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Editor’s note: All public records and documents supporting what’s written in this article are in the hyperlinks

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Five years ago this month, I started The Space Coast Rocket after growing frustrated with local media outlets that either shied away from covering certain stories or refused to do so due to political or business repercussions. So, I decided to start writing the stories myself. I wrote under the pseudonym Reginald Dwight, the real name of Elton John, also known as “The Rocket Man.”

The very first story I broke was the Palm Bay Corruption scandal involving former Assistant City Manager David Isnardi, City Manager Gregg Lynk (husband of candidate Monique Miller), Councilmen Tres Holton, Brian Anderson, Jeff Bailey, and State Representative Randy Fine. The only non-public official involved was Jose Aguiar, who ultimately went to prison over the fiasco.

The FBI and FDLE allegations spanned bribery, prostitution, strip club deals, drugs, and vote-buying. City Manager Gregg Lynk was allegedly caught offering a bribe by way of a vehicle allowance to Councilman Brian Anderson for a vote on a specific agenda item. Tres Holton was caught lying to the FBI and confessed under oath to supplying elected officials and lobbyists in Tallahassee with prostitutes. The report states that Holton would hide in the closet of hotel rooms to capture those same people “in the act” in order to use it for leverage later. FBI agents mentioned that they were informed these activities were happening in State Representative Randy Fine’s Palm Bay office, which is conveniently located across the street from Pin-ups strip club, where some of these deals were reportedly negotiated. You can listen to the FBI stating this for yourself here. Holton confessing to supplying prostitutes can be heard here.

Anderson confessed to taking a $10,000 bribe from Aguiar, according to the official report. He wore a wire for an extended period as part of an agreement with law enforcement to avoid charges. Jeff Bailey was implicated in taking illegal drugs, and Isnardi was accused of trying to plant drugs in Bailey’s vehicle to be caught by law enforcement. He later threatened to throw grenades at Bailey’s residence, only to claim later that he was joking.

In the aftermath, Isnardi was arrested along with Aguiar. Tres Holton was defeated by a landslide in the next election, Anderson didn’t seek re-election, and Jeff Bailey moved to another state, vacating his seat. City Manager Gregg Lynk was immediately fired by the newly elected council.

Since then, some of these same individuals have been attempting to regain control of the City, with the help of longtime friends Randy Fine and Mayor Rob Medina. They are now on the verge of achieving that.

Aguiar and Tres Holton worked on Fine’s original election campaign and have been supporting him behind the scenes ever since. In the last election cycle, Fine and disgraced former County Commissioner Bryan Lober endorsed Nathan White, who was seen multiple times meeting with Tres Holton to assist with his campaign. White had the support of Fine, Holton, and others as long as he agreed to “do what needed to be done.” Despite this backing, White, like Holton, was defeated in a landslide. After failing to push other candidates out, not securing funding, and being fired from a congressional campaign for integrity issues, he dropped out of the race.

White was only one piece of the puzzle. His close friend and political ally Chandler Langevin is also running. Langevin attempted to run for State Rep in District 32 last cycle but failed to qualify. He then transitioned to run for Randy Fine’s open seat in District 33. However, he was pushed out when Fine’s friend and Moms for Liberty leader Monique Miller (wife of Greg Lynk) decided to jump in the race for Fine’s seat. Fine has endorsed Miller, and Langevin subsequently dropped out, deciding instead to run for Palm Bay City Council after moving to the city with his girlfriend just months before the deadline to qualify. Miller has run for several other offices unsuccessfully in the past, however this time, she says she’s the frontrunner.

Like Nathan White, Fine threw his support behind Langevin despite Langevin’s extensive record of racist and anti-Semitic comments, as long as Langevin supported getting rid of the current city manager and re-hiring Gregg Lynk. If all goes as planned, Tres Holton is expected to be rewarded with a high-paying position in Lynk’s administration. Should Medina and Langevin win, that would be two of the three votes needed to make it all happen. The third vote was supposed to be Nathan White. In the last few days of qualifying, several candidates jumped in at the last second.

With Randy Fine running for the State Senate, Monique Miller aiming for Fine’s State Rep seat, and Langevin on the Palm Bay City Council with Mayor Medina—who has publicly pledged his loyalty to Fine from the dais itself—they will have effectively seized control of the entire city, bringing us right back to the corrupt era of 2016-2019.

An enormous amount of money has been spent supporting these candidates, including endless fraudulent mailers appearing to be endorsements from Trump and DeSantis (funded by Fine), robo-text messages, and, of course, Fine’s social media posts and attacks on their opponents.

Monique Miller has been careful to distance herself from her husband and his past in her campaign, along with her affiliation with Moms for Liberty, whose endorsed candidates suffered tremendous losses throughout the country last cycle. This year, according to their own website, Moms for Liberty has not endorsed a single person. Their endorsement has been labeled the “kiss of death” by critics, after a tough year of standing with the Proud Boys, defending Hitler, and one of their founders caught having multiple 3-way love affairs with her husband and other women while bashing the LGBTQ community.

Chandler Langevin has been riding on Fine’s coattails, attacking others over their history while trying to hide his own criminal record. Another publication recently had to retract a puff piece they wrote for him after his criminal history, stemming from his brief employment with the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office, came to light. He and his live-in girlfriend, Jade Zalewski, who is Fine’s paid political campaign staffer, both have DUIs, yet publicly bash other candidates over their own histories.

However, it appears voters aren’t buying it. Fine lost a large straw poll for both of his races, attended mostly by Republicans, to newcomer Chuck Sheridan. When the results were announced that Fine lost, the room at the Space Coast Convention Center erupted into cheers despite his campaign’s presence there. During the same event he had a robo-text go out in support of another candidate he’s endorsed who still managed to lose by a margin of two to one.

Fine is currently facing charges from the Florida Commission on Ethics for abuse of his office and position, after leaked text messages found him calling women whores, threatening funding for the Special Olympics and West Melbourne flood control over not being invited to a charity event.

At the Republican Picnic straw poll, Monique Miller admitted to inviting her entire church to come vote for her, heavily skewing the results. Chandler Langevin’s criminal history, along with his public desire to “teach our children to look up to Confederate Generals” and other bizarre racist and divisive remarks, make it difficult for anyone to take his candidacy seriously. Langevin’s recent statement that “A greater man does not currently live on this earth,” referencing Robert E. Lee is just one of many that show his obsession with honoring the Confederacy.

Palm Bay citizens are still upset over Medina’s actions as Mayor over the last few years—from giving a convicted war criminal, guilty of multiple premeditated murders, an official city flag on the 4th of July alongside Randy Fine, to defending Fine’s cuts to funding for Palm Bay Police, Fire, and the widening of St. John Heritage Parkway, and ADMITTING to violating the City’s Charter “because God told him to” by not attending three consecutive city council meetings.

Most troubling though is it was at Medina’s campaign kickoff where the new “takeover” plan of Palm Bay, restoring Lynk and others was so openly and brazenly discussed. With many people recording video of parts of the event, several of these conversations were captured by those speaking nearby, not knowing a video was being recorded.

With early voting starting today and Election Day on August 20th, we will soon learn if the citizens of Palm Bay are going to allow history to repeat itself or move forward, ridding the city for good of its troubled, corrupt past.