Is the Volusia County REC a Swamp?

Press Release - reprinted with permission from author, Volusia County Commissioner Jeff Brower. Edited only for clarity by FNR.

Florida News Report was contacted 07/02/2022 regarding Volusia County Commissioner Jeff Brower’s press release calling for the resignation of the Volusia Republican Executive Committee Chairman Paul Deering and Vice Chairman Tom Coriale.

Commissioner Bower explained in detail below in his statement listing his allegations against Paul Deering and Tom Coriale:

“Volusia County Republican Executive Committee Chair Alienates Volusia Voters”

“Paul Deering and his accomplices create a Status Quo, Growth at all Costs Slate of Candidates. VCREC Chair Paul Deering must resign:

• Vice-Chair Tom Coriale’s Wife emails their REC leadership approved voting preferences to swing votes before the candidates were ever allowed to speak.

• Peter Kouracos files a request for grievance proceeding due to abuse of RPOF Rule 8 to the RPOF.

• Deering was served with a lawsuit by a candidate’s lawyer but chose to proceed anyway.

• Deering ignored a letter from most of the candidates in the District 7 Congressional race with an appeal based on history and the misuse of the Rule 8 he was using to proceed with his unfair vote. (FNR added: Anthony Sabatini and Erika Benfield are two of the six Republican Primary candidates for Congressional District 7)

• Volusia REC is the only county of 67 in FL that chose to do this.

Today, Jeff Brower, who currently serves as Volusia County Council Chair, called for the immediate resignations of Paul Deering Chairman of the Volusia County Republican Executive Committee (VCREC), and VCREC Vice-Chair Tom Coriale.

This past Thursday (06/30/22), Deering called an unprecedented “emergency meeting” of the VCREC to vote to endorse his hand-picked Republican candidates over other Republican candidates. He picked and whipped the vote in contested non-partisan races to be placed on the Republican Primary voter guide.

This has resulted in a growing request for his immediate resignation. This kind of vote is not commonly done in a non-partisan primary. It is the general practice to place all candidates in good standing on the primary guide. Deering and his accomplices are maneuvering to sweep the Volusia County Council races with his chosen slate of candidates who will continue their big donor’s growth-at-all-costs policies.

Over the past several months, Deering has been packing the VCREC membership with his hand-chosen allies, while blocking the membership of grass-roots Republicans who disagree with his bigger-government, higher-tax philosophy.

“Deering is running the Republican Party in Volusia like the Chinese Communist Politburo. He manipulated the VCREC to endorse three big-government, higher-tax, developer-backed RINOS who want to continue the corrupt “pay-to-play” politics of our county, while openly denying membership to grass-roots Republicans.”, said Brower, Chairman of the Volusia County Council.

The Deering-stacked committee endorsed Jake Johansson, Danny Robins, and David Santiago for Volusia County council, despite protests from the rank-and-file and despite their records of substantially higher property taxes in Port Orange and Volusia County respectively.

“Deering has disenfranchised every voter in Volusia who wants a change from our current growth-at-all-costs trajectory and continued property and sales tax increases to pay for this mismanagement. Unfortunately for Volusia voters, he has created a slate of candidates who support everything most voters in our county adamantly oppose. I thought Republicans were supposed to stand for lower taxes and smaller government. This will hurt the Republican brand badly, and I am sure Governor DeSantis is unaware of this chicanery here in Volusia.”

“Deering’s hand-picked candidates for the Council are status-quo, big-government, high-tax politicians. Port Orange experienced property-tax hikes throughout Jake’s tenure as City Manager. And Danny led the forces that substantially raised Volusia County property taxes last year. Working families, those who rent and those on fixed-income have suffered as a result. Both these men represent the corrupt cycle of accepting big-developer, special interest money to support over-development, which has led to traffic gridlock and declining water quality.”

Johansson’s, Robins’, and Santiago’s (three) opponents, Doug Petit, Ted Noftal, and Julio David Sosa respectively, have both signed pledges to oppose any further property or sales tax increases, and are running on the “Volusia Values” Platform to curb over-development and traffic gridlock, and clean-up the County’s water supply.

Now it is widely believed Deering and Coriale plan to use an estimated $150,000 of VCREC money to mail out a “Voter’s Guide” endorsing Deering’s hand-picked candidates to fool Volusia voters.

Unsuspecting donors gave generously to the VCREC at the last Lincoln Day dinner, and had no idea their money would be misused this way. Paul Deering is giving the false impression that Johansson, Robins and Santiago are the only Republicans running in these non- partisan elections for County Council. This is shameful. I call on Paul Deering to give donors back their money.

Deering’s goal is clearly to defeat the “Volusia Values” ballot of Republican candidates that are committed to controlling gridlock and overdevelopment, stopping the tax increases necessary to pay for it, protecting our area rivers (all of which are listed by the state as impaired), and restoring the dying Indian River Lagoon.

The “Volusia Values” candidates for the Volusia County Council endorsed by Jeff Brower are Doug Petit (At-large), Ken Smith (District 4), David Sosa (District 5) and Ted Noftal (District 3).”