Florida blogger Billy Townsend agrees with me: Christian Ziegler should not resign as leader of the GOP in Florida. Sure, he was involved in a sex scandal. Sure, he’s a dictator. But he’s the perfect face for the party of Ron Ziegler (a wannabe dictator) and Trump (also a wannabe dictator who’s had his share of sex scandals).
We disagree about Bridget. He thinks she should resign from the Sarasota school board. I want her to stay so she can defend gay students.
Christian and Bridget Ziegler have been leaders of the extreme rightwing in Florida. They are (or were) close to Governor DeSantis and Donald Trump. But when they became ensnared in a sex scandal, they were exposed as rank hypocrites. Christian thus far insists he won’t step down as chairman of the Florida Republican Party. Bridget Ziegler was one of the three co-founders of Moms for Liberty, which led the fight to ban books about homosexuality and to harass transgender students. The website of Moms for Liberty now claims there were only two co-founders; she has been written out of their narrative. She’s a non-person. The editorial board of the Orlando Sentinel says it’s time for both of them to resign. Karma is a bitch.
The deepening troubles of Christian and Bridget Ziegler would be just another local news story if they were two private people. But they are highly public figures who are suddenly in a heap of trouble, and their sex life is in headlines.
He is chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, close to both Gov. Ron DeSantis and former president Donald Trump. She is a nationally known conservative culture warrior, a Sarasota County School Board member and a co-founder of the book-banning Moms for Liberty, which denounces all things LGBTQ. She is also a DeSantis appointee to the Disney World oversight board.
Christian Ziegler is accused, though not formally charged, of raping a woman at her apartment in Sarasota. She told police of a previous three-way sexual encounter with both Zieglers and said she was “mostly in” for Bridget — not him.
Sarasota police and the Florida Trident — the reporting arm of the nonprofit Florida Center for Governmental Accountability — say Bridget Ziegler confirmed the previous threesome. They had recorded Christian Ziegler promising his accuser that there would be another. Text messages showed that the woman had told him not to come to her house without Bridget. He went there anyway and admits to having sex with her, but insists it was consensual.
DeSantis wants Ziegler out, but claims to be powerless to remove him. (To that we say: Since when has that stopped him?) So do other leading Republicans: Sen. Rick Scott, all three Cabinet members and both leaders of the state Legislature. Conspicuously missing from their statements are expressions of concern for the possible rape victim.
The state party vice chairman, Evan Power, has called a closed-door Dec. 17 executive committee meeting in Orlando to “censure or discipline” the chairman after Ziegler refused to call the meeting himself.
Bridget Ziegler remains on the school board, feeding the nationwide mockery over the blatant hypocrisy between her private life and her public preaching. She is also under pressure to resign.
Christian Ziegler is legally innocent unless he’s convicted. There is nothing on the public record that Bridget Ziegler could be charged with, since hypocrisy is not a crime. Neither is a ménage à trois among consenting adults. Her virulent hatred for all things LGBTQ in public while conducting a bisexual tryst in private is damning only in the court of public opinion.
But the Zieglers show contempt for public opinion and for the Republican political machine that enriched them and made them prominent public figures. They should retire discreetly to private life while the criminal investigation proceeds.
Whether she can ever again be a credible member of a school board, or maintain any connection with Moms for Liberty, is in serious doubt. She should resign, too.
Even if she doesn’t, DeSantis clearly holds power over the position he gave her, on the board of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District. Why hasn’t he yanked that appointment, or demanded that she step down?
“She is nothing but a distraction from before and only getting worse and it will never go away as long as she sits there,” fellow School Board member Tom Edwards told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
Some organizations see the hypocrisy in the own ranks.
Moms for Liberty, its credibility further damaged, raced to distance itself from Ziegler and announced that she left its national leadership three years ago, even as she continued to propagate its ideology of intolerance.
She’s also been jettisoned from an organization that “trains conservatives.” Her latest financial disclosure form lists $64,101 in income from the Leadership Institute LLC in Arlington, Va., nearly twice her school board salary of $33,916. Until Wednesday, it listed her as vice president of its School Board Leadership Program. Her name disappeared later that day from the staff list…
Christian Ziegler, meanwhile, regurgitates the standard defense of influential men accused of sexual assault. He claims he’s the victim, if you can believe that.
