During his 2024 campaign, Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister received $50,000 from what might seem an unlikely source — a political committee tied to embattled Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno, who is now the subject of a federal grand jury investigation into alleged money laundering and other crimes.
Chronister, who was nominated by President-Elect Donald Trump to head the DEA last week before quickly dropping out, obtained the money from the Friends of Carmine Marceno political committee despite the fact he had little opposition to his re-election. At the time of the donation, his only opponent was Democrat Gary Pruitt, who in 2020 raised little money and lost to Chronister by 19 points. Ultimately, Pruitt did not qualify and Chronister ran unopposed.
So why the large donation?
“Sheriff Marceno and his support of my campaign is not uncommon, as elected officials routinely assist each other in a variety of ways,” Chronister said via text message.
It’s not unusual for candidates to build up large campaign war chests to scare off potential challengers before returning the unspent money to contributors. In his official campaign committee, Chronister raised just over $1 million and ended up returning more than $900,000.
The Marceno money wasn’t paid directly to the campaign, but to the Hillsborough sheriff’s political committee, Friends of Chad Chronister. And Marceno and Chronister had a very specific connection during the campaign season — both employed Tampa-based political consultant Anthony Pedicini, who’s known for attacking his clients’ opponents through shell political committees with money transferred between themselves in such a way to make tracing original donors difficult, if not impossible.
Marceno’s contribution was absorbed into that political dark money mass. During the 2023-24 election cycle, most of the money spent by Friends of Chad Chronister — $291,888 of about $352,487 — went to Pedicini’s firm for advertising, polling and consulting, and to three other political committees linked to Pedicini.
Meanwhile, those three committees — Citizens Alliance for Florida’s Economy, Building a Brighter Future for Florida and Rescue Hillsborough PC — paid Pedicini’s firm a total of $678,199 during the election cycle for printing, mailing, polling and consulting.
Marceno’s committee, which has raised nearly $1.8 million since it was formed in 2020, made other contributions to candidates during the 2023-24 election cycle, but only one of them, paid to an unsuccessful Republican primary candidate for Collier County elections supervisor, received as much as Chronister. That candidate, Tim Guerette, received $51,000. Next on the list is Lee County commissioner Kevin Ruane, who received $21,000, while Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd was given $10,000. Several other candidates were given $1,000 each.
A federal grand jury met in Orlando last week to present evidence against Marceno in a criminal investigation focused on alleged kickbacks involving the embattled sheriff’s now-estranged friend, Bonita Springs jeweler Ken Romano. As first reported by the Florida Trident, Romano alleges Marceno arranged for Romano to receive $5,700 a month for an alleged no-work job as a consultant to the sheriff’s office with part of the money going back to Marceno’s father. The investigation, according to sources with knowledge of the investigation, is also focused on construction performed at the sheriff's headquarters and Marceno's Fort Myers home.
There is no indication Chronister is involved in any way with that case. Pedicini didn’t respond to phone and text messages for comment, nor did an attorney representing Marceno.
William March has written about politics in the Tampa Bay area for the past 40 years. He has worked for newspapers in his native North Carolina and for the Tampa Tribune, the Tampa Bay Times and the Associated Press in Florida.
This article first appeared on Florida Trident and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
