Local Dark Money - Flipbook - Page 70
Making a Better Tomorrow
Violating Election Law
In 2017 I conducted an interview on my radio
show with candidates for Sarasota’s City
Commission. I asked one of the candidates,
Martin Hyde, why he made $4,000 donation to
the PAC Making a Better Tomorrow. I was
concerned that his money was in there with
money from James Gabbert, Randy Benderson
and Carlos Beru, and that this was an
indicator he would take direction from them as
a City Commissioner.
Hyde explained that he made the donation for
a mailer that would identify him as a
Republican to voters in the non-partisan race. I
asked him why he didn’t donate the money to
his own campaign. He told me he wasn’t sure
he could. He said it was suggested that he
donated to the PAC so the money would get to
the GOP for the mailer. As Hyde put it, the