“We have a country to save, and I am not going to let false allegations of a crime put that mission on the bench as I wait for the process to wrap up,” he said.
Like Trump, who supported his election as party chair, and like DeSantis, whose slogan is “Never Back Down,” Ziegler advised a Moms for Liberty national conference to “Never apologize. Ever.” It was a reference to a Moms for Liberty chapter that apologized for using a quote from Adolf Hitler in its newsletter.
As a political strategist, he is ruthless. “Until we get every Democrat out of office and no Democrat considers running for office, we’re going to continue to step on the gas and move forward in Florida,” he said on X, formerly Twitter, last February, when he was elected party chairman.
Until no Democrat dares to run?
Across Florida, teachers are afraid to acknowledge to their students that same-sex relationships exist. Books are being taken off library shelves because they tell the truth about the modern implications of slavery and racism. Works of towering literary merit are being treated like smut because of brief passages describing sexual encounters. Teenaged victims of rape face the possibility that they will be forced to carry their attackers’ babies to term. Transgender Floridians are terrified they’ll lose access to the health care they depend upon.
This is the world the Zieglers helped to make. Now they should live by its narrow, hateful strictures.
I disagree with the editorial. Christian and Bridget committed no crime. He is a bully, but everyone knew that. Let him remain as the face of the state Republican Party. Bridget inveighed against the dangers of gay sex, but she indulged in it herself. She even harassed a member of the Sarasota school board because he is gay. She should remain on the school board and own up to her bisexuality. Maybe contrition will lead her to new views, inspire her to empathy, and enable her to retract her intolerance. We can always hope.
By now, you have heard about the allegations of sexual misconduct by Christian Ziegler, leader of Florida’s state Republican Party, and his wife, Bridget Ziegler, co-founder of Moms for Liberty, school board member in Sarasota, and DeSantis appointee to the Disney World governing board. An unnamed woman accused Christian Ziegler of raping her. In her statement to the police, she referred to a prior three-way sexual tryst that included Bridget Ziegler. She canceled her date with Christian because he didn’t bring Bridget. Then she claims he showed up and raped her.
If you want to see the full police affidavit, read Mercedes Schneider’s account of the ménage a trois.
If you want to see Peter Greene’s wise take, read here.
Moms for Liberty released the following statement via a public relations person:
From: Grace English <Grace@cavalrystrategies.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 5, 2023 1:16 PM
Subject: Statement from Moms for Liberty Co-Founders re: Christian and Bridget Ziegler
Hello,
In response to numerous media inquiries about Christian and Bridget Ziegler, please see the following statement from Moms for Liberty Co-Founders Tiffany Justice and Tina Descovich:
Comment from Tina Descovich and Tiffany Justice:
“We have been truly shaken to read of the serious, criminal allegations against Christian Ziegler. We believe any allegation of sexual assault should be taken seriously and fully investigated.
“Bridget Ziegler resigned from her role as co-founder with Moms for Liberty within a month of our launch in January of 2021, nearly three years ago. She has remained an avid warrior for parental rights across the country.
“To our opponents who have spewed hateful vitriol over the last several days: We reject your attacks. We will continue to empower ALL parents to build relationships that ensure the survival of our nation and a thriving education system. We are laser-focused on fundamental parental rights, and that mission is and always will be bigger than any one person.” – Tina Descovich and Tiffany Justice
—
Grace English
Cavalry Strategies
(904) 923-1684
It’s worth subscribing to the Orlando Sentinel just to read Scott Maxwell. His commentary on Florida politics is priceless. This one asks: “Why not ban voting altogether?”
He writes:
A common trait among Florida legislators, especially those in positions of power, is that they think they’re really smart. Usually smarter than they are. And definitely smarter than you.
It’s not completely their fault. Many live inside bubbles filled with staffers and lobbyists who constantly tell them they’re brilliant. (And attractive. And hilarious joke-tellers.) Plus, they’re surrounded by a bunch of other politicians. So it’s a low bar.
