By Denise Nystrom
It is obvious from Trump’s victorious win, not only with the 312 electoral college votes received, but by the 5,000,000 popular vote lead, that America is seeking a change agent. The old guard establishment has been rejected. The phrase “out with the old and in with the new” has never applied more. We can see that based on Trumps’s choices for cabinet positions. America wants to clean house. We the people do not want to be controlled by the establishment, the elitists, a cabal that treats us as serfs while they wield their power to negotiate deals to make them wealthier and keep them in control.
Unfortunately, we were not victorious at the local level with the 2024 elections in Lee County. We ended up with the same old dogs with the same old fleas pulling their same old tricks to keep control of our local elections. We are still stuck with a puppet master campaign manager who calls himself the kingmaker and whose cohorts call themselves the cabal. The same politicians who are backed by builders and developers, newly elected officials with the same aspirations, and political action committee money are in control.
If that does not alarm you, it should.
One only has to drive on our roads to see that our land is overdeveloped. Our infrastructure and roads are underdeveloped. Our wildlife habitats are being destroyed while our schools under-perform. The beauty we came here for is vanishing before our eyes.
The people of Lee County have not been able to elect a Grassroots candidate who wants transparency and accountability into any essential office such as state representative, commissioner, mayor, or school board.
I have been writing about this situation for a few years and can tell you that there are so-called Republicans in the county that think that I am a detriment to the Republican Party. Exactly what they called Trump. It is their expectation that I get on board with their political agenda even though they have been instrumental in sabotaging the campaigns of Grassroots candidates through false malicious mailers, robo texts, radio ads, and more. I am not the detriment to the party. I want what has occurred at a national level to occur at a local level. I want the house cleaned and people elected who are going to strengthen our sovereignty and protect the American people. Those are conservative values.
Florida State Statute 112.313 refers to abuse of power. Perhaps if this statute were taken more seriously and there were consequences for actions, the people of Lee County would be less duped by their elected officials and this puppet master campaign manager, Terry Miller of TM Strategic Consulting.
The 2024 election marked the first election in Lee County in quite a number of years where people voted on an elected superintendent of schools. That means that the Superintendent of Schools cannot be hired or fired by the Board of Education. Denise Carlin, the candidate for campaign manager Terry Miller was elected to the position. And while Carlin can claim plausible deniability for who was recently hired, prior to Election Day the School Board Members (three who were Miller’s elected officials at that time – now five) created two new positions for the District. Coordinator of Government Relations and Director of Government Relations. These are administrative positions that will net salaries of $100,000+.
Who was hired as Coordinator? None other than a Miller employee, Riley Kempton. Kempton who worked for Miller for almost 6 years.
Who was hired as Director? It was rumored that former Tallahassee Representative Spencer Roach, also a Miller elected official, was slated to get the job. However, in the statute listed above, there is actually a law that prevents a former elected official from acting in the capacity of a lobbyist for several years. When it was brought to light that Roach was slated for the job, he was unable to take it. It will be interesting to see who gives Roach a job now.
So, who was hired? Another Miller candidate, Kristina Houlihan. Houlihan ran for Republican State Committeewoman in the 2024 election and lost to America First grassroots candidate Tara Jenner.
NOTE: A public records request has been submitted to the Lee County School District to obtain information about who all applied for both jobs and who was interviewed for both jobs, as it appears that the District does an inadequate job of posting, interviewing, and ultimately finding the best candidates for various positions. The District had been known to ignore public requests or wait months to supply an answer.
The chart below reflects this puppet master campaign manager’s wins over the past few election cycles. And while his buddy Trey Radel, the radio talk show host on The Drive at 5 on 92.5 touts Miller’s wins, they are a loss for the people in Lee County.
One such huge loss was having Dave Mulicka elected as our District 3 County Commissioner.
The Miller candidate, the husband of Tallahassee Representative Jenna Persons-Mulicka, and the son-in-law of School Board Member Armor Persons has 5 years’ worth of documents on the Department of Environmental Protections portal showing that our newly elected Commissioner and owner of Honc Destruction is responsible for toxic dumping on land and in groundwater and has yet to sign a consent agreement with the DEP that would provide procedures for cleaning this up. https://prodenv.dep.state.fl.us/DepNexus/public/electronic-documents/106253/facility!search
A DEP record of a meeting related to this issue was held on September 15, 2023. The subject of the meeting was Alico Park Investment Meeting with Mulicka. Notably, in attendance at the meeting was Dane Eagle. Eagle, a Miller candidate who was a Tallahassee Representative and the Secretary of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity for Governor DeSantis, and now is a lobbyist for Ballard Partners. It is also notable that Terry Miller is a lobbyist for Ballard Partners. So, why was Eagle present at a meeting for Mulicka? In what capacity was he there?
There are so many links between particular people in this county that an invisible organizational structure drives the outcome of our elections.
