Vetting Candidates: Is Anna Paulina Luna’s FL-13 Candidacy Example of a “Carpetbagger”?

Anna Paulina Luna and Donald Trump

In a September which saw Luna endorsed by President Trump and her request for permanent injunction struck down, Roger Stone’s prediction including Luna’s name change and working in a strip club may result in a first for a Trump endorsed candidate

On September 14, former President Donald J. Trump formally endorsed Anna Paulina Luna’s 2022 candidacy for the U.S. House for the FL-13, which she lost in the General Election last year to 2-term Congressman and former Governor Charlie Crist (R turned D), who is not running for reelection next year to run for governor.

“Anna Paulina Luna is a great fighter who is running for Congress in Florida. She is an Air Force veteran who puts America First, unlike her RINO opponents. Anna is committed to strong borders, serving our Veterans, and ensuring Florida’s beautiful coastlines are protected. This is an important race because it is ‘key’ to taking back the House. Anna is a warrior, she is a winner, and it’s time for all America First Republicans to unite behind her strong campaign. Anna has my complete and total endorsement.”

Donald Trump, 9/14/21 formal endorsement from DonaldJTrump.com

Longtime Trump ally Roger Stone has a very different take on Anna Paulina Luna, including revelations from last month about Luna once working briefly at a strip club over 7 years ago.

Roger Stone

“I noticed this morning that former President Donald Trump, a friend and client of mine for some 40 years, has endorsed Anna Paulina Luna for Congress for the seat vacated by former Governor Charlie Crist so he can run for Governor.

“It’s an odd choice particularly since ‘Luna’ as she now calls herself did not run a particularly strong race, losing badly by 30,000 votes, running 5 points behind Trump who only lost the district by 1% while Luna lost by 6%.

“As someone who has great loyalty and affection for the President and both knows and understands him and also has a keen understanding of the dynamics surrounding the process in which these endorsement decisions are made, I can now confidently predict that the President will ultimately withdraw his endorsement long before the Republican Congressional Primary next year.

“I really doubt that the President has any understanding of Anna Meyerhoffer, the California Democrat who supported Barack Obama while living in California (where she listed ethnicity on her driver’s license as ‘Caucasian’ rather than Hispanic).

“There is surely no way President Trump, my friend of 40 years, is aware of her abuse of the Judicial System and her (Luna) habitual filing of restraining orders against her political opponents or anyone who gets in her ambitious way. she filed a restraining order against a member of her own family when he had the audacity to come forward and point out that her entire biography is a fraud.

“Luna also filed a restraining order against a woman in Fort Walton Beach which just happens to be in Matt Gaetz district -when Luna was working at a Gentleman’s club as a dancer. Luna’s denial that she was a dancer and her insistence she was a cocktail waitress is debunked in sworn affidavits from the club owner and two employees. Dancer. Stripper. Read Stone’s Rules. No amount of cash to Peter Schorsch Is going to change the facts.

Roger Stone excerpt from blog post “TRUMP ENDORSEMENT OF LUNA QUESTIONABLE”, 9/14/21 from StoneColdTruth.com

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Stone’s reference to Peter Schorsch was reference to Florida Politics (FP) September 5, 2021 interview, by Scorsch, questioning Luna on the revelation of working at a striptease establishment (euphemistically referred to as “gentleman’s club”). Here’s the most relevant portion:

“Florida Politics unearthed documents that raise some new questions; Luna agreed to be interviewed provide direct answers.

FP: Court documents from early 2014 show that you briefly worked as a cocktail waitress at a gentlemen’s club while living in Fort Walton Beach. In a court filing, you wrote that you picked up this cocktail waitressing job to bring in quick money needed to travel to visit your husband at Walter Reed Medical Center, where he was recovering after being shot in Afghanistan. Given where it was, some people say this job should raise concerns about you and your character. What is the real story, and what do you say to that?

“APL: In January 2014, my husband, Andy, was shot in Afghanistan by al-Qaida fighters. I was out of the Air Force and in college at the time, and we were struggling as it was to make things work on a military salary. When I received word that Andy had been shot, I immediately scrambled to come up with the money to see him.

“The military doesn’t always pay for family to see their recovering service member, and they wouldn’t pay for mine. We were always struggling to make ends meet on military wages as it was, and I was in college on top of that.

“I’ve never experienced so-called ‘family money.’ We never had that. So, I called a friend who bartended at a local club to see if I could get a waitressing job to make quick cash to see Andy. She got me the job, I worked a few shifts to earn the money I needed, and I quit and went to see him.”

A tough conversation with Anna Paulina Luna” by Peter Schorsch, Florida Politics, September 5, 2021

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As for the name change and Obama supporter both claimed by Stone, the Tampa Bay Times, in an October 11, 2020 article, documented Luna’s birthname as “Anna Paulina Meyerhoffer”, her father was part German, part Mexican, while her mother was Mexican. She took her husband’s last name when they married, but in March of 2019, she petitioned the court to change her last name to “Luna”, in order to protect her husband who was still in the Air Force, and wanting to highlight her Mexican heritage.

