Charlie Crist says he hired Michelle Todd Schorsch, not her husband. State records show his committee paid her firm, her husband's company and her personally $946,617, which is 41 cents of every dollar it spent. Then the husband told poor residents to move.
By Joseph Jackson | ST. PETERSBURG (Nov. 9, 2026)
Analysis by the Florida Man News Network editorial board. Disclosure: FMNN endorsed Ken Welch for mayor on Oct. 18.
FMNN has asked Peter Schorsch, Michelle Todd Schorsch and Mayor-elect Charlie Crist for comment. This story will be updated when they respond.
Peter Schorsch, publisher of Florida Politics and husband of the woman who ran Charlie Crist's campaign, told a St. Petersburg resident this weekend to get out of town.
"Why don't you f---ing move if you hate progress so much, because it's coming," he wrote from his verified Facebook account. "The whole South side will be redeveloped. Affordable housing = Manatee County. Poor people don't deserve to live on a peninsula on a peninsula. Deal with it!"
He posted it under a Tampa Bay Business Journal story about developers cheering Crist's win. When the local site St. Pete Razing asked him about it, Schorsch acknowledged writing it and called it hyperbole. "I was responding to Mandy's hyperbole with hyperbole, nothing more," he replied publicly in the same thread. "Any 'real' thoughts I have about any public policy are usually shared on my website. I don't view commenting on Facebook as real life."
On Nov. 9, FMNN emailed Schorsch, Michelle Todd Schorsch and Mayor-elect Crist's campaign with questions about the comment and the payments described below. We will update this story when we receive their responses.
So let's look at real life. That's the public record, and it's where the money is.
He used to say the opposite
In January 2022, Schorsch told the St. Pete Catalyst: "I don't want to see St. Petersburg gentrified out where Black and low income St. Petersburg-ians don't get to remain here." In a 2018 interview he asked: "Don't you worry that somebody's gonna come along and put in too many, or the wrong condominium buildings?"
The South Side he now says "will be redeveloped" is home to the city's historically Black neighborhoods, and it includes the old Gas Plant district, which the city razed for the Trop and where Ken Welch grew up.
Follow the money: one mailbox
Charlie Crist's political committee is St. Pete Shines. Michelle Todd Schorsch chaired it and ran his campaign. When Ken Welch asked Crist to answer for her husband in July, Crist said he had hired Schorsch's wife, not her husband.
The committee's filings with the state tell a different story.
According to Florida Division of Elections records, St. Pete Shines reported $2,302,054 in spending. Of that:
$562,345 went to All Too Strategic LLC, Michelle Todd Schorsch's consulting firm, in 50 payments. Purposes listed include consulting, "campaign management," media buys, text-message campaigns, digital ads and "field operations."
$360,182 went to Extensive Enterprises, Peter Schorsch's company and the owner of Florida Politics, in 44 payments. Most of it, about $281,000, was for direct mail and mailers. The rest covered digital ads, website development, printing, a mobile billboard, a fundraising event and polling.
$24,090 went to Michelle Todd Schorsch personally, including a single $21,000 payment for "ad placement" on June 9. The rest was reimbursements.
Total to the Schorsches and their companies: $946,617. That's 41% of everything the committee spent.
Both companies list the same address in the state records: 204 37th Ave. N., #182, St. Petersburg. Florida Politics publishes that same mailbox as its own business address. Crist's campaign account sits next door, at #181.
The concentration grew as Election Day neared. From Sept. 12 to Oct. 9, the four weeks before early voting, St. Pete Shines spent $219,173. Of that, $197,022, or 90 cents of every dollar, went to the two firms at that one mailbox.
Schorsch has said the money is paid to vendors for services. We've asked him and Michelle Todd Schorsch how much of it went to outside vendors such as printers and the post office, and how much stayed with their companies. Nothing in the filings shows that any law was broken. Florida allows political committees to pay their own officers' firms, as long as the payments are reported, and these were. The question isn't legality. It's what readers were told.
The polls
Florida Politics published St. Pete Polls surveys throughout the race showing Crist far ahead: 44-28 in July, and on Oct. 15, a story headlined "Charlie Crist opens 21-point lead over Ken Welch in final weeks of mayoral campaign."
Over the same months, St. Pete Shines paid Peter Schorsch's company $20,500 for "polling," in seven payments. One was on July 20 and another on July 30. Two more came in the final weeks: $2,500 on Oct. 15, the day the 21-point story ran, and $2,500 on Oct. 24.
The state filings don't say which polls those payments bought. Florida Politics ran an editor's note on its race coverage disclosing the Schorsch marriage. We could not find a note telling readers that the publisher's company was being paid by the Crist committee for polling while his site published polls on the race. We've asked Schorsch and the Crist campaign what the polling payments covered.
Who paid for it
St. Pete Shines raised about $2.5 million. Its single largest deposit, $336,458, was a transfer from Crist's own older committee, Friends of Charlie Crist. Most of the rest came from other political committees, lobbyists and business interests.
Ballard Partners, one of the most powerful lobbying firms in Tallahassee: $70,000.
Tallahassee political committees such as Many United Democrats ($192,000) and We All Should Help ($115,500).
