If you’ve been observing Sarasota politics for a number of years, then you’ve seen Bridget and Christian Ziegler in action. It’s fair to say humility isn’t their strong suit. Christian’s “Mastering the Spin: Effective Messaging Strategies” session at June’s “Moms for Liberty” summit in Philadelphia included a Ziegler strategic pillar. Ziegler instructed his pupils: “Never apologize. Ever.….I think apologizing makes you look weak.”
Recent revelations have made it clear that the Zieglers don’t walk their brash brand of “family values” talk. A Co-Founder of Moms for Liberty, Bridget Ziegler claims to have played a key role in creating Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” legislation. Christian’s has long proclaimed himself to be a family values guy as a Sarasota County Commissioner and Chair of the Florida GOP. Regardless of the outcome of the recent sexual assault allegation against Christian Ziegler, we all know that a husband and wife juggling their schedule to make time for a threesome isn’t the sort of multi-tasking wanted or expected of the crusading “Don’t Say Gay” Co-Founder of Moms for Liberty and member of the Sarasota County School Board, or the Chairman of the Florida GOP.
Prior to this bombshell, there were plenty of reasons to want both Zieglers to resign. During their tenure as high profile GOP leaders in Sarasota, the ease with which the Zieglers misled, mistreated or maligned others to advance their interests has been breathtaking. While they differ in their delivery, both Zieglers engage in their duplicitous, brass knuckle brand of politics.
Christian Ziegler brashly stoked “Stop the Steal” election fraud lies. He encouraged Floridians to go to the Capitol and protest the result of a legitimate election and our nation’s peaceful transfer of power. He recorded and posted a video of himself (on Twitter) there in the crowd on J6 – then later deleted it (hmm…seems there’s a pattern there). According to media reports, Florida leads the nation with Insurrection arrests and prosecutions. Christian Ziegler told the Palm Beach Post he left the J6 protest (in an Uber) because “I don’t need to be involved in that stuff. I don’t support that.” Interesting. Ziegler had no problem inflaming his followers with election fraud lies on his Twitter page. When you light a match and fan the flames of a fire, and then it burns out of control, you don’t get to claim you’re not part of it. That dog won’t hunt.
Christian distancing himself from insurrectionists is similar to Bridget Ziegler’s big whopper of a lie after a photograph of her 2022 election night celebration showed Proud Boys in attendance. She texted a local reporter who asked her about the Proud Boys at her victory party: ”They aren’t involved with the work and they played no part in the win, but they attend public events and try to photobomb every photo just to secure attention and headlines. These guys who show up — are total yahoos, irrelevant — and need to be called out. Why you guys continue to give them any relevance is beyond me.“
The truth is, the Proud Boys worked hard to get Bridget elected, and she knows it.
After being re-elected last year, Bridget Ziegler started her third term with a majority of board members sympathetic to her views. That majority wasted no time firing Brennan Asplen, an accomplished Superintendent who enjoyed broad community support. The new board’s hatchet job on Asplen, under Bridget’s chairmanship, was a draconian move against a competent professional. In his farewell statement, Asplen emphasized the need to get politics out of the School Board. He read a tweet from Christian Ziegler, which characterized Bridget as a “winner” for claiming his (Asplen’s) scalp.
In an unprecedented move in local campaign finance, Bridget Ziegler became chair and registered agent of the political committee “Friends of Bridget Ziegler” during her 2022 race. Eric Robinson, her former school board colleague and collaborator (aka the Prince of Dark Money) is the PAC treasurer. Political committees are not limited in the amount of money they can accept from donors. Having a candidate chair a political committee has been understood to be a clear violation of campaign finance standards and accompanying limits on donations. Yet Ziegler’s campaign appears to have benefited from both campaign funding and her personal “Friends of Bridget Ziegler” PAC’s donations.
“Friends of Bridget Ziegler” accepted $10,000 from a local gun shop, and paid Christian Ziegler’s company, Microtargeted Media, over $20,000 for campaign services. As a Sarasota School Board member and candidate, Bridget Ziegler had no problem with the optics of accepting $10,000 in funding from a gun shop. During a time when gun violence is the leading cause of death of American children, you’d think a school board candidate would decline money from a firearms business. You can support the Second Amendment and still think this was a monumentally selfish and insensitive thing for Bridget to do (tone deaf doesn’t begin to cover it). And while it may be legal, paying your husband from a PAC that you shouldn’t be leading in the first place (if you have any respect for campaign finance standards) is ridiculous self-dealing.
There’s more that’s been spelled out by others, like the abuse of fellow School Board member Tom Edwards by speakers when Bridget Ziegler chaired the meetings.. Banning Books. How Sarasota School Board meetings become a stage for national news coverage. Bridget was the first Sarasota candidate to benefit from dark money in her 2014 race. Now she chairs her own PAC (when did that become okay?)
It’s time for Mrs. Ziegler to step down and apologize to the community. It may not happen at Tuesday’s School Board meeting, but let’s hope Bridget finds the strength to do it. We can find a better way beyond Sarasota’s current divisive politics.
I hope everyone looks up “Move To Amend” and signs their petition to overturn the Citizens United ruling that allowed billion$ of dark money in national politics. Maybe that would “trickle down” and get rid of local dark money, too.
Just wondering if yellow fever is below or above vermin. If above I propose a ranking change to below. As I understand vermin, they negatively infest the population and can be seen. Yellow fever is not as obvious.
I believe it should be William Saba, on your chart.
Finally a clear definition of the word hypocrisy with side view definitions of greed and stupid.
There’s such a history with the Zieglers. Important for us to remember how she has conducted herself.
You are far too kind. It boils down to the fact that both Christian and Bridget are horrible, self-serving clowns who only ever bother to act when there is a direct benefit to themselves. We all know people like them, those who constantly degrade and belittle others in an attempt to aggrandize themselves and distract from their many failings. I said many years ago that the Zeiglers were the worst thing to happen to Sarasota since Yellow Fever. I was wrong. They are far worse than Yellow Fever.
Appreciate your comment Edward. They are self-serving and apparently have few defenders. They have turned off many in their own party. Telling that Christian Ziegler doesn’t consider DeSantis’ call for him to resign as enough reason to go. It appears Bridget will do the same – defy the public outcry for her resignation. We’ll see how she addresses her situation at the school board meeting tonight!