I mention all this because Republican legislators are resuming one of their long-running crusades, trying to make it harder for you to set the policies and priorities you want in the state in which you live. And they do so because they think you’re too dumb to be trusted — at least when it comes to changing state laws.
See, if 50.1% of voters put a politician into office, that politician usually believes voters have demonstrated the wisdom of Solomon.
But if 60% of you vote for something they dislike — like medical marijuana or a higher minimum wage — then they’re convinced you don’t understand what you’re doing. You’re an idiot. So the politicians want to protect you from yourself.
Republican lawmakers began this crusade about two decades ago. Florida voters had already used the constitutional amendment process to demand things like smaller class sizes — and it really ticked off lawmakers.
So the politicians teamed up with deep-pocketed donors, like Publix and the Florida Association of Realtors, to fund a campaign to raise the threshold for future amendments from 50% to 60%. And it worked.
But the politicians and special interests had a problem: You people — the annoying voters — kept on voting for things they disliked by margins of 60% or more.
So now GOP lawmakers want to raise the bar to 66.7%.
You already live in a state where the minority rules. Now they want to make it the superminority.
This is why I think it would be simpler if these guys were just honest about what they really want — for you people not to vote at all.
Just let them run the show. They’re smarter. And they will protect you from your own bad ideas … like quality pre-K programs for all.
Voters should play as little of a role as possible in democracy. That’s the basic idea from Rep. Rick Roth, a Republican from Palm Beach, perhaps by way of Pyongyang or Havana.
Roth is the sponsor of the bill to raise the amendment threshold to 66.67%. And he has a lot of support within his party. Almost all of the Republicans in the State House supported Roth’s bill last year. It was the Senate that said no.
House Republicans called their 67% bill an effort to demand “broader support.” Yet would you like to guess who didn’t receive “broader support” at the polls? Most of the legislators who supported this bill.
Local reps Doug Bankson, Tom Leek, Rachel Plakon, Susan Plasencia, Tyler Sirois and David Smith were all among the House Republicans who voted for the supermajority requirement for issues but fell short of that in their own personal campaigns. They, of course, still felt quite comfortable taking office.
Give those guys a 51% victory, and they consider it a mandate. But a 63% vote for Fair Districts? Well, you dumb voters just didn’t understand what you were doing.
Many lawmakers also claim the amendment process should be tougher because the Florida Constitution is some sort of sacred document whose hallowed words should not be altered by mortal men — an argument that is a total crock. The Florida Constitution wasn’t handed down to Moses on a mountaintop thousands of years ago. It was last ratified in 1968 when the Beverly Hillbillies was still on TV.
And lawmakers themselves have tried to ram all sorts of half-baked ideas into the constitution in recent years, including a non-binding rant against Obamacare they wanted to insert in 2012.
That they find worthy of inserting into our state’s supposedly sacred constitution. But not restoring civil rights to former felons.
The reason Roth’s push to make the amendment process tougher is getting extra attention this year is that GOP lawmakers are extra nervous about abortion. All over America, moderate Republicans are uniting with Democrats and independents to pass laws guaranteeing the right to abortion access.
Kansas particularly freaked these guys out. When they saw that nearly 60% of voters in that very conservative state supported abortion rights, they knew they needed to change the rules in Florida so that 60% would no longer be considered a victory.
If you can’t win the game on the field, move the goal posts.
But again, it seems like it’d be simpler for these politicians just to ban voting altogether.
Instead of moving the threshold of victory from 50% plus one — which it’s been since the beginning of time — to 60% and then 67% and then who-knows-what later on, just tell citizens they can’t vote anymore.
After all, the politicians are obviously smarter than the rest of us. Just look at the deft way they’ve handled property insurance and things like unemployment benefits.
Citizens, with their silly notions about democracy, fairness, civil rights and quality education, just tend to get in the way.
smaxwell@orlandosentinel.com
The political story of the year in Florida is the accusation by an unnamed woman that she was raped by Christian Ziegler, chairman of the Florida Republican Party, on October 2. Ziegler famously said that he would not be happy until there were no Democrats elected anywhere in Florida.
