Joe Neunder’s developer money is the story his apologists want voters to ignore

After Florida Politics reported on Sarasota County Commissioner Joe Neunder‘s deep ties to Sarasota’s development machine, longtime Siesta Key activist Lourdes Ramirez could have done the obvious thing.

She could have pointed to one inaccurate line.

She could have defended Neunder‘s pro-development voting record.

She could have explained why voters should ignore the developer money sitting right there in Neunder‘s own financial reports.

After all, the receipts were not whispered in a dark alley. They were pulled verbatim from the Florida Division of Elections.

She did none of that.

Instead, she went after yours truly.

“Isn’t it true that Florida Politics is working on his opponent’s campaign?” Ramirez wrote on Facebook. “I see there are close ties between this author and the political operative handling his opponent’s campaign.”

Working on his opponent’s campaign? That would be news to me. But Jim DeNiro, if you’re reading this, my DMs are open.

If the story was wrong, Ramirez had an easy remedy: point to the error. I would have been more than happy to correct the record.

Ramirez did not do that.

Because facts, unfortunately for Neunder‘s small circle of enablers, can be a stubborn bird.

And that is what makes this so strange.

I will admit, I was not overly familiar with Ms. Ramirez. So I teamed up with my friend Claude and did some research.

To her credit, I liked a lot of what I read. Ramirez came across as a true believer and, in this business, that is becoming harder and harder to find.

Which makes the next part even more revealing.

This is the same Lourdes Ramirez who ran for Sarasota County Commission in 2022 against now-County Commissioner Mark Smith, who appeared on the same ballot as Joe Neunder.

That matters because, in 2022, the Herald-Tribune published a headline that placed Smith and Neunder in the same developer-money bucket:

“Joe Neunder, Mark Smith campaigns received support from heavyweights of development.”

That headline should have been a five-alarm fire for Ramirez.

For years, Ramirez warned Sarasota voters that developers had become too powerful. She said she first ran for County Commission because neighborhoods needed representation and because she “started to see how the developers were too influential.”

She did not whisper it.

She ran on it.

She also had plenty to say about one of the most influential developers in Southwest Florida: Randy Benderson of Benderson Development.

When Benderson pushed changes affecting Siesta Key, Ramirez called the proposal “so blatant,” accused it of taking out protective policies for Siesta Key, and said it “turns my stomach.”

She warned that if Sarasota County opened the door to developers “even an inch,” developers would open it “even wider later.”

Strong words.

But when Benderson came before the County Commission for Siesta Promenade in 2023, Joe Neunder did not keep the door closed.

He pushed it wide open.

According to the Herald-Tribune, Neunder moved approval of key changes for Benderson‘s 28-acre Siesta Promenade project, which included a 130-room hotel, 414 multifamily residential units, shops and offices. The approvals came over resident objections and against the Planning Commission’s advice on the parking issue.

And it gets worse.

At that very hearing, Ramirez‘s own work was held up as a reason to slow the project down.

According to the same article, a board member of the Siesta Key Association pointed to Ramirez‘s recent circuit court victory challenging the County Commission’s approval of a 170-room hotel in Siesta Village as justification for sending the entire Siesta Promenade project back to county staff and the Planning Commission for review.

Think about that.

Ramirez‘s victory was cited in the room as a warning sign.

Mark Smith listened to her and voted no.

Joe Neunder ignored her and voted yes.

And Neunder‘s vote to push forward a major development project over resident concerns is not an isolated moment.

In August 2024, WUSF put it plainly in a headline:

“Sarasota approves a massive new development as Debby’s floods strike a nerve.”

That story was about 3H Ranch, a Pat Neal-led development with more than 6,500 homes. The timing was impossible to miss. Just three weeks after Tropical Storm Debby dumped record rainfall on Sarasota, residents packed the County Commission chambers and begged county leaders to pause increased density until Sarasota strengthened stormwater standards and used updated rainfall data.

Then the County Commission voted 4-1 to approve Neal‘s project anyway.

Mark Smith voted no.

Joe Neunder voted yes.

That is exactly the kind of moment Lourdes Ramirez once treated as the whole reason to get involved.

And yet, when these facts point to Neunder, Ramirez does not seem interested in raising the issue. She seems more interested in who wrote the article.

Fast forward to 2026 and, according to social media, Ramirez is doing a 180 on the more than $100,000 in developer money behind Neunder while suddenly finding grave concern over Jim DeNiro‘s brother-in-law, John LaCivita, who is being cast as a big bad developer for giving DeNiro a whopping $8,000.

Which is fascinating.

It must be the first time in Sarasota political history that a family member has supported another family member.

But if Ramirez is suddenly concerned about LaCivita‘s political activity, she might want to check the old campaign finance reports too. Records show LaCivita maxed out to Joe Neunder‘s campaign in 2022.

Funny. Claude and Google searched. Neither could find Ramirez objecting then.

That is the tired deflect, deflect, deflect tactic campaigns use when they would rather talk about anything other than the record in front of them.

So let’s return to the record.

This cycle, Benderson has again backed the pro-Neunder political committee, Conservatives for a Brighter Future, with a $20,000 contribution, according to campaign finance records.

There was a time when that was exactly the kind of donation Ramirez would have decried.

So the question is not whether Lourdes Ramirez still knows how to spot developer influence.

Of course she does.

The question is why she suddenly seems so determined not to see it.

What happened to the candidate who ran against Mark Smith, only to watch Smith stand up to developers while Neunder pushed their projects forward?

What happened to the resident watchdog who said Benderson‘s proposal “turns my stomach”?

Because if those concerns were real then, they should be real now.

What changed?

Not the developers.

Not the money.

Not the public record.

Only the candidate she seems so eager to protect.

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— Ed. note: This story was drafted with assistance from AI. Editorial judgment, sourcing, and final review were performed by Peter Schorsch and the Florida Politics editorial team.