As the James Dunn scandal emerges in Texas, Florida donor Ed Cofrancesco wonders what happened to his money
The Orlando/Mulberry investment firm president gave $4K to Dunn's Florida PAC, making him the only contributor. He says he hasn't heard from Dunn since.
Update update: Ed Cofrancesco very quickly reached out to me with answers to my questions — which is rare, and which I appreciate.
Bottom line: Cofrancesco says Dunn reached out to him by phone after he attended a GOP campaign/party function in late spring. He doesn’t know how Dunn got his number. He gave Dunn money because he’s a Republican and he wanted to support Republican candidates, he said. And that’s how Dunn pitched the PAC.
Cofrancesco said he learned about Dunn’s history and drama a week or two after contributing by reading about it in The Ledger.
Dunn has since ghosted Cofrancesco; and he doesn’t know how the money was spent. “Can you help me get my money back?” he said with a laugh. I will update my specific questions below with more specific answers when I get a little more time. But Cofrancesco said nobody from any investigative agency has contacted him. That seems odd to me. He’s a jovial and talkative guy. I feel certain he’d be willing to chat with anybody.
Update: This outstanding video from a Texas public education activist appears to have sparked the Texas attention to Dunn: good for Lauren!
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In a very bad development for James Dunn, the CCDF’s arch-criminal campaign manager and two-state GOP operative has begun to attract media scrutiny in Texas. It has started with a Houston-area newspaper — the Courier of Montgomery County. Link here; see headline below.
This article follows up on a story I first reported on Oct. 11, after receiving a tip from some sharp-eyed Texans.
Key passage from the new Texas story:
Jake Kobersky, director of media relations for TEA, said the agency doesn’t have the authority under the State Board of Education to deny registration to its database of training providers. He said TEA does not compensate training providers and only maintains the database as a tool for school districts to find a trainer that fits their needs.
However, after learning of Dunn’s conviction, Kobersky said the agency is exploring possible rule changes and process improvements for registration with the board of education.
According to TEA’s website, anyone seeking to provide continuing education for school district board members and/or charter school board members and school officers must register with TEA and provide information and/or resume regarding their area of expertise. Kobersky said no background check is required to register for the database.
It won’t be long until PPP loans and church-cheating show up in print out there, I suspect. Winter is coming for James Dunn, even in south Texas.
The Cofrancesco connection: can we talk, Ed? E-mail me.
To celebrate Dunn’s emerging Texas publicity, I want to share something I’ve been puzzling over for a while and just haven’t yet had time to write up.
During a very eventful June 2022 (on June 13th) here in Polk County, Florida, James Dunn and a person named Kurtis Renfro created a Florida-based PAC called “Gulf Coast Community Action Agency - Protecting Our Kids” (GCCAA-POK).
Renfro was the “chairman” and Dunn the “treasurer.”
The PAC’s stated purpose was “assisting conservative school board candidates” in Florida. It named five specific candidates in two counties:
Polk: Rick Nolte, Jill Sessions, Terry Clark, and Justin Sharpless
Miami-Dade: Sandra Manzieri
Its address is 66 West Flagler Street, Suite #900 in Miami.
On June 28, 2022, Ed Cofrancesco became GCCAA-POK’s only contributor, giving $4,000. See images of all this below.
It’s worth noting that “Renfro Management” is one of six PPP loans that companies tied to Dunn received from the federal government as part of the COVID emergency response.
It’s not clear to me if Kurtis Renfro is involved in Renfro Management.
Some questions for Ed Cofrancesco
Cofrancesco, president of an Orlando-based firm called International Assets Advisory, chatted with me yesterday. Here are the answers to the questions I wanted to ask him:
Do you know James Dunn? What’s your connection to him? Dunn reached out to Cofrancesco by phone after he attended a Polk GOP event. He said his PAC was for supporting DeSantis/GOP school board candidates. So Cofrancesco contributed. He says he has never met Dunn, nor heard from him since. He said he’s not sure who steered Dunn to him.
How did you come to contribute $4,000 to their PAC? See answer above
Do you know if your money was actually spent? If so, on what? No. “I hope it was spent on what it was meant for.”
How long have you been in Polk County? Why did you get involved in this School Board cycle? About 18 months. “I support Republicans and these were the Republican candidates.”
Do you have a CCDF connection? Not that he was aware of. The connection seems to be through Polk GOP.