The Miami Herald published the search warrant records, which contains salacious details of the imbroglio.
The accuser said that she was expecting Christian’s wife Bridget to have a threesome. When Christian told the accuser that Bridget would not be showing up, she canceled the date with Christian. He came to her apartment anyway, forced his way in, she said, and raped her. She told her sister that she had been raped, then she called the police and reported the rape.
Frankly, it’s worth subscribing to the Miami Herald to read the search warrant.
The woman said she had had a sexual tryst with Christian and Bridget over a year ago. She wanted to do it again, but lost interest when she heard that Bridget would not be there. Bridget is co-founder of Moms for Liberty, a Sarasota school board member, and a DeSantis appointee to the board that controls Disney World.
The police have video footage of Christian arriving at the accuser’s door and leaving.
On 10/24/23, Detective viewed the video surveillance footage from the victim apartment complex. The video captured Christian Ziegler arriving in his gray Ford track bearingFL, 4g SRQGOP on 10/02/23, a 1429 hours. Christian immediately entered the apartment complex, is seen coming off the elevator and driving away in the parking lot at 1507 hours, Christian was wearing dark shorts and a red shirt.
Thirty-eight minutes!
As part of the investigation, Detectives performed a digital extraction on the victim’s cell phone. Detectives located several digital messages from Christian 10 the victim ‘on 10/02/23 starting at 0729 hours. In the messages Christian told the victim to go to Instagram. The victim said Christian liked to Instagram because he conceals the messages using vanish mode. 6. In another message he asked the victim for her address and told her they were driving around referring to him and Bridget. Christian continued sending the victim ‘messages, but she did not respond in a timely manner, When the victim finally responded she asked who was coming. At 1412 Christian said “Prob just me this time ‘now. Was ready at 1:30.” Chistian was referring to Bridget being ready at 1:30. At 1424 hours, the victim responded “Sorry I was mostly in for her” referring to Bridget.
Then the Detective joined the victim in communicating with Christian.
On 10/27/23, Detectives leamed that Christian was tryingto contact the victim by ‘sending her messages via Instagram. Detectives and the victim began communicating with Christian via controlled/recorded messages. The following is a summary of the ‘communication: = Victim: I’m not okay with what happened the other day between us.
«Christian: Oh. That’s not good. You are my friend. Known ya for like twenty ‘years now. Lol. Note: Chistian goes on to talk about how long they have been Friends.
Victim: Yeah I know but that was not cool and you didn’t bring her and then did that to me.
«Christian: She was in. Then coulda’ because no response. She said in next time. But understand. You are my friend. I actually like you as a person, so sorry you got upset, but I can leave you alone if you prefer. Note: Christian then tried to change the conversation to getting his haircut,
It goes on and on, and Christian begins to suspect he is being recorded.
One of the great stories of our time.
Fabiola Santiago of the Miami Herald asked the best question: if Bridget Ziegler is having sex with another woman, why is she so hellbent on persecuting gays?
Another question, from me:
Was DeSantis trying to protect the Zieglers when he pushed his “Don’t Say Gay” law?
Christian Ziegler is suffering a huge embarrassment. He is chairman of the Florida GOP and his wife Bridget is co-founder of Moms for Liberty, a Sarasota school board member, and one of DeSantis’s appointees to the board controlling Disney World.
The police released the search warrant for Christian’s cellphone and more details emerged that suggest that these paragons of morality engaged in some scandalous personal behavior.
Moms for Liberty has led a moral crusade to remove books about sex and race from classrooms and school libraries.
A search warrant affidavit released Friday sheds more light on the sexual battery accusations Christian Ziegler is facing amid growing bipartisan calls that he should quit his job as Florida’s Republican Party chair.
The allegations are being brought by a woman who says she had a previous consensual sexual encounter that included Ziegler and his wife, Bridget, also a player in Florida politics, according to the affidavit.
The document obtained through a public records request corroborates details from anonymous sources that were first reported Thursday by the Florida Center for Government Accountability.
Ziegler has not been charged with a crime, and his attorney, Derek Byrd, says he will be cleared of wrongdoing.