There are Republican Clubs run by Miller candidates and affiliates that collect money from members and guests. Unbeknownst to the members, the Board members of the clubs contribute member money to a political action committee called the Conservative Leadership Caucus (CLC PAC). One such club is the Cape Coral Republican Club, and the President is Kevin Karnes, a Miller candidate and our elected official for Clerk of the Court and Comptroller. The money that is given to the Conservative Leadership Caucus is used to support one Republican candidate over another. They are obviously not supporting Grassroots candidates.
Is it any wonder why our Supervisor of Elections, Tommy Doyle, a Miller candidate, was not investigated by Kevin Karnes who has the authority to do so when Doyle used taxpayer dollars to provide his ex-lover with severance pay after she decided to end their relationship and file an EOCC complaint against Doyle?
Would it come as any surprise that numerous elected officials contribute money to the Conservative Leadership Caucus PAC? Would it come as any surprise that the majority of candidates who were given money by the CLC PAC were Terry Miller candidates? Andrew Sund (State Committeeman), Kristina Houlihan (State Committeewoman), Dave Mulicka (County Commissioner), Denise Carlin (Superintendent of Schools), Tommy Doyle (Supervisor of Elections), Vanessa Chaviano (School Board), and Matt Caldwell (Property Appraiser) received contributions.
It should be noted that the Chair of the CLC PAC is Andrew Sund. Sund was the President of the Cape Coral Republican Club prior to Kevin Karnes and ran for State Committeeman. This means that Sund utilized funds from the club to give to the PAC to give to himself to run his campaign. The Treasurer of the CLC PAC is Judith Persons, the wife of School Board Member Armor Persons, the mother of Tallahassee Representative Jenna Persons-Mulicka, and the mother-in-law of Commissioner Dave Mullicka. Mrs. Persons used funds to give to her son-in-law. The Secretary of the CLC PAC is Jake Cataldo who was the write-in-in candidate for Dave Mullicka’s commissioner’s race. The significance behind this is that once Cataldo made himself a write-in-candidate, the commissioner’s race became a closed primary race (only Republicans could vote) as opposed to an open primary race (everyone can vote regardless of political affiliation). This gave Miller the ability to utilize his PAC money focusing solely on the Republican base in the county and to sabotage the Grassroots candidate through slanderous mailers.
It might not always be clear exactly what the connections are and what these people are doing for each other outside of providing campaign contributions. But, what is clear is that there are connections between these individuals that inevitably drive decisions made in our county.
What is also clear is that although Spencer Roach, Trey Radel and a deluge of cabal members tout Miller as a winner, Miller is NOT choosing winners that ultimately have the best interest of “we” lowly serfs in mind, and they certainly walk right up to the line where abuse of power is concerned.
One only has to look at Miller’s Southwest Florida Jobs Alliance PAC contributions after the primary to find the big payoffs equipping him to work in cahoots with the developers and elected officials. The Bonita Development Company dropped $50,000, and look at what they are getting in return, https://discovercabana.com/about/. Representative Jenna Persons-Mulicka dropped $15,000 into this PAC while her husband dropped $18,250. I’d call that paying to win an election. State Senator Jonatham Martin dropped $11,000, and another PAC called Freedom First dropped $60,000. And, keep in mind, or County Commissioners and the municipalities have to give approval for these developments to occur. And, former State Representative Spencer Roach dropped $10,000 into Miller’s Just the Facts PAC, the PAC most commonly used to smear Miller’s opponents.
What did Miller’s Jobs Alliance PAC pay his company, TM Strategic in three short months since the primary election, approximately $60,000. Since 7/22/24, Miller’s Just the Facts PAC paid TM Strategic approximately $50,598.
https://dos.elections.myflorida.com/committees/ComDetail.asp?account=74338
https://dos.elections.myflorida.com/committees/ComDetail.asp?account=74895
When our Property Appraiser and State Committeeman Matt Caldwell ran for re-election for Property Appraiser this election cycle, he indicated on a robo-text that he works as Miller’s partner in TM Strategic. This means that a Board Member of the Lee GOP and an elected official is also a campaign manager. Is it unreasonable to consider this a conflict of interest?
The only significant entity that the Miller Cabal does not control is the Lee GOP. The Lee GOP is the committee for the county that works with the Republican Party of the State of Florida and the Republican National Committee. Anyone that has been a Republican for one year can apply to be a member.
On December 3rd, a vote of the Lee GOP Committee will determine who the next Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, and Treasurer will be. Terry Miller candidate, Armor Persons, is running for Chair.
Now I am sure that School Board Member Armor Persons will do everything in his power to have me removed as a member of the Lee County GOP because according to him since his son-in-law won in the primary election, as a good Republican, I should have supported his candidacy for the general election. It is of no concern to him and to the cabal in general that Dave Mulicka used campaign manager Miller who utilizes political action committee money to sabotage the campaigns of Grassroots conservatives, and it is of no concern to them that Mulicka is involved in toxic dumping. What is of concern is that I am exposing them.
I admit I am not cleaning house for the FDA, the DOJ or other entities like Trump that will inevitably have a positive impact on our constitutional rights, but cleaning house in Lee County and hoping to get true conservatives in office who are honest and ethical seems like Republican values to me.
