SARASOTA, Fla. — As the investigation by the Sarasota Police Department into rape allegations against Florida's GOP Chair and former Sarasota county commissioner Christian Ziegler continues, calls have grown for him to resign from his position in the party.
The domino effect of the allegations is also now playing out at the school district level as that call for resignation has been extended to his wife, Bridget Ziegler, who is a member of the Sarasota School Board.
A local public school advocacy group, Support Our Schools, and at least two school board members want Bridget Ziegler to step down immediately.
"It's not just Christian's problem, her hypocrisy is a problem," said Lisa Schurr with Support Our Schools.
There are now more than 1,500 signatures on a Support Our Schools petition calling for Bridget Ziegler's resignation.
While Bridget Ziegler herself is not facing any allegations of wrongdoing related to the case, police documents containing the sexual assault claims against her husband revealed she admitted to consensual three-way sexual encounters with the female victim.
Christian Ziegler has not been charged and has denied the allegations.
The Zieglers are both staunch conservatives who, until this scandal broke, have been rising stars and influential players within the Republican party. They promoted campaigns touting family and Christian values and Bridget Ziegler specifically helped push anti-LQBTQ legislation and what her critiques considered right-wing rhetoric and agenda with her position on the school board.
"She's not a great role model, let's face it," Schurr said. "If she remains on the school board, she will continue to foment chaos and divisiveness and we won't be able to move forward to ensure that every child in this county is provided with a quality education."
School Board Chair Karen Rose, a known ally of Bridget Ziegler said she plans to call for her resignation at Tuesday's meeting.
The statement reads:
"Our community has been rocked by the disturbing revelations surrounding my fellow School Board member Bridget Ziegler and the criminal allegations against her husband, Christian Ziegler. I am shocked and deeply saddened by the conduct and deplore the salacious news coverage. But my first responsibility is to the Sarasota County School District.
"So for the good of our students, teachers, staff, and community, I will be calling on Mrs. Ziegler to step down from her position on the School Board. I am asking our Superintendent to place this item on the agenda for our next meeting, Tuesday, December 12, where I will make a motion that the Board approve a resolution asking Mrs. Ziegler to step down.
"I personally care about Bridget and her family and deeply regret the necessity for this course of action, but given the intense media scrutiny locally and nationally, her continued presence on the Board would cause irreparably harmful distractions to our critical mission."
A resolution by the School Board of Sarasota County also called for Bridget Ziegler's voluntary resignation at Tuesday's meeting.
Lone liberal board member Tom Edwards, who has found himself in many conflicts with Ziegler, said he is in support of Rose's statement as well as the resolution.
"I called for her resignation because it's just another distraction in a long list of distractions that my colleague has brought to the school board," said Tom Edwards, a Sarasota School Board member. "At the last school board meeting, I quite frankly said let's put all of that behind us so that we can focus in on our students and academic achievement and educational outcomes and then days later this scandal."
The chair of the Republican Party of Sarasota, Jack Brill, has joined the call for Christian Ziegler to resign from the state GOP citing in addition "moral failings outside of the criminal allegations."
The full statement reads:
"Given the increasing amount of evidence coming out on the allegations against Christian Ziegler, the Republican Party of Sarasota County believes that what is best for Sarasota County and Florida in this critical election cycle, is for Christian to step down as Chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, State Committeeman of the Republican Party of Sarasota County and a member of our Executive Committee.
"We want to see Christian given full due process of law in a timely fashion, but the moral failings outside of the criminal allegations require us to remind all of our community leaders that they are held to a higher standard."
A spokesperson for the Sarasota chapter of the group Moms For Liberty, a national organization co-founded by Bridget Ziegler, said they would be standing by her pending the outcome of the investigation.
"Bridget Ziegler has always been and still is a champion for parental rights," said Conni Brunni, with the Sarasota Chapter of Moms For Liberty, Sarasota Chapter. "What goes on in her bedroom is none of my business. The mission of an organization, Moms For Liberty, the party or any other organization is bigger than any individual, and it's incumbent on true leaders to ignore the noise and stay focused on their mission and that's what we're going to do."
"The hypocrisy in the integrity issue is a low-hanging fruit," Edwards said. "It's very obvious."
"We are concerned with the education of children, and that is the only thing that we need to be focused on at this point in time, the only thing," concluded Schurr.
Other local public school advocacy groups also plan to join Support Our Schools at a rally which would be held at the school district ahead of the school board meeting on Tuesday.