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Pat Neal is elected as the new mayor and council member for the City of Venice
Francesco Abbruzzino, The Uncensored Report, LLC
I was asked to tell my story about running against what I can now comfortably call the Jack Brill and Pat Neal machine. Make no mistake I was not running against Nick Pachota. If I were running against Nick; I would be mayor today. Nick could not match me in the forums and the sentiment out there was not for Nick, which I will cover in a bit.
When I decided to run, it was because I did not think Nick should run unopposed for mayor, especially since I had such different view from him on development. Nick had a philosophy that he repeated a few times. He voted for the developments to avoid lawsuits. Now in some cases, laws like the Bert Harris Act would tie a council members hand and they would have to vote for the developer, but not in all cases. We did not just need Nicks voting record to see where he stood, we just had to see Pat Neal’s actions, when he tried to get me to drop out of the race by getting Ron Smith to join the mayors race. He wanted someone that Nick could beat and someone that would not cost Pat Neal so much money.
I am now confident that Jack Brill and Pat Neal had a significant amount of influence over the Florida First Initiative mailers that were going out weekly and the text, which were sent out to all Republican’s with a blue “D” on my picture, to insinuate that I was a Democrat. Let’s start from the beginning though.
If you look at Nick’s campaign, there really wasn’t one. He had a two-page website covering that he work experience in EMS and the Venice Pier Group. Then a second page asking for money. He did touch on the fact that he just served three years as a council member, something I am not even sure he originally qualified for based upon the requirements for living within the city for one year prior to running……….
So, he had a website with no platform, and he would just mention that he was a council member, with no detail. No detail because his three years were lackluster and nothing to talk about. At the forums he would give very general information and would at times state he is for sustainable growth, even though he always voted for the developers and pushed for an attorney to squash the Venice Unites LDR petition. Sound like a sustainable growth candidate? No, that is because he was a Pat Neal candidate.
Now keep in mind as I cover the rest of this, that I am a committeeman within the Republican Party of Sarasota County. Nick is a Republican and I know a lot of the inside information. Even on Rick Howard, the other Pat Neal puppet. How many of you believe Rick did not know of Neal? I guess the alleged brunch he went to with Neal and Brill prior to his announcement never happened……………
Jack Brill and Pat Neal hand selected Nick and Rick as the next mayor and council member. Nick was picked over a year ago and they had hoped that no Republican would challenge Nick or their authority over selecting candidates. Both Nick and Rick know this, which is why Nick gave very little info on his platform and Rick didn’t even bother with a website. They know they could count on the Pat Neal influenced PAC to send out mailers and text, which would win the election for them.
They would disavow the mailers and text, which is easy to do, and it is a game they play within my party. The politicians have the PAC’s help them and they disavow knowing the public will forgive them and, in the meantime, they benefit from the PAC’s actions. Notice you never saw Nick speaking out about Pat Neal, calling him out to stop the text and mailers, or doing anything outside of disavowing the mailers. The fact that Democrats came out in support of me was slipped by me to Jack Brill prior to everyone else and what a surprise it was texted out to every Republican that the Dem’s were supporting me the very next day. Wonder how that happened? Nick never stepped up to stop volunteers from pushing him, only handing out his flyers, or having the Susan at the local GOP state that they endorsed Nick over me, according to a couple of my supporters that called there for direction. All violations of the local Sarasota County GOP rules and all stuff that Nick knew was happening. Yet, he did nothing to end it. Meanwhile I was at the tables giving my info and talking to people and suggesting that they should go to talk to Nick or take his flyer, so that they were fully informed.
