Vocal Donald Trump Critics Picked As Florida Delegates To GOP Convention

In the end, everybody wound up reasonably happy over the Republican National Convention delegates selected saturday by the state GOP’s executive board. Behind the scenes, however, there was a fair amount of tension and brewing animosity in recent days when it seemed Florida GOP Chairman Blaise Ingoglia was poised to recommend a slate of delegates that largely ignored the wishes of the Donald Trump campaign.

“We were a little bit nervous going into the meeting today, but Blaise stepped up in a big way,” Joe Gruters, co-chairman of the Trump campaign in Florida, said, after the state party’s executive board elected 15 delegates and 15 alternates to the national convention. They were:

Automatic Delegates
RPOF Chairman:                           Blaise Ingoglia
Ntl. Committeewoman:                 Sharon Day
Ntl. Committeeman:                      Peter Feaman
At-Large Delegates
Brian Ballard
Majority Leader LizBeth Benacquisto
Robin Bernstein
Speaker-designate Richard Corcoran
Mayor Lenny Curry
Jeffrey Feingold
Adam Hasner
Belinda Keiser
Frmr. U.S. Sen. George LeMieux
Congressman Jeff Miller
Senate President Joe Negron
Speaker-DD Jose Oliva
Mike Barnett
Nancy Watkins
Susie Wiles
At-large Alternates
Rep. Jason Brodeur
Cynthia Crowe
Ron Howse
John Falconetti
Barbara Feingold
Janet Glassman
Karen Harrington
Scott Hopes
Julie Ingoglia
Fred Karlinsky
William Lasky
Susan Moore
Mitzi Prater
George Scarborough
Robert Watkins

Those seen as strong Trump supporters include Trump lobbyist Brian Ballard of Tallahassee, friend Robin Bernstein of Palm Beach, U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, a Trump endorser, Palm Beach GOP Chairman Mike Barnett, Jacksonville Mayor and former state GOP Chairman Lenny Curry, and Trump Florida co-chair Susie Wiles of Jacksonville.

Perhaps the most out of place names on the list of delegates assumed to be for Trump are former U,S. Sen. George LeMieux of Broward County, incoming Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran and former state Rep. Adam Hasner of Palm Beach County, who helped lead Marco Rubio’s Florida campaign. Hasner and LeMieux have been vocal and frequent critics of Trump, with Hasner calling him a con man and LeMieux in a Tama Bay Times column calling on GOP leaders to rise up and stop  “schoolyard bully” Trump. Similarly, Corcoran has trashed Trump as an ignorant flip-flopper running “a quasi-repugnant campaign that is baseless.”

Gruters said the onetime Trump critics are on board with Trump now, and making them Florida delegates shows how the party is comiung togather.

“He’s our nominee. Not my first choice but better than Clinton,” LeMieux said in a text message.

All told, Florida will send 99 delegates to the convention in Cleveland, with most of them elected at the congressional district level. Those other delegates are:

CD 1
Delegate 1          Martin Simmons
Delegate 2          Charlotte Flynt
Delegate 3          Tim Norris

Alternate 1         Dorothy Davis
Alternate 2         Sam Mullins
Alternate 3         Jeremy Evans

CD 2
Delegate 1          Clint Pate
Delegate 2          Evan Power
Delegate 3          Thelma Rohan

Alternate 1         Bill Helmich
Alternate 2         S. Curtis Kiser
Alternate 3         James Wyckoff

CD 3
Delegate 1         Layne Schultetus
Delegate 2          Kay Durden
Delegate 3          Sherri Ortega

Alternate 1         Delores Lansford
Alternate 2         Sherrie McKnight
Alternate 3         Sally Beach

CD 4
Delegate 1          Cindy Graves
Delegate 2          Lake Ray
Delegate 3          Ander Crenshaw

Alternate 1         Danny Norton
Alternate 2         Charles Cordes
Alternate 3         Alexander Pantinakis

CD 5
Delegate 1          Kelli Starge

Delegate 2          Mike Cribby
Delegate 3          Clarence Allen

Alternate 1         Thuy Lowe
Alternate 2         Gloreatha Scurry-Smith
Alternate 3         Caleb Spencer

CD 6
Delegate 1          Tony Ledbetter
Delegate 2          Bill Korach
Delegate 3          Alan Burton

Alternate 1         Jospeh Fieldus
Alternate 2         Paul Porter
Alternate 3         Stuart Epperson

CD 7
Delegate 1          Al Schwarz
Delegate 2          Ray Valdes
Delegate 3          Dana Dougherty

Alternate 1         Kathy Gibson
Alternate 2         Wade Vose
Alternate 3         Phil Kaprow

CD 8
Delegate 1          Carlie Rogers
Delegate 2          Barbara Davis
Delegate 3          Lew Oliver

Alternate 1         Richard Lacey
Alternate 2         Joseph Semprevivo
Alternate 3         Carole Jean Jordan

CD 9
Delegate 1          Rich Crotty
Delegate 2          Tammy Celeste
Delegate 3          Mark Cross