Sarasota Police outlined the accusations when applying for a search warrant in the 12th Judicial Circuit for Ziegler’s cellphone, Google email and Google Drive.
Ziegler and the woman who he’d known for 20 years agreed to have a sexual encounter including his wife on Oct. 2, but the woman canceled when she learned Bridget was unable to make it, police said in the affidavit.
The woman told detectives she opened her door to walk her dog and Ziegler entered her apartment and sexually assaulted her, the affidavit states.
“The victim advised Christian did not wear a condom, and he stated ‘I’m leaving the same way I came in,’” the affidavit states.
Ziegler was on surveillance footage visiting the apartment, police said in the affidavit.
Ziegler told detectives in an interview with his attorney present he had consensual sex with the woman and took video of it, initially deleting it but then uploading it to his Google Drive since the allegation, according to the affidavit. Police said in the affidavit that they have not located the footage.
Bridget Ziegler told detectives she was involved in a sexual encounter with her husband and the woman once over a year ago, the affidavit states.
What qualifies these people to be lecturing others about sexual propriety?
Should Moms for Liberty be renamed?
Moms Take Liberties?
Moms at Liberty?
Liberty for Moms?
Governor DeSantis is teaching the nation that “parental rights” are limited. They are respected only when you agree with his ideology. For example, he hates anything related to gay people. He especially hates drag queens. So, parents do not have the right to take their children to a drag queen show, even if the show has zero sexual content. This is peculiar behavior for a short guy who wears white go-go boots to tour hurricane damage.
DeSantis is cracking down on drag queen performances. How dare parents exercise their “parental rights!”
The Orlando Sentinel reported:
The Orlando Philharmonic has settled with state regulators over its “A Drag Queen Christmas” show, agreeing to pay a $5,000 fine and to not allow children into such performances in the future.
The settlement, reached in August but only publicly announced Wednesday, came even though undercover agents reported that they found nothing lewd about the event.
The Plaza Live, owned by the Philharmonic, could have had its alcohol license revoked in the wake of the complaint filed in February by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation over the Dec. 28 show at the theater.
The agency claimed The Orlando Philharmonic Plaza Foundation, which oversees the Plaza Live, had a responsibility under Florida statutes to make sure no minors were in attendance for the show which allegedly featured “simulated sex acts.”
There was a sign at the entrance warning of potentially unsuitable content for those under the age of 18, according to the complaint.
While undercover agents took photos of three minors at the show, all apparently accompanied by adults, an incident report obtained by the Miami Herald stated that nothing indecent had happened on stage.
The Philharmonic admitted no liability by settling the dispute and agreed not to permit minors into such shows. The Philharmonic and state agency also waived all claims against each other.
A spokesperson for the Philharmonic did not respond to requests for comment on the agreement or whether the event would be held this year. No such show was listed on the calendar on the Plaza Live website on Thursday.
In Miami, the city-owned James L. Knight Center agreed to a similar $5,000 fine for a Drag Queen Christmas event the day before the Orlando show. That settlement did not find any violations of administrative or criminal laws, the Herald reported.
The show toured several Florida cities including Orlando, Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Clearwater in December 2022. The Orlando show drew in large crowds of supporters who backed parents’ rights to take their children where they wish and to protest the conservative movement’s attacks on the LGBTQ community.
The show also drew protesters who claimed it exposed children to “sexually explicit” content and accused organizers of “grooming,” an allegation often baselessly directed at LGBTQ people to suggest a link between them and child abuse.
A later law criminalizing “knowingly” admitting children to “adult” live performances, signed earlier this year by Gov. Ron DeSantis, was temporarily blocked from taking effect in July by a judge who ruled that it targeted drag show performers’ free speech rights. The ongoing suit was brought by Orlando restaurant Hamburger Mary’s.
I sent a gift of $50 to the Orlando Philharmonic to thank them for defending freedom of expression. If 99 others do the same, we can make up the ridiculous fine they were forced to pay to pander to DeSantis’s homophobia.
Christian Ziegler is state chairman of the GOP. His wife Bridget Ziegler is founder of Moms for Liberty. They are exceedingly sanctimonious and know what is and is not moral.