While “Luna” was not her mother’s last name, it was a name of a progenitor on her mother’s side of her family.

The Obama support is explained in the Tampa Bay Times, too.

Darlene Swaffar

From the desk of John Lopez: Yesterday, I published an article with observations/warning about “carpetbagging candidates” from FL-22 Republican candidate Darlene Swaffar, including this quote for reference:

Beware of Carpetbagger Candidates: ‘An outsider, especially a politician, who presumptuously seeks a position or success in a new locality.

“They are popping up here in South Florida. Then all of a sudden they get funding from outside of South Florida.”

Darlene Swaffar, from Twitter thread September of 2021

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While Swaffar’s observation about “carpetbagger candidates” was confined to south Florida, where Swaffar’s district is, the FL-13 and Anna Paulina Luna’s “revelations”, while not said in any of the articles, screams for discernment to ask the question, would Luna be one of those carpetbaggers?

Highlights from Luna’s 32-year life revealed in the sources above, include:

  • Born in Santa Ana, CA, in 1989 as Anna Paulina Meyerhoffer
  • At age 19 (circa 2008), she enlisted in the Air Force which lasted about 5 years, during the time, she met and married her husband Andy and took his last name
  • At age 24 (c. late 2013), she left the Air Force to attend University of West Florida in Pensacola to pursue Biology degree living in/near Fort Walton Beach, FL
  • By age 27-28 (c. 2016-2017), graduated college and instead of pursuing medicine, moved to Oregon where husband stationed and she enlisted in the Oregon Air National Guard, buying a home with husband in Portland area
  • December 27, 2018, publication of first book Marrying the Beret: The Untold Stories of US Special Operations released under the name of “Anna Paulina”
  • By age 28-29 (c. 2019), her husband transferred to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, returning Anna to Florida. Couple sold their Oregon home in October of 2019
  • Age 29, Anna Paulina petitions the court in March of 2019 to legally change her name from her husband’s name to Anna Paulina Luna, being granted the name change in April of 2019
  • Age 30, decides to run for Congress in the FL-13 district in 2019, by December of 2019, joins IL-14’s Catalina Lauf, NV-04’s Lisa Song Sutton along with 2 other candidates in the “Stop the Squad” slate. Luna files her first Financial Disclosure (FD) report in March of 2020.
  • Age 31, Luna and her husband buy home in St. Petersburg, being the couple’s first home purchase in Florida, a month before the August congressional primary in 2020
  • Age 31, Luna wins the FL-13 August primary over 4 other candidates, including over Amanda Makki, lobbyist and former staffer for Senator Lisa Murkowski (R, AK)
  • November 3, 2020, Luna loses general election to Congressman Charlie Crist (D, former R), underperforming President Trump in FL-13
  • August 17, 2021, publication of 2nd book, Bringing Them Home: The Untold Cost of Putting Mission First under her legal name of Anna Paulina Luna

Would the outline above be a carpetbagger to you?

The “carpetbagging” would be easy to overlook, given Luna’s story of her tough childhood and her honorable service to the nation in the Air Force from age 19 to her mid 20s, then working her way through school in Pensacola while living in/around Fort Walton Beach in the Florida panhandle.

But after her service in the Air National Guard and living in Oregon after her graduating from college, she returns to Florida, this time Tampa-St. Petersburg and runs for Congress, winning a heavily contested primary in 2020, within two years after moving to an area of Florida she hadn’t lived in prior?

Amanda Makki

The bulk of the timeline above was not known to FL-13 Republican primary voters prior to the August 18, 2020, primary last year. The rematch between Luna and Makki, plus other Republicans competing for the chance to win the now open FL-13 House seat next year, will insure voters are fully informed about Luna’s past, including her name change, her work at the strip club, and her past support for President Obama, in advance of the August 23, 2022, Republican primary.

Don’t think Luna’s side gig as a model, including publication in Skyn, Ballistic, si.com, Liberty Belles and Maxim won’t go unnoticed, plus any other new revelations which may come out between now and August.

Here’s a sample of the politics to come now that Luna is fully being vetted:

“So now, after changing her name, moving to Florida, and registering as a Republican for the first time, Luna is trying to sell Florida Republicans on her latest character.

“Just [outgoing Democrat Congressman Charlie] Crist in a skirt.”

Amanda Makki fundraising email September, 2021, reported in “Makki Accuses Former Obama Supporter Anna Paulina Luna of Being a ‘Phony’: This race will get really ugly” by Javier ManJarres, The Floridian, October 1, 2021

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Another candidate, Matt Tito, plans to run in FL-13 next year, and as Roger Stone’s blog article (not part of excerpt above) portends, Republican primary voters will learn the difference between a “Veteran” and a “Combat Veteran”, as Luna was never in combat during her service in the Air Force.