Alternate 1         Ruth Coberley
Alternate 2         Bertica Cabrera-Morris
Alternate 3         Chadwick Hardee

CD 10
Delegate 1          Jim Guth
Delegate 2          Wendy West
Delegate 3          Mark Oxner

Alternate 1         Robbie Ford
Alternate 2         Ronald Janssen
Alternate 3         Patricia Sullivan

CD 11
Delegate 1          Mike Moberley
Delegate 2          Darilyn Dolimpio
Delegate 3          Daniel Wright

Alternate 1         Sandy Balfour
Alternate 2         Lucy Sullivan
Alternate 3         Ana Trinque

CD 12
Delegate 1          Sandy Graves
Delegate 2          Tina Harris
Delegate 3          Chris Sprowls

Alternate 1         Steve Graves
Alternate 2         Pam McAloon
Alternate 3         Mary Gaulden

CD 13
Delegate 1          Nancy Riley
Delegate 2          Dan Tucker
Delegate 3          Nick DiCeglie

Alternate 1         Todd Jennings
Alternate 2         Dorine McKinnon
Alternate 3         Chely Hernandez-Miller

CD 14
Delegate 1          Terry Castro
Delegate 2          Marjorie Mittleman
Delegate 3          Spencer Rogers

Alternate 1         James Buntyn
Alternate 2         Tony DeSisto
Alternate 3         Mike Mikurak

CD 15
Delegate 1          Debbie Hannifan
Delegate 2          Tina Pike
Delegate 3          Dena DeCamp

Alternate 1         Tony Jackson
Alternate 2         Judith Wise
Alternate 3         Mark Proctor

CD 16
Delegate 1          Kathy King
Delegate 2          Joe Gruters
Delegate 3          Christian Ziegler

Alternate 1         David Matthews
Alternate 2         Donna Hayes
Alternate 3         John Colon

CD 17
Delegate 1          Bill Folchi
Delegate 2          Jimmy Nelson
Delegate 3          Kathy Rapp

Alternate 1         Jane Sturges
Alternate 2         Allen Goldstein
Alternate 3         Natalie Schmidt

CD 18
Delegate 1          Bill Paterson
Delegate 2          Mary Ann Russell
Delegate 3          Don Pickard

Alternate 1         Darlene Fuggetta
Alternate 2         Julie Paterson
Alternate 3         Linda Stoch

CD 19
Delegate 1          Mike Lyster
Delegate 2          Jonathan Martin
Delegate 3          Lisa Musial

Alternate 1         Rosealie Lesser
Alternate 2         Jesse Purdon
Alternate 3         Mike Hook

CD 20
Delegate 1          Rico Petrocelli
Delegate 2          Roger Gingerich
Delegate 3          Daniel Diaz

Alternate 1         Patrick Castronovo
Alternate 2         Terrance O’Loughlin
Alternate 3         Camille Petrocelli

CD 21
Delegate 1          Bob Sutton
Delegate 2          Maureen Jaeger
Delegate 3          Tami Donnally

Alternate 1         Marion Frank
Alternate 2         Jay Goldfarb
Alternate 3         Richard Eddins

CD 22
Delegate 1          Cindy Tindell
Delegate 2          Ed Pozzuoli
Delegate 3          Gay Gaines

Alternate 1         Ray Rodrigues

Alternate 2         Sue Snowden

Alternate 3         Al Massey

CD 23
Delegate 1          Sanjay Narang
Delegate 2          Corey Brier
Delegate 3          Eric Shure

Alternate 1         Richard DeNapoli
Alternate 2         Kevin Cooper
Alternate 3         Florine Goldfarb

CD 24
Delegate 1          Jessica Fernandez
Delegate 2          Kelly Mallette
Delegate 3          Stephanie Woodard

Alternate 1         Uri Benhamron
Alternate 2         Nikita Mizgirev
Alternate 3         Steve Karski

CD 25
Delegate 1          Steve Nisbet
Delegate 2          Margie Nelson
Delegate 3          Carlos Trujillo

Alternate 1         Manny Diaz
Alternate 2         Doug Harrison
Alternate 3         Doug Rankin

CD 26
Delegate 1          Carey Goodman
Delegate 2          Alex Trujillo
Delegate 3          Jeanette Nunez

Alternate 1         Jose Felix Diaz
Alternate 2         Harry Hoffman
Alternate 3         Debby Goodman

CD 27
Delegate 1          Nelson Diaz
Delegate 2          Liliana Ros
Delegate 3          Bernie Navarro

Alternate 1         Rey Lastre
Alternate 2         Rudolfo Milani
Alternate 3         Marili Cancio

State Rep. Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, is a former professional poker player, and reading a professional poker player is never easy. But for whatever reason – We assume he wanted to pick as many people as possible who could write big checks or raise significant money for the state party – Ingoglia initially signalled he was willing to tick off the Trump campaign by mostly picking delegates the Trump team had not recommended.  Apparently,