Nick did nothing about former disgraced City of Venice council member Emilio Carlissimo trying to prevent the Sarasota County GOP from putting my name on the GOP voters guide at an REC meeting. This move would have kept Nicks name off of it to, but they figured that everyone knew Nick was a Republican and they did not want anybody to know that I was a Republican. At the same meeting Emilio came up to me and told me that he and Mike Stevenson (President of the S. County Republican’s) would not be supporting me. I asked when I sought out their support because I did not, and I asked him to move on because I did not like him. What Emilio was referring to is a meeting I setup with Mike. It was just supposed to be Mike and myself, to talk and get to know each other. Mike with Emilio setup an ambush, with two other individuals. It became apparent what Emilio’s objective was, he kept asking questions that I knew the answers to, but he would get defensive state I was not responding right, to make me look foolish in front of the others, in the hope that I would lose their support. Supposedly Nick knew nothing about all of this, yet when after I discussed it with him, he did nothing to correct the wrong publicly. I did let Mike and Emilio know that I wanted nothing to do with either of them after the ambush and prior to the REC meeting where Emilio tried to prevent my name from being put in the voter’s guide.
Let’s talk about Nick actions, at the early voting table and via text. He had a flyer on the table and sent out a mailer showing Gruters, Stuebe, and Buchanan. Stating nothing just their pictures on his flyer, giving the impression that they supported or endorsed him. He sent out a text stating that they endorsed him, to all Republicans. I wrote Gruters via email, he stated that he endorsed Nick over a year ago, prior to myself entering the race and it was more of endorsement that Nick would be a good candidate for mayor, NOT an endorsement over me. Stuebe’s office state they never get involved in mayoral races, essentially meaning that Stuebe did not endorse Nick over me. Yet this did not stop Nick from texting this out to all Republican’s. So much for morals, right?
While the Pat Neal influenced PAC was sending out mailers and text for Nick and Rick, Nick was attending a shade meeting to discuss a Pat Neal permitting lawsuit settlement. Word has it that the settlement agreement was for over two million, which seems off because the suit was for just over one million. None of this has been confirmed because it was a secretive shade meeting between the City of Venice and Pat Neal. We will not know the true story until it comes before the council for a vote.
I can comfortably sit here and state today that Nick Pachota and Rick Howard are not the mayor or City Council Member. No, Pat Neal wears both hats and these two are just puppets that will have to do as Pat states and wants, since Nick won their elections for them with Florida First Initiative putting out so much money in mailers and text. I believe that Nick and Rick must recuse themselves from any decisions that involved Pat Neal because myself and many cities residents will wonder if Pat Neals influence in the elections will have any impact on Nick and Rick’s votes. I will go even further and suggest that both Nick and Rick would step down and call for another vote without any special interest injecting money into the election. However, I think both are morally bankrupt, which was so apparent during the campaign when they witnessed all this taking place and decided to do nothing. There are a couple other members on the council that are allegedly in Pat Neal’s pocket, but I will leave that to the City of Venice residents to figure out.
Again, this is coming from someone that is in the same party as both Nick and Rick, with a clear understanding of how our party works. Basic information that the average Republican voter doesn’t even understand. I was amazed working the early voting table how many people would just come up to the table and ask who they should vote for, according to the party. They have no idea that the local party is controlled by Jack Brill and Pat Neal, both suggesting candidates that will serve their interest and not the best candidate based upon party ideology. If that were the case, many would have voted for me over Nick. It is very well known that I am a 1776er and that Nick is Rhino. Many of us consider Nick to be a Democrat dressing up as a Republican to win elections, like John Holic tried doing when he wanted to run for county commission. Something many politicians do. That is what made the Florida First Initiative text so funny, that they were pushing that I was a liberal and that so many Republican voters believed it, since it appeared to be coming from the Republican Party. Bottom line, do your research and understand that party picks are politicized by self-interest and not politics.
As for myself, I am done running for office and never plan on going through this process again. I am hoping that this article will serve as a wake-up call for the residents of Venice. A wake-up call to get active, watch the meetings and pay attention to the votes. Do not let the Republican party decide how you should vote, when there are two Republicans in a race. I will stay active in politics; I just will not run anymore. After all, I could never win with Pat Neal and Jack Brill influenced PAC’s spending thousands to get their candidates into office.
Thoughts?