Election season offers business leaders several ways to strengthen political relationships: contribute to candidates, host their appearances and bring elected officials into discussions about business priorities. Supporting competing candidates adds another advantage the opportunity to remain connected whichever side wins. Liberty Landscape Supply owner Mike Zaffaroni provides a concrete Jacksonville example of how those relationships develop alongside organizational leadership and government contracting. His network connects Republican congressional visits, a Democratic mayor’s London delegation and company contributions to opposing City Council candidates. The appearances also carry marketing value, placing Liberty’s business and branding before audiences reached by elected officials, advocacy organizations and government accounts.

In Part IX of The Influence Network, we examined how business organizations develop policy recommendations before bringing them to City Hall. This installment follows the electoral side of that process: how money, business venues and institutional positions create opportunities for access across changing political leadership. Zaffaroni’s activities provide the case study, while government’s responsibility to treat the wider public fairly supplies the accountability test. Elections determine who governs, but relationships cultivated during campaigns can matter long afterward.

Liberty Funded Opposing Candidates for the Same Jacksonville Council Seat

The clearest example appears in Jacksonville’s campaign-finance records. Fernandina Mulch & Stone, the company operating as Liberty Landscape Supply, contributed $1,000 to Republican Matt McCullough on March 25, 2026. It contributed $500 to Democrat Jimmy Peluso on August 24. Both candidates are seeking City Council’s At-Large Group 4 seat in the 2027 election.

That is more specific than supporting Republicans in one race and Democrats in another. The company helped finance competing candidates for the same position, creating a connection to either potential winner. Our interpretation is that this pattern fits political diversification: maintaining relationships across election outcomes rather than committing exclusively to one governing philosophy. Voters choose between the candidates, while a business supporting both can keep a relationship open in either direction.

The giving also illustrates why election cycles need to be distinguished. Bean’s congressional campaign is part of the 2026 election, while the Jacksonville contributions concern the approaching 2027 municipal contest. Political relationship-building can begin well before voters focus on a local race. The following selected transactions show the breadth of that engagement, distinguishing Zaffaroni’s personal contribution from company giving.

These six transactions total $5,000 across multiple election cycles. They are selected records, not a complete accounting of lifetime political giving. Their significance lies in the relationships they establish across parties, jurisdictions and competing campaigns.

Aaron Bean’s Endorsement Event Put Liberty at the Center of the Campaign

Campaign contributions are one form of participation; hosting political appearances creates another. On October 23, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce endorsed Republican Congressman Aaron Bean at Liberty Landscape in Fernandina Beach. The event formed part of its Free Enterprise Express Opportunity Tour and included discussion of taxes, affordability and business policy. Liberty promoted the visit on Facebook, placing its business alongside the congressman and a national advocacy organization.

A business venue can provide a candidate with a setting, local relationships and a visible connection to employers. The host receives attention and an opportunity to engage directly with the visitor. When that host also leads a business-policy committee, the encounter carries institutional significance as well as commercial visibility. Zaffaroni participated within precisely that combination of roles.

His relationship with Bean predates the recent endorsement event. At an August 27, 2025 tax roundtable hosted by the U.S. Chamber and JAX Chamber, Zaffaroni spoke as JAX Chamber Government Affairs chair and praised Bean’s small-business advocacy. Federal records then show his $1,000 personal contribution to Bean’s campaign on September 8, 2025. Those dated events connect public advocacy, campaign support and a later political appearance at his company.

Congressional Visits and the London Delegation Extend the Relationships

Liberty’s political visitors have included Republican Congressman John Rutherford. In a July 2, 2024 Facebook post, Rutherford publicized a tour of the company’s St. Augustine location and described discussions about small-business growth and workforce development. The visit offered direct contact with a federal lawmaker and exposure through his social media account. It provides an earlier example of Liberty’s locations serving as settings for political engagement.

The relationships also cross party lines. Zaffaroni appeared seated at the front right of a London delegation photograph Mayor Donna Deegan shared on October 12, 2026. JAXUSA described the broader mayor-led economic-development mission as its largest to date, involving more than 150 attendees from 50 companies. The photograph places him within that gathering.

Taken together, these appearances show engagement with Republican federal officials and a Democratic local administration. That breadth matters for a company operating across Northeast Florida with business interests extending to the state capital of Tallahassee while doing business with government. Commercial relationships must often endure beyond any one campaign or officeholder. Contributions, visits and business delegations offer different opportunities to develop that continuity.

Zaffaroni Participated in Deegan’s Transition Policy Discussions

Zaffaroni’s involvement with Deegan’s administration reaches back to its 2023 transition process. The official record for the Economic Development Transition Committee’s July 20 Small Business Ladders meeting identifies him as a subject-matter expert representing Liberty Landscape Supply. Liberty was the only landscaping company identified among that session’s listed subject-matter experts. The discussion addressed the JSEB program, contracting opportunities, certification barriers and ways to improve small-business participation in City work.

