Michael Barfield/Florida Center for Governmental Accountability

The most notable losers in Tuesday’s primary elections in Manatee and Sarasota counties weren’t even on the ballot.Governor Ron DeSantis, GOP political consultant Anthony Pedicini, and a trio of prominent local developers were not candidates themselves, yet voters delivered them a clear rebuke, with six out of seven candidates they supported facing defeat.

Sarasota County Commission chair Mike Moran has slashed funding for early learning and childcare programs, calling them “socialism.” Now running for county tax collector, his campaign emphasizes a focus on “making government accountable to the taxpayers.”But a ledger obtained by the Florida Trident through a public records request raises questions about Moran’s accountability. According to the records, Moran spent more than $36,000 of taxpayers’ money during a recent 18-month period on lavish trips to Las Vegas, New York City, and California, indulging in expensive steakhouses, wine, and tequila shots.

Former Florida GOP chairman Christian Ziegler and his wife Bridget Ziegler, a Sarasota School Board Member and cofounder of the conservative group Moms for Liberty, have filed a lawsuit seeking to bar the release of records involved in the husband’s criminal rape investigation.The once powerful Republican power couple sued the City of Sarasota and State Attorney’s Office specifically to prevent the release to the media text messages they sent to each other recovered by police during the now-closed investigation.

When Sarasota police detectives first interviewed Christian Ziegler after receiving a complaint from a woman accusing him of rape, he answered no questions, transcripts released today by the police department show.Instead the now former Florida GOP chairman asked detectives about when the information would become public and expressed worry about his political future.“This will be a national story,” Ziegler told police during the Nov. 1 interview at his home. “I’m chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, so there’ll be a high public interest in the case.”

While Republican power couple Christian and Bridget Ziegler publicly pushed for “family values” and backed an agenda widely viewed as anti-LGBTQ, they were secretly on the “hunt” for threesome lovers, newly released police reports from the husband’s now-closed rape investigation reveal.Among the startling evidence recovered from Christian’s cell phone, according to the report, was a list of women, including the alleged sexual assault victim’s name, with a one-word subheading: “F- - -.”

New details have emerged in the now-closed sexual battery investigation of recently ousted Florida GOP chairman Christian Ziegler that contradict his claim a threesome involving his wife was planned on the day the woman alleged he raped her.Bridget Ziegler, a Sarasota County school board member, told detectives she had no knowledge of the threesome Christian claimed to have planned on October 2, the day the sexual assault was alleged to have occurred, according to a newly released police report obtained by the Florida Trident.

The Sarasota Police Department has closed the rape investigation of Christian Ziegler with no charges filed, but are forwarding a related case involving video voyeurism to the State Attorney’s Office for review, according to sources with direct knowledge of the investigation and confirmed by a police news release.

Sarasota police are investigating whether Florida GOP Chairman Christian Ziegler unlawfully videotaped the sexual encounter at the heart of a rape allegation against him, a third search warrant affidavit obtained by the Florida Trident reveals.Based on the newly released Dec. 8 police affidavit, Circuit Judge Thomas Krug issued a search warrant for Ziegler’s Instagram account after finding probable cause the embattled Republican official violated state law prohibiting video voyeurism, a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

A sex video involving Sarasota School Board member Bridget Ziegler and an unidentified woman has been recovered by police as part of the ongoing criminal investigation of a rape allegation made against Bridget’s husband, Christian Ziegler, sources close to the investigation have told the Florida Trident.In response to a specific public record request for that video, the Sarasota Police Department on Thursday asserted the video was exempt from disclosure due to the ongoing criminal investigation.