the group had only recently been registered in Wyoming.

In another campaign during the same election cycle, a PAC associated with DePriest sent voters text messages warning of alleged criminal activity at Manatee County polling locations. When contacted about the claims, local law enforcement said there were no corresponding incidents on record.

Those episodes do not establish a connection between DePriest and the current campaign targeting Arnold. They do, however, provide context for a broader pattern in Manatee County elections, where political campaigns and PACs use purportedly independent organizations, targeted text messaging, and newly created digital entities to influence voters while obscuring, or making less easy to identify, the political interests behind those communications.

As for this election cycle, the allegations concerning the Arnolds also appear to hold very little factual water.

A Manatee County Sheriff incident report obtained by TBT reveals that on Feb. 21, 2025, a deputy reported to the Arnold residence after Larry Arnold phoned to report having shot at a loose dog that had allegedly attacked the Arnolds’ dog while on a walk near their home.

According to the officer’s written narrative, Larry advised the officer that he shot at what he believed was his neighbor’s dog. The officer wrote, “There was no crime scene, no blood trail, and the alleged injured dog was not located.” The report later characterized the incident with Arnold’s account of having been approached by—initially one dog, and soon another—and first attempting to physically intervene to protect his dog, who reportedly was caught by the throat by one of the dogs, before finally pulling his revolver from its holster and firing a shot. 

According to the deputy, Arnold said he contacted law enforcement because he felt it was “the right thing to do” given the incident.

When speaking to neighbors about the alleged incident, the responding officer noted in his report that one of the Arnolds’ neighbors admitted that their dog “roams free,” and that she and another neighbor alleged to the officer that there had been ongoing dog issues between the neighbors.

In addition, the neighbors reportedly told the officer that Mr. Arnold “had been known to quarantine loose dogs and turn them loose elsewhere or call Animal Services” on loose dogs. The deputy noted that MCSO had never been notified of any such alleged incidents, and contacted county animal control about the incident.

Selected pages of the Feb. 2025 incident report were posted on the parrishpaw.org website with highlighted portions. The cover page showed that the report was printed in July 2026, and at the time, the printout showed the investigation as “active” and “ongoing.” However, a printout of the same report dated just weeks later, from August 2026, showed that the incident was “inactive” and “closed” with nothing ongoing.

A representative of the MCSO confirmed to TBT by phone that the incident investigation had been closed for some time and that a July printout showing otherwise was the result of a clerical system error.

Though the Arnolds appeared not to have been under any active investigation at the time the political texts were sent by Miller’s Parents for Accountability in Education PAC, the claims asserted in those texts and on the recently created Parrish Paws website may have concerned some voters—which undoubtedly seems to be the intent.

When polls opened on Saturday, District 1 early voters who reported to the Rocky Bluff Library were met with candidate booths, local political group tables and spokespeople, and signs… lots, and lots of campaign signs.

Many of the signs were the type one would expect to see at a legal distance from a polling location, promoting certain candidates for office. But some of the signs, like yellow ones bolted to trees outside the Rocky Bluff Library, told voters in capitalized red letters, “PROTECT OUR ANIMALS. STOP LIZ ARNOLD.”

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