That placed Liberty’s owner in a policy discussion with the new administration about the system through which businesses obtain government opportunities. His involvement therefore preceded the later mayoral recognition visit and London delegation appearance. Transition participation adds an early point in the relationship’s chronology: helping inform policy as an administration establishes its priorities. For this article’s election-cycle focus, it illustrates how business engagement can carry into the policy-development work that follows an election.

A Former Liberty Director Joined Deegan’s Senior Administration

Another connection developed as Deegan assembled her administration in 2023. Kelli O’Leary, then Liberty Landscape Supply’s organizational development director, was appointed Jacksonville’s deputy chief administrative officer. The City’s current Mayor’s Staff page continues to list her in that position. Her appointment moved a member of Liberty’s leadership into senior management within the government that purchases landscaping services and oversees public parks.

Her career therefore connects private business leadership with public administration in both directions. Alongside Zaffaroni’s transition participation, board roles and political relationships, the appointment adds a personnel connection to the network surrounding Liberty and City Hall.

Deegan’s Liberty Visit Added Official City Recognition

Deegan has also visited Liberty to present a Keep Jax Cute Litter-Free Business certificate of recognition. In a July 1 Facebook post, Liberty thanked the mayor and City and described itself as the program’s second-ever recognized business. The City’s own July 2 post congratulated Liberty and praised its property maintenance, publishing photographs of Deegan with Zaffaroni, employees and the nursery. The posts documented both a mayoral visit and favorable promotion through an official government communication channel.

Official recognition adds another dimension to the network described here. Congressional appearances connect Liberty with federal lawmakers, the London mission places Zaffaroni among business and civic delegates, and the City’s recognition publicly associates his company with municipal community-improvement goals. These are different forms of engagement, but each provides visibility and opportunities to strengthen relationships.

Political Appearances Give Liberty Marketing Value Alongside Access

Liberty’s political relationships also generate commercial visibility. A mayoral recognition visit, congressional tours and a national Chamber endorsement event place its locations, employees and branding before audiences reached by elected officials and public institutions. That exposure has marketing value beyond the opportunity to discuss policy. Taken together, the documented appearances suggest an unusually prominent political platform for a Northeast Florida landscaping business.

Competitors may be capable of providing comparable services without receiving comparable attention. Photographs, favorable descriptions and official recognition can strengthen a company’s credibility with prospective customers as well as its familiarity with public officials. Government cannot feature every business equally, but it should use fair, explainable criteria when selecting businesses for official recognition and promotional visits. The accountability question therefore extends beyond who receives contracts to who receives the visibility, credibility and access that can help a business compete.

Chamber Leadership Gives Zaffaroni an Organized Route Into Public Policy

Zaffaroni’s role extends beyond hosting officials or attending events. He chairs JAX Chamber’s Government Affairs Committee and serves on its Executive Committee. Our Civic Council membership review also identified him within that organization’s business-leadership network. These positions provide recurring opportunities to help shape priorities and communicate with people involved in public decisions.

The Chamber describes its Government Affairs Committee as developing recommendations that move to its board before becoming advocacy positions. Its policy page also sets a $6,000 investment threshold for businesses seeking participation in JAX Alliance, its advocacy arm. That structure gives qualifying participants a defined route into organized policy discussions. Zaffaroni occupies a leadership position within the organization running that process.

The U.S. Chamber’s endorsement of Bean and JAX Chamber’s local policy leadership involve separate organizations. Nevertheless, the local leadership role helps explain why Zaffaroni’s participation carries more weight than simply making a venue available. His company hosted a national Chamber event for a candidate he had supported while he helped lead local business advocacy. The combination connects political visibility with continuing institutional access.

Government Contracts and Board Authority Give the Network Commercial Stakes

Our Liberty Landscape profile traced how the company’s expansion developed alongside Zaffaroni’s organizational involvement. In July 2025, Liberty won a competitively bid City tree and landscaping contract with an initial two-year ceiling of $29,002,567.58. The ceiling represents contracting capacity rather than guaranteed payments. The City separately authorized a $25,750 roundabout agreement using an exemption from competitive solicitation.

Zaffaroni also chairs Jacksonville’s JSEB Monitoring Committee and was brought on and elevated as Jax Riverfront Alliance vice chair at a time when the city public works department was attempting to transfer riverfront landscaping issues to JRA while their board developed operational capacity and announced Tony Moore as its first CEO on October 28. Those roles connect Zaffaroni to institutions whose priorities intersect with his company’s field of work.

As JRA expands, decisions about maintenance responsibilities, budgets and purchasing arrangements will carry commercial consequences. Governing influence can operate through discussions about priorities, service requirements and potential providers before a contract reaches a vote. Abstention from a final award would therefore address only one part of the process. Clear separation throughout procurement matters when an organizational leader also owns a business that's already supplying the services under discussion. Hypothetical abstention from a board vote at JRA doesn't negate the influence Liberty has generated by Zaffaroni's presence in leadership across multiple influence networks.

