If you knew that particular candidates were working with a particular campaign manager who had access to a lot of money through political action committees and used that money to send deceiving mailers and robot texts or place radio ads, would you be so confident that you voted for the right person? That is what is happening, and it’s been happening for years.
Lee County votes are being stolen through misinformation from a particular campaign manager (Terry Miller) who utilizes massive amounts of money through his political action committees, elected official money and endorsements, certain Republican Club Board Members who parade around his candidates, and some members of the media. Together, they sabotage elections of grassroots candidates.
The people involved don’t even hide it any longer. They brag about it. This is a picture of Representative Spencer Roach’s Facebook post congratulating Terry Miller. Read the comments by Commissioner Hamman and Judith Persons, the mother of Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka and the wife of School Board Member Armor Persons. They are all cheering Miller on, and they call themselves, “the cabal.” By definition a cabal means the contrived schemes of a group of persons secretly united in a plot.
Who is Representative Roach representing, the cabal or us?
Primary Election Victories for Grassroots Candidates
Grassroots candidates are candidates that do not take political action committee money. They are not receiving contributions or endorsements from elected officials, and they are not taking contributions from builders and developers. Grassroots candidates often run because they don’t believe there is enough accountability and transparency, and their contributions come from everyday people.
Two major victories for the grassroots candidates were Tara Jenner (winning against Miller candidate Krissy Houlihan) as our Republican State Committeewoman and Michael “Mick” Peters winning (against Miller candidate Andrew Sund) as our Republican State Committeeman.
Sund was the President of the Cape Coral Republican Club and is the Chairman of the Conservative Leadership Caucus which is a political action committee. When Sund was President and after when Kevin Karnes assumed the Presidency, the Cape Coral Republican Club and other clubs contributed money to the PAC Sund chairs, as did other individuals and elected officials. The Club Members did not vote on endorsing one Republican candidate over another. In fact, unless the Club is an uncharted club, it is against the regulations of the County Model Constitution set forth by the Republican Party of the State of Florida for a Club to endorse any candidate if the County GOP, the Lee County Republican Executive Committee, has not endorsed any candidates. The Lee County Republican Executive Committee did not endorse any candidates that were running for office. Nevertheless, the CLC PAC made contributions in the amount of $9,250 each to both Sund and Houlihan.
Contributions were also by the CLC PAC to Friends of David Mulicka PAC, Friends of Matt Caldwell PAC, the Matt Caldwell campaign for Property Appraiser, Commissioner candidate Mike Greenwell, the Bill Ribble for School Board campaign, the Tommy Doyle for Supervisor of Elections campaign, the Vanessa Chaviano campaign for School Board, the Elizabeth Krier campaign for Judge, and the Dan Ludlow campaign for Cape Coral Council. At least six of these candidates were Miller candidates and seven of these candidates won in the Primary Election. Do you see a pattern?
In the County Commissioner race between Matthew Thornton and Dave Mulicka there ended up being a “write-in” candidate, Jake Cataldo. He is the President of the South Fort Myers Republican Club and the Secretary of the CLC PAC. When Jake was asked by WINK news reporter David Dorsey why he decided to enter the race as a write-in, meaning he would not be on the ballot, Cataldo said that he believed that the race should be a closed primary between two Republicans, Thornton and Mulicka. Cataldo stated, “As this is a Republican primary, I do not believe Democrats should be (participating in) picking Republican candidates.” Cataldo had no intention of campaigning for this position.
In Lee County, the county commissioner positions are nonpartisan meaning that regardless of one’s political affiliation everyone can vote. That means this race would have been considered an open primary, but when Cataldo entered, it became a closed primary. Independents, NPAs, Democrats, and Libertarians could no longer vote.
