His opponent in the county commission race says the complaints weren’t from him.
By Ramon Lopez
Original Air Date: August 12, 2026
Host: The race for Sarasota County Commission District 4 has become heated, with a complaint questioning candidate Jim DeNiro’s residency in the district and questions about the persons behind that complaint and its timing. WSLR News reporter Ramon Lopez has been looking into the controversy, the PACs and the attack ads.
Ramon Lopez: Sarasota County Commissioner and chiropractor Joe Neunder recently offered the public comments about a residence complaint filed against his opponent for his District 4 seat, retired cop Jim DeNiro.
Neunder said: “You know these complaints were from a third party. They weren’t from Joe Neunder. There’s a question in timing…I think our elections commission will figure it out one way or another.”
Jim DeNiro
In the interim, newly released public documents don’t immediately provide all the answers to a complicated story. They show that Neunder personally called Sarasota County Property Appraiser Bill Furst on July 9. The Florida Politics newsletter reported that Furst then directed a staffer to check the homestead records of DeNiro. (The records do not ID Neunder as the caller who prompted the inquiry.)
The political newsletter said the records show that a Cindy Jones sent Furst an email six days later. It asked whether DeNiro had claimed a homestead exemption for his former Venice property. The email address belongs to Cindy Neunder, Joe’s wife.
Then on July 16, the day after the DeNiro residency inquiry, Conni Brunni, a Neunder supporter, filed the residency complaint with the Florida Elections Commission. She said the matter was brought to her attention by an unnamed tipster.
Conni Brunni
Brunni said public records reveal DeNiro received homestead preferential tax exemption on his residence in Venice until March 6, 2026. This, while claiming to be living with his mother in Nokomis, which is in District 4.
Brunni told WSLR News in a phone interview, “You can’t have it both ways. The county charter has a six-month residency requirement. When candidates get tax benefits for homestead, then something does not add up.”
She added: “This is [censor beep]. I’m sick of it. When candidates are allowed to play fast and loose with the rules, the rules become moot, or cheating becomes accepted practice. I’m not okay with that, not at all.”
Jim DeNiro (right)
“If folks who own a home are allowed to cheat on their homeowner’s exemption, guess what happens? You and me have to pay more to make up the difference, and I’m not okay with that either.”
The aforementioned public records were also obtained and distributed by an anonymous group called “Local Government Accountability,” which shares space in Wyoming with multiple shell companies. Its Washington, DC address is a private mailbox at a virtual-office center. LGA’s websites attack Neunder and present Neunder challenger DeNiro as a reform alternative.
Neunder raised the issue at a candidate forum held by WSLR News on July 28.
Joe Neunder: I don’t have any PACs in my name. Through those mechanisms, there’s a lot of dirty, inaccurate information going on. In fact, I want to set the record straight on a particular PAC, “Conservatives for a Brighter Future.” There’s a lot of stuff out there suggesting that I’m being bankrolled by developers. Not one dollar is going to Joe Neunder from that particular PAC. We know that it’s dirty money, and there’s a problem with that because you need transparency and honesty. These PACs that fund dirty AI videos to sway the voters—I don’t know that it’s going to work. Sarasota voters are smart. The dirty tactics—national level, state level. It’s now here at the local level. We got one out of Wyoming. Have you ever heard of a Wyoming institution coming into Sarasota County? I’ve been here 37 years, folks. Never seen it.
RL: He told the Florida Trident, “Make no mistake. This is about the real estate development community trying to gain a majority on the county commission. This is cowardly behavior.”
If timing is a critical element to the charges, then it should be noted that Neunder at a meeting in Nokomis back in late January suggested that this reporter look into the established residency of his just-declared opponent, Jim DeNiro. At the time, I did not think anything of it and did not further investigate the matter.
DeNiro said, “Public power should never be used for personal or political gain. The effort to discredit my candidacy continued through family members using aliases and political surrogates presenting themselves as independent voices. It’s an abuse of power born out of desperation.”
Joe Neunder
The complaint has propelled much mud-slinging in the Neunder-DeNiro race with attack ads paid for by outsider political action committees, or PACs.
And the DeNiro campaign also jumped on the bandwagon recently, releasing for public consumption a slick one-minute AI-generated “once upon a lie” motion picture-style trailer depicting Neunder’s “Make Believe Kingdom.”
Voice over: A Sarasota County commissioner peers into the looking glass, only to find Hillary Clinton staring back. A reminder that Joe Neunder financially supported her against Donald Trump. But the looking glass held more than one secret. Desperate to pull the wool over voters’ eyes, the commissioner who cried wolf warned of a developer attack. But the wolves weren’t circling Joe Neunder. They were standing behind him—paid to protect him.
RL: An informed source said the trailer was conceived and produced by Max Goodman, DeNiro’s campaign spokesman and paid veteran political consultant. The source said Goodman is proud of it, and he doesn’t consider it an attack ad because it only states the facts on Neunder’s record.
So questions remain about DeNiro’s required residency in District 4 and Neunder’s alleged involvement in raising the issue—apparently for political gain.
The Florida Elections Commission will eventually determine whether any criminal laws were broken and the repercussions, if any. It could be many weeks before the ruling comes out, perhaps beyond the August 18 primary and the November 3 general election.
In the interim, it’s clear that control of District 4 has turned into a bitter battle between the chiropractor and the cop.
On the campaign trail, this is Ramon Lopez for WSLR News.
WSLR News aims to keep the local community informed with our 1/2 hour local news show, quarterly newspaper and social media feeds. The local news broadcast airs on Wednesdays and Fridays at 6pm.