Is Cindy Cofrancesco, who gave $500 to Dunn client Jill Sessions on May 3, related to you? Yes, that’s Cofrancesco’s wife.
Have you spoken with the Polk State Attorney’s Office about illegal campaign texts that began appearing in June, with lies about Lisa Miller and her husband? No. No investigator has contacted him.
A little mini-timeline surrounding June 2022 for context
For context on the PAC and Cofrancesco’s contribution, check out this little timeline, which is an 8-week subset of a much larger Dunn/Nolte/CCDF timeline I’m compiling.
May 3, 2002
Cindy Cofrancesco contributes $500 to incumbent School Board Member Lisa Miller’s opponent Jill Sessions.
June 5, 2022
CCDF candidate Rick Nolte campaign pays Summit, the Kansas City company, $2,718.67 for “shirts,” according to a campaign report. “Summit” does not advertise shirts on its web page or sell them at all, according to the voicemail I received when I inquired. Six months later, in December, Nolte amended this expenditure to read “signs.”
June 6, 2022
The day after Nolte’s “shirts” payment to a company that doesn’t sell shirts, Jill Sessions’ campaign, one of three in a CCDF slate that includes Nolte, pays $7,500 to James Dunn — the convicted criminal, church-cheating, 6-PPP loan collecting campaign manager that the CCDF recruited from Texas to help its candidates.
June 7, 2022
The Terry Clark campaign, the third member of the CCDF slate, pays James Dunn $750. More would come soon.
June 13, 2022
James Dunn forms Florida political committee called “Gulf Coast Community Action Agency - Protecting Our Kids.”
June 16, 2022
The CCDF holds a podcast with James Dunn they title: “There’s no room for second place….How Conservatives Win School Board Races by Dr. Dunn”
See/listen to the podcast here if you can stomach it.
June 22, 2022
The Terry Clark campaign pays Dunn $6750, which matches the $7500 total for Sessions.
June 24, 2022
Dunn organizes and promotes a “Meet and Greet” with the CCDF’s unofficial slate of Polk County, Florida School Board candidates — Jill Sessions, Rick Nolte, and Terry Clark.
Justin Sharpless does not attend. Sharpless made efforts to distance himself from the CCDF slate, even though the CCDF-universe considers him part of the slate.
June 28, 2022
Edward Cofrancesco, owner of Orlando-based investment firm International Assets Advisory, donates $4,000 to Dunn’s GCCA-POA PAC. It is the only contribution the PAC receives. There is no record that the PAC actually spent the money.
June 29, 2022
I write my first article about James Dunn’s criminal background. Dunn becomes an important campaign issue. Both CCDF candidates who openly hire him will go on to lose.
June 30, 2022
The Nolte Campaign pays “Legion Marketing” of Lakeland $1,664 for more “shirts.” “Legion Marketing” does not appear to exist. Its PO Box 6627 is owned by “Ligon Marketing” and Cora Ligon. Perhaps Nolte cannot spell? Ligon Marketing also has an address at 4404 South Florida Avenue.
That is the same address the CCDF gives to people who want to buy and pick up its merchandise — including shirts.
At the end of June, if you add up all money the Rick Nolte campaign spent vaguely on Summit and Legion/Ligon dating to 3/24, it comes to exactly: $7,567.39. Sessions and Clark, in June, both paid Dunn exactly $7,500.
July 1, 2022
The Ledger reports on a criminal, anonymous text campaign against incumbent School Board Member Lisa Miller. The texts invent and spread lies about her and her husband. Miller is running against Dunn’s client Jill Sessions and Dell Quary.
The Polk State Attorney’ Office is supposedly investigating the illegal texts.
July 8, 2022
A week after The Ledger article about illegal, lying texts, Terry Clark sends a message to his supporters praising the criminal church-cheater James Dunn and declaring flatly: “Jill Sessions and Rick Nolte are also using him.” The email adds: “[Dunn] has already had 20 thousand plus texts sent out all over the county.”
Renfro is Dunn’s cousin. And Cecilia White…is Cecilia Holcombe-White. Kin to Lemarc White. Both are listed on almost all of his phony corporations, and Ms. White was “co-owner” of his company that he used when submitting his fraudulent claims.
I agree that "T.I.T.S." Nolte apparently cannot spell. His address is listed in campaign documents as a road that does not exist, "The Ferway." Perhaps it is supposed to be "The Fenway" since that road does exist.