Missouri resident Aaron Dimmock, who is challenging incumbent Congressman Matt Gaetz for his seat representing FL-01, is holding a June 6 private fundraiser, which is also his first campaign event in Northwest Florida. The fundraiser, however, is beginning to raise eyebrows due to the individual Dimmock has chosen to host the event: disgraced former Santa Rosa County Administrator Dan Schebler.
Schebler resigned in disgrace as Santa Rosa County Administrator in 2021 after facing fury from residents for lying about missing a key deadline for a funding program that would have provided critical support for Santa Rosa County’s infrastructure. Schebler initially claimed the state had run out of certain grant monies before Santa Rosa projects received funding and that staff had submitted related paperwork on time. But South Santa Rosa News helped expose that Schebler had been untruthful about the county submitting the paperwork.
The Small County Outreach Program (SCOP) is a $20 million grant dispersed annually by the Florida Department of Transportation to eligible counties in districts with less than 200,000 citizens. Because Santa Rosa County failed to submit the required paperwork, rural roads in Santa Rosa County missed out on at least $1 million in funding for projects, including Munson Highway.
Schebler was also previously under fire for his administrative team’s intentional alteration of the county’s Land Development Code (LDC) to make it gender-neutral. County staffers, under Schebler’s leadership, replaced the traditional pronouns “he” and “she” with the more vague pronoun “they,” arguing the verbiage would be more inclusive.
District 3 Commissioner James Calkins battled with then-County Administrator Schebler against the LDC gender-neutral verbiage and even called for his resignation, following the revelation that Schebler had been dishonest about the SCOP funding.
“I knew Dan Schebler was a RINO when he attempted to inject woke left-wing ideas into Santa Rosa County code. He also lied to our community and broke our trust. Now he’s trying to raise money for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) instructor Aaron Dimmock to run against Matt Gaetz for Congress,” Calkins told South Santa Rosa News. “I’m disgusted but not surprised two RINOs like Schebler and Dimmock, who support the Radical Left, are teaming up to conspire against our beloved, Trump-endorsed Congressman.”
“Upon arriving in Northwest Florida from his home state of Missouri, it’s no surprise that the people most willing to embrace Dimmock’s campaign are the ones who have done the most harm to our community and taxpayers,” said Joel Valdez, Campaign Manager for Matt Gaetz’s re-election campaign. “Dimmock’s fundraiser, organized by Kevin McCarthy allies, is being hosted by a person who lied to elected officials, lied to taxpayers, and left us in worse condition as a consequence of his neglect. Our community was right to reject Dan Schebler, and they are also going to reject Aaron Dimmock in the August 20 primary.”
Dimmock’s fundraiser also has clear ties to Gaetz-nemesis Kevin McCarthy, who was ousted from the position of Speaker of the House by Congressman Gaetz and others for breaking a series of promises, including passing Conservative appropriations bills. The organizer for Dimmock’s fundraiser, Angela Coats, works for The Morning Group, which lists Kevin McCarthy as a client.
While DEI Dimmock and DEI Dan attempt to fundraise together, Gaetz will be hosting his campaign kickoff rally in Fort Walton Beach with fellow Florida Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna.
It will be interesting to see who contributes to the respective events. I believe Dimmock is going to struggle to gain support in our staunchly Conservative area. His DEI agenda belongs in Ferguson, Missouri, not the Florida Panhandle.