It is not enough to receive mailers, positive or negative, to understand who is best qualified for an elected position. When political action committees send mailers, the information contained on a negative mailer can be deceptive and false. There are limitations as to how much money one can contribute to a candidate’s campaign, but there are no limits to how much one can contribute to a political action committee. Therefore, if the political action committee is supporting a particular candidate, the PAC most likely has access to a substantial amount of money and can influence how voters think, hence influencing the outcome of an election.
What to Know About PACs.
When examining PAC money, one can see that the money comes from many people, businesses, organizations, elected officials, and other PACs. Most often, you will not recognize who is contributing. That means that the people that are contributing to a particular PAC may not share your values and ideologies. Also, understand that big business has an interest in donating to particular candidates because once in office they want those candidates to vote on laws that are of benefit to them. For example, many donations come from insurance companies, big pharma, sugar, tobacco, and other industries that have a vested interest. This is considered dark money.
There can be clean PACs, but they are going to be hard to find. Clean PAC money would have contributors that are everyday people or people that you can guarantee have the same values that you do.
How can we get the information that we need about candidates?
Follow the money.
Candidates that are running for state positions, county positions, and municipal positions must declare their contributions and expenditures. PACs must also declare their contributions and expenditures. If you are looking for candidates that you think will have the community’s best interest at heart and the children and their family’s best interest at heart, examine the candidates to see that they take no political action committee money, no elected official money or their endorsements, and no builder and developer money. Also, disregard hit piece mailers, robo-texts, and radio ads as they are likely false.
You can find that information on the following websites:
For contributions for state representative and senators:
For expenditures for state representative and senators:
For contributions and expenditures for county and municipal races:
On the left, click on campaign reports. Then campaign finance reports. There is a drop-down screen in the middle. Look under:
2024 candidates, 2024 municipal, 2024 committeeman and committeewoman
If you see expeditors to TM Strategic, that is Terry Miller. Look for contributions by PACs, builders, and elected officials.
To find contributions and expenditures of PACS:
One example of how PAC money flowed to help Miller’s candidates.
It is difficult to understand exactly how much money these PACs are spending on particular candidates because money will be given to a certain PAC, and then that might give PAC will give money to another PAC. But, based on the chart above, you can see the following:
From just 4 elected officials and the Chair of the CLC PAC, $81,500 was contributed to the SWFL Florida Jobs Alliance PAC (a Miller PAC). Obviously, the Jobs Alliance PAC receives more money from other individuals, businesses, or other PACs. The Jobs Alliance PAC contributed $100,000 to Just the FACTS PAC (a Miller PAC). Numerous elected officials, candidates, and clubs contributed to the CLC PAC. The CLC PAC contributed to several campaigns for Miller candidates as described above and are listed on the chart.
During the campaign, Dave Mulicka, commissioner candidate, accused Matt Thornton of buying his campaign. But, Mulicka’s campaign indirectly received approximately $52,000 from his wife’s PAC, the Conservative Legacy Fund. The Conservative Leadership Caucus contributed $5,000 to Mulicka’s campaign. A guesstimate contribution from the Jobs Alliance would be $11,000.
If one mailer cost $0.50 a piece, and I would speculate that with the amount of mailers that Miller sends, he gets a better price than that, $62,000 would buy 124,000 mailers. I believe that I received approximately 5 hit piece mailers on Matthew Thornton from Just the Facts PAC. That shows the amount of money these PACs can contribute and the lengths the cabal will go to win.
Are there candidates who are not directly Miller candidates but are establishment candidates?
One would consider a candidate an establishment candidate if that candidate received a lot of contributions and endorsements that came from elected officials, PAC money, and builder money such as Vanessa Chaviano – School Board District 7. She will run in November against Sheridan Chester, a Democrat.
Ask yourself, if you understood how PACs influence elections and if you knew that one particular campaign manager was getting almost all of his candidates into office in Lee County and that these candidate received a lot of money from PACs, elected officials, and builders and developers, would you vote for them?
“Your vote really does matter. Do your research and cast your vote wisely.“ Denise Nystrom
