Sarasota’s Fake Voter Guide

Exposing a PAC mailer attempting to fool Sarasota voters

Republican voters in Sarasota County were mailed a fake voter guide that appears to have the seal of approval of the Florida GOP and was paid for by the Make America Great Again political committee. This committee is chaired by Eric Robinson and he is its treasurer and registered agent. This mailer contains voter recommendations that appear to come from the Florida GOP. But who is putting money into the Make America Great Again political committee? Which funders of this committee would benefit from this fake voter guide? And how can you tell it’s fake?

There are a number of ways to know this voter guide is fake. 1. The Florida GOP doesn’t endorse candidates in Republican primaries 2. This voter guide looks like it’s coming from a MAGA group, but local MAGA groups have made different endorsements than those in this voter guide.

The PAC money trail is another clear indication that this voter guide was put together to look official, but is really just an attempt to fool voters into believing that these candidates got the endorsement of Republican MAGA groups, when, in fact, they did not. Knight and Coe have been endorsed by such groups.

The PAC Friends of Teresa Mast recently gave $80,000 to Robinson’s Make America Great Again political committee. David Ramba is the treasurer of Friends of Teresa Mast, and Teresa Mast is the Chairman. Robinson is Mast’s campaign treasurer. Mast is endorsed by this fake voter guide. She certainly benefits from fooling voters this way.

The PAC Friends of Neil Rainford recently gave $40,000 to Robinson’s Make America Great Again political committee. Eric Robinson is the chairman, registered agent and treasurer of Friends of Neil Rainford. Robinson is also Rainford’s campaign treasurer. Rainford is endorsed by this fake voter guide. He certainly benefits from fooling voters this way.

Both Mast and Rainford have hired Anthony Pedicini, a political consultant who is known for questionable political maneuvers (which many would say is putting it mildly).

Manatee County voters are more familiar with the impact of Pedicini’s political work. In 2020 Pedicini was the political consultant working for a slate of candidates who took office. Most of those who were elected in 2020 and are now widely considered to be a “rubber stamp” for developers and uninterested in public input or engagement. For instance, the Pedicini commissioners (with the exception of George Kruse) seriously hacked away at wetlands protections which protect Manatee residents and property from flooding. Manatee residents were stunned at the indifference of the Commission to public outcry against undoing reasonable wetlands protections.

SIMWINS is Pedicini’s firm, which profits handsomely from their portfolio of political services that both candidate campaigns and political committees can buy. SIMWINS has been paid over $33 million since February of 2020 for political services from state candidate and political committee campaigns. That number doesn’t include payments from County or City candidate and political committee campaigns. The magnitude of the receipts received by SIMWINs is staggering.

How can it be legal for the political committee Make America Great Again to put out a voter guide with a Florida GOP logo and potentially other misleading use of branding? It may not be. There are reports of a potential legal challenge to those responsible for this and other similarly misleading voter guides showing up in other Florida counties.

We’ve seen negative mailers before. The negative mailers coming from the Pedicini camp have been intense in the Sarasota District 3 County Commission race between Knight and Rainford. I’ve never seen a fake voter guide before. Voter Beware.