For other people.
Sadly, Christian Ziegler is under investigation for sexual battery.
The Sarasota Police Department is investigating an allegation of sexual battery against Florida GOP Chair Christian Ziegler, according to a report by the Florida Center for Government Accountability.
Citing anonymous sources close to the investigation, the government watchdog group says police seized Ziegler’s cell phone and “investigators continue to conduct a forensic examination of the electronic device.”
Multiple GOP sources with knowledge of the investigation confirmed the sexual battery investigation and said the probe also involves allegations of illegally taping sex acts.
The USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida has requested documents from the Sarasota Police Department but has yet to receive them.
“Records is in the process of redacting the report. It is still an open and active investigation,” said Sarasota Police spokeswoman Cynthia McLaughlin.
Ziegler and his wife, Sarasota County School Board member and Moms for Liberty founder Bridget Ziegler, have emerged as one of the most prominent political couples in the state in recent years.
A former Sarasota County Commissioner, Christian Ziegler took over the Florida GOP in February after years of grassroots GOP activism.
Sources told the Florida Center for Government Accountability that the woman accusing Christian Ziegler of sexual battery “alleged that she and both Zieglers had been involved in a longstanding consensual three-way sexual relationship prior to the incident.”
The allegations are sure to reverberate across Florida’s political landscape, throwing the Florida GOP into turmoil at a time when the party is gearing up for the 2024 election.
Hypocrisy, thy name is Florida GOP.
New College in Sarasota is the state college that used to be progressive. Then Governor DeSantis filled its board with rightwing cronies with the goal of turning it into the Hillsdale of the South. To change the culture, the politician who became its president has been recruiting athletes. They are not the type to want to major in gender studies.
Now, Orlando Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell reports, New College wants $400 million to grow. That’s a lot of money for a small college. The Florida press will have to keep watch on where the money goes.
Maxwell writes:
Today we’re catching up on controversy at New College, revisiting one of Central Florida’s stranger environmental debates and bidding adieu to one of Florida’s funniest novelists.
We start with what increasingly looks like the biggest public money-grab in Florida — the orgy of incestuous spending at New College of Florida.
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ trustees at this school already generated national controversy when they hired former House Speaker Richard Corcoran, a guy with no higher ed experience, as the school’s president and hiked his compensation package to up to $1.3 million a year — all to run a school that says it has fewer students (698) than many elementary schools. (Seriously, Apopka Elementary has more than 800.)
But now New College wants more money — a lot more.
The Sarasota Herald Tribune recently reported that its tiny hometown college has requested a “minimum” of $400 million in additional public money to spend over the next five years and increase enrollment by a few hundred students.
Even if the school grew to 1,200 students, you’d be talking about $333,000 per student. For that price, we could practically buy every student their own school. Or at least a classroom.
If only Florida’s political policymakers were as eager to fund public education when their buddies aren’t involved.
Given the cronyism at play — New College also hired a former senate president as its general counsel and the wife of a former GOP party chair as a fundraiser — there will be a lot of people watching to see who gets the contracts dished out when the new largesse is spent.
Speaking of New College’s general counsel, that’s former Senate President Bill Galvano, who generously offered to serve the school and President Corcoran “at a reduced rate of $500 per hour.”
Well, keen Orlando Sentinel readers noticed that Galvano’s name also popped up in other stories the Sentinel has written about a lawsuit filed by a GOP Senate candidate from Lake County who claims former party officials conspired to sabotage her campaign in favor of another Republican candidate.
Corcoran has been subpoenaed in that case. And Galvano is representing him — meaning the school’s president is now using the school’s attorney for personal legal needs. How convenient.
Galvano said in an email last week that Corcoran is paying his legal fees but wouldn’t say if Corcoran is getting a discounted rate or answer questions about whether the school’s trustees approved the overlapping representation, saying he considered those details “confidential attorney/client information that I do not disclose.”
Theoretically, it’s up to the trustees to ask probing questions about all that and share the details with taxpayers to instill public confidence. Also theoretically, I could enter and win a bikini pageant.
Diane Ravitch's blog 