Real estate and development money, including Vantage Properties ($25,000), Iafrate St. Petersburg Holdings ($20,000), Rally Real Property Holdco ($20,000), Partners Asset Management ($15,000) and Tampa Bay Entertainment Properties ($10,000).
John Catsimatidis, the New York billionaire behind 400 Central, now the tallest condo tower on Florida's Gulf Coast, gave $25,000 on Oct. 27, a week before the election. He's said the tower "appeals to people who just want to move, and want to pay less taxes," and he's talked about spending another $1 billion in the area. Its penthouses have sold for more than $6 million.
Axios and the Tampa Bay Times also reported that more than $550,000 reached Crist's committee from other PACs, some of it traceable to Duke Energy, TECO and FPL's parent company. The city is now weighing whether to break from Duke.
That's who Schorsch was talking to when he said "progress" is coming and poor people should "deal with it."
The rumor that became a lawsuit
On July 23, Schorsch posted on his personal Facebook page accusing Welch of an affair with a former staffer, then deleted it about an hour later. Welch called it "a disgusting and flat-out lie" and asked Crist to "condemn the lie." Crist said it was between the two men. Four days later, Schorsch commented that more than two sources had contacted him, and called Welch "a compromised politician."
On Oct. 29, Welch filed a defamation suit in Pinellas County Circuit Court. The suit seeks more than $50,000 and says Schorsch stood "to benefit, personally, financially, and politically" from damaging Welch's candidacy. Schorsch calls it an attempt to intimidate a journalist and says he may countersue. Nothing has been proven, and the case is pending.
Who Peter Schorsch is
He's a St. Pete native and former political consultant who turned SaintPetersBlog into Florida Politics, the state's most-read insider site, along with INFLUENCE magazine and the Sunburn newsletter. He's a registered Republican, and he broke the Mar-a-Lago search story in 2022. In 2013 the Tampa Bay Times asked whether his coverage could be bought. In 2023 NPR and Floodlight reported that candidates were invited to pay for unlabeled posts, and Schorsch conceded that friends and advertisers get more, and better, coverage. He calls the "pay-to-play" label a smear.
What we're watching
Crist's answer. He said he hired the wife, not the husband. The husband's company was paid $360,182. Will the mayor-elect disavow "poor people don't deserve" St. Pete?
City Hall. Crist is sworn in Jan. 7. We'll track every city contract, appointment and development decision that touches All Too Strategic, Extensive Enterprises, Florida Politics' advertisers, or the donors above.
The South Side. The Gas Plant site, which drew nine bids this year, is the biggest land decision in a generation. "The whole South side will be redeveloped" is now on the record.
The lawsuit. Welch v. Schorsch, Pinellas Circuit Court.
Peter Schorsch says Facebook isn't real life and his real views are on his website. Campaign finance reports are real life too. These say $946,617.
Responses
On Nov. 9, FMNN sent written questions to Peter Schorsch, and to Mayor-elect Charlie Crist and Michelle Todd Schorsch through the Crist campaign. We asked about the Facebook comment, the committee's payments to the Schorsches' companies, the polling payments, and whether any Schorsch-connected business will have a role in the Crist administration. As of publication, we have not received a response. This story will be updated when we do.
Related reading
Crist Won by 24. Now the Hard Part: The Trop, the Rays and Who Paid for the Win (Nov. 9, 2026)
Spotlight: Charlie Crist, candidate for St. Petersburg mayor
Sources
Florida Division of Elections, campaign finance database: St. Pete Shines (PAC) expenditures and contributions, retrieved Nov. 9, 2026. Totals are FMNN's sums of the state records. dos.elections.myflorida.com
Florida Politics, Charlie Crist opens 21-point lead over Ken Welch in final weeks of mayoral campaign, Oct. 15, 2026
Tampa Bay Times, St. Pete mayor sues political operative Peter Schorsch over affair post, Oct. 30, 2026
Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, 'Condemn the lie': Ken Welch slams Charlie Crist after Florida Politics publisher spreads affair rumors, July 27, 2026
Bay News 9, Ken Welch calls on Charlie Crist to condemn social media post, July 29, 2026
Axios Tampa Bay, Crist campaign gets boost from PACs with utility ties, Aug. 17, 2026
St. Pete Razing, NOT SATIRE: Crist Ally Says Poor People "Don't Deserve" to Live in St. Pete, Nov. 9, 2026, and Schorsch's reply in its Facebook thread
St. Pete Catalyst, Catalyze 2022: Florida Politics Publisher Peter Schorsch; Peter Schorsch: The rise of new media, 2018
Bloomberg, NYC Billionaire Catsimatidis Joins Florida Shift With New Condos; St. Pete Rising, 400 Central; downtown St. Pete sold listings
Axios Tampa Bay, St. Petersburg draws nine proposals for Historic Gas Plant development, Feb. 3, 2026
NPR / Floodlight, Politicians say this Florida news site lets them buy coverage, Oct. 6, 2023
Tampa Bay Times, Cash for coverage? Questions arise about local political blogger Peter Schorsch, Nov. 15, 2013