Liberty’s Community Critics Offer a Different Measure of Access

Liberty’s promotion of Bean’s visit drew criticism alongside positive reactions. A Facebook commenter identified as Rita HD accused the company of shifting resources toward Jacksonville while neglecting its original community. She described the appearance as a planned publicity event. Her comment challenged the company’s community image at the same moment it highlighted its political connections.

A separate October 5 message to The 101 Report described concerns about Liberty’s effects on a neighboring residential community. The reader complained about noise, dirt, dust and employee language seven days a week as the operation shifted from a plant nursery toward wholesale activity. “It’s like living next to a construction project that is never completed,” the reader wrote.

Those perspectives are relevant to a story about community leadership and access. The City’s litter-free recognition addresses property upkeep, while the reader’s complaints concern noise, dust and neighboring residents’ quality of life. Both can be part of the same business’s community record, and a favorable recognition does not answer those separate concerns. JRA’s emphasis on welcoming public spaces and community engagement makes responsiveness to residents a meaningful standard for its leaders. Residents living beside an operation deserve consideration alongside the company’s political visibility and organizational standing.

Election-Year Relationships Can Outlast the Election Results

Campaigns offer opportunities to build relationships that continue after the signs come down. A contribution opens one connection, a hosted visit creates another, and an organizational position supplies a recurring forum for discussion. When those activities overlap, a business leader can participate through several channels at once. Supporting competitors can help preserve those opportunities as political leadership changes.

Zaffaroni’s record illustrates that accumulation over time. Rutherford’s 2024 visit, the 2025 Bean roundtable and contribution, the 2026 company donations, the London gathering and Bean’s recent endorsement event form a sequence. Set beside his Chamber, JSEB and JRA roles, they support a reasonable business interpretation: political engagement and institutional leadership can reinforce commercial strategy.

Jacksonville Must Protect Fair Treatment Beyond the Influence Network

Residents should not need to finance both sides of an election to receive responsive representation. Businesses should not need campaign contributions or membership in influential policy forums to receive fair consideration for government work. Supporting the winner, supporting the opponent or contributing nothing should not change the standard of public service. Public decisions should reflect facts, qualifications and public benefit.

In practice, people with recurring institutional access have more opportunities to present their concerns, frame proposals and establish their own influence network. Public-facing visits and recognition can add a commercial advantage by giving a business exposure through government communication channels. Those differences create an obligation for government to counterbalance unequal access through transparent purchasing rules, documented decisions, disclosure and meaningful opportunities to participate. The public should be able to understand why officials select a business for recognition as well as why they select one for a contract.

Business leaders can cultivate political relationships and seek organizational authority. Government remains responsible for ensuring those relationships do not become preferential public treatment. Election coverage should therefore examine who finances candidates, who hosts them and which institutional roles connect those relationships to later decisions. The accountability test continues after the ballots are counted.

We welcome your thoughts.

Sources and Reporting Documents

• U.S. Chamber, October 23, 2026 Bean endorsement announcement and August 27, 2025 tax roundtable.

• Federal Election Commission, Aaron Bean for Congress October 2025 quarterly filing, page 41.

• Duval campaign-finance reports: Jimmy Peluso, Q3 2026, entry 36; Matt McCullough, Q1 2026, entry 67; Donna Deegan, Q2 2026, entry 543; Daniel Davis, September 2022, entry 38.

• St. Johns County campaign-finance report: Heather Brofford, July 21, 2026 contribution, entry 6.

• JAX Chamber, Board of Directors and Engage in Policy.

• City of Jacksonville, Mayor’s Staff, listing Kelli O’Leary as deputy chief administrative officer; June 2023 appointment reporting, identifying her Liberty organizational-development position and prior government service.

• City of Jacksonville, July 20, 2023 Economic Development Transition Committee—Small Business Ladders meeting record, pages 2–3: Zaffaroni’s subject-matter-expert participation, listed organizations and JSEB discussion.

• City of Jacksonville, JSEB Monitoring Committee, July 17, 2025 procurement agenda, item 13, and Ordinance 2025-0028-E.

• JAXUSA, October 8, 2026 UK mission announcement.

• JRA, leadership biographies and October 28, 2026 CEO announcement.

• Reporting documents supplied to The 101 Report: Rutherford’s July 2, 2024 Facebook post; Deegan’s October 12, 2026 delegation photo; Liberty’s July 1 post and the City’s July 2 post documenting Deegan’s visit and Keep Jax Cute Litter-Free Business recognition; Liberty’s Bean-event Facebook post and comments; October 5 reader message. Reader contact information omitted.

The Influence Network Series