Republican Party of Florida suspends Manatee County Republican Executive Committee

The Republican Party of Florida overwhelmingly voted to suspend the Manatee County Republican Executive Committee last weekend, following months of internal turmoil and stunning primary election night results.

The Manatee County REC has been embroiled in internal turmoil between much of the membership and Chair April Culbreath, State Committeewoman Cindy Spray and State Committeeman Dave Matthews that has tarnished much of the 2024 election season for the committee.

Fallout from the situation led the Florida GOP to dissolve the county's republican executive committee, but not until after impacts from the Republican primary election became clear.

Related? Anti-establishment candidates win big in Manatee County Commission Republican primary

Previously: Florida GOP chair backs Culbreath in Manatee County REC power struggle

"I don't think this has ever happened in the history of the Republican Party in Florida," state Sen. Joe Gruters told the Herald-Tribune. "So this is a precedent that was set on Saturday."

"Obviously, there is major dysfunction within the REC and it got to a point where I think multiple lawsuits have been filed against the officers," he said. "In a time we need to be unified, it doesn't do any good to be focused on petty internal battles at the local level. So they dissolved it."

Manatee REC suspended following stunning primary election

Despite months of conflict, the RPOF did not take action on controversy at the Manatee County REC until after grassroots candidates Jacqueline Heisse and Trent Wayman were elected to replace Spray and Matthews as the REC's state committee members.

The Manatee County REC has been split for months over decisions made by the two committee members and Culbreath, who has known associations to local developers and other candidates favored by them. Their opponents within the REC successfully cast support behind grassroots candidates during the primary election to oust or deny many of them from office.

More background: Manatee County Republican Executive Committee chairwoman is under fire over financial woes

Culbreath lost her bid for the District 3 County Commissioner seat in the Republican primary to Talha Siddique. Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed-Commissioner Ray Turner lost his election bid for the District 5 seat to Robert McCann. Supervisor of Elections James Satcher — another of DeSantis' recent appointees — also lost his bid for election to the seat to Scott Farrington.

District 3 County Commissioner Kevin Van Ostenbridge also lost his challenge for the At-Large District 7 seat held by incumbent Commissioner George Kruse, and developer-favored Steve Metallo lost his bid for the District 5 commission seat to Carol Felts.

Eddie Speir — who was ousted from his governor-appointed role on the New College of Florida board in 2023 after falling out of favor with state legislators — also announced intent to run for the chairmanship role. Speir overwhelmingly lost his primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan for the U.S. House of Representatives District 16 seat. He was one of the first members of the Manatee REC to post publicly about the suspension.

"They're trying to kill the grassroots," Speir said. "This is retaliation for what happened in Manatee County. April Culbreath has been protected by Evan Power and the leadership of the RPOF. We have filed many grievances against her, we want to take a vote and remove her so we can operate as a party, but instead we've got this captured leadership at a local level and at a state level."

"When we administer a defeat against them, they don't like it and this is retribution," he said.

RPOF Chairman: "We just can't figure out what's going on there"

While the RPOF board voted to suspend Manatee County's REC it tasked Chairman Evan Power with devising an action plan at a future meeting in a couple of weeks.

He said the RPOF may use leftover Manatee REC funds to support candidates running during the November elections until a new plan is implemented in Manatee.

"We had hundreds of grievances, there is police reports, there's lawsuits," Power said. "The board of the RPOF decided it's in our best interest to suspend the entity so that we can focus on winning elections in November rather than infighting, because we just can't figure out what's going on there."

"The board of the RPOF will meet to take up a turnaround plan," he said. "We'll put a plan in place so that we can move the REC forward."

Gruters was one of a handful of dissenting votes because he believed problems at the Manatee REC should be addressed through the typical reorganization process rather than outright suspension.

"In the normal process every four years there is a re-organization of the local REC; it happens every presidential cycle," Gruters said. "All of that is thrown out. I'm not a believer that the precedent that is going to be set is the path that should be followed."

He said the decision was not meant to favor any of the political factions within the REC, and he understood the will of the RPOF to decide to move on instead.

"The Republican Party is not picking sides," Gruters said. "The chair and all officers were removed, and at the same time all people that filled out the paperwork that filled out for the next reorganization were also removed. So the intent is the party will be able to come in and try to set it up to where you are going to have a successful party in Manatee County again, but it's going to take some time."

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Florida GOP suspends the Manatee County Republican Executive Committee