It is hoped the need to vet candidates, especially those running for statewide office and Congress, is obvious given what Republican primary voters didn’t know about their nominee in FL-13 when primary ballots were cast last year.

They will know next year.

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Comments

Vetting Candidates: Is Anna Paulina Luna’s FL-13 Candidacy Example of a “Carpetbagger”? — 20 Comments

  1. Trump gives a lot of time, thought and discernment in his endorsement picks.

    Said nobody ever.

    ✌️😎

  2. Please leave the Yugoslavs out of this post.

    They were a good country: they raised the living conditions of their people significantly including lifting millions out of poverty, electrifying the country, and making people literate; they kept peace at home (in a multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-lingual, multi-cultural country) and abroad (Stalin failed miserably at assassinating him multiple times and eventually was given an ultimatum that goons were going to start showing up in his country if he didn’t knock it off); and they were much more respectable than US OF GAY your evil country.

    Never forget that Josip Tito had THE LARGEST funeral in HISTORY for a statesman — that record is still true today over 40 years later — and it was attended by both communists and capitalists leaders of the world.

    If Trump or Obama or Biden died half of your country at least would cheer.

    That did not happen in Yugoslavia because they respected their leaders and the world respected them too unlike America which is not respected.

    I think the fact that a fat woman, an ugly woman, Mellow Monk, and an old man are annoyed at Luna because Trump likes her will only help her.

  3. But this so succinctly illustrates Carpetbaggery.

    And it’s cynical in that it’s not in the purpose of building something, other than a bruised ego. Oh sure, some real candidates happen to slip in there too, but still….

    It’s almost like some of them were random pedestrians swept in off the streets of Burbank to fill the seats in the studio. Come on down….

    ✌️😎

  4. Why didn’t Stone send a letter to Trump and not make this so public.

  5. Strippers generally have far higher moral standards than professional politicians.

  6. Public letter, probably because he’s persona non grata?

    Calling him out publicly that he’s not being well-served by whoever his “team” is now, so it becomes an issue he should face?

    ✌️😎

  7. Tito slaughtered a million of his people but I’m guessing he was popular, because his man cave had a Les Paul signed guitar and a real Kiss Pinball machine.

  8. no he didn’t post a link dj.

    Stop lying on this blog.

    He is popular because he was the most liberal ruler of all the communists in terms of economic and personal policies.

    Try again, DJ.

    Remember that in your country you murder infants but please lecture us about the yugoslavs lmao

  9. Correcting must be a Serb.

    Tito’s goons murdered many hundreds of thousands.

  10. There is no such thing as Yugoslavia today.

    Thank God.

    Soon there will be no such thing as the United States.

    Also, thank God.

  11. So whats so different about a Pole Dancer and the AOC bartender now in our Gov… ?

    may be she is not a wacko like the the one who is now? that would be a +.

  12. Toilet Bowl, the difference between AOC and APL: AOC’s constituents knew about her past, including bartending plus she had long ties to NYC community.

    AOC’s district elected her by ousting a 10-term Democrat incumbent in the primary of 2018.

    The general election in NY-14 was no contest.

    APL was not fully vetted prior to the primary, though she faced tough competition in the 5-way Republican primary in FL-13.

    APL ran on her military record that wasn’t fully vetted, including living in FL-13 less than 2 years after living few years in Oregon.

    Her name change was not known to most primary voters, and no one knew about her working at a strip club (she says as cocktail waitress, others say as something else).

    Not helping APL combat the strip club employment are the many modeling shoots wearing tailor-made fatigues she would have never worn, or swimsuit modeling which makes the stripper claims plausible.

    That will all be thoroughly vetted in the primary election campaign next year.

    Also, voters didn’t learn APL never was in combat in her time in the Air Force, in spite modeling in fatigues with weapons and as a dog patrol guard which she never did in the service.

    That’s where Tito will nail her as a stolen valor candidate.

    All APL had to do was tell the truth.

  13. horse-face APL voted for Obama & Biden. And even today, she is supporting their policies.

    Biden thought that sanctions-alone would contain Putin and force him back to Russia.

    So did Anna Paulina Gamberzky.

    Biden said that ONLY energy independence would free Ukraine from the oppression of Russia and keep America free.

    So, did Anna Paulina Gamberzky.

    Biden said that he was scared of WWIII, nuclear warfare, and the threat of China.

    So did Anna Paulina Gamberzky.

    Biden hoped that there would not be spillage from the War of Russian Aggression.

    So did Anna Paulina Gamberzky.

    Biden thought that by not sending troops to Ukraine, Russia would not use CBRN weapons.

    So did Anna Paulina Gamberzky.

    Biden’s son got fucked up and slept with strippers.

    Anna Paulina Gamberzky WAS a stripper.

    Biden has a shameful last name.

    Anna Paulina Gamberzky was ashamed of her husband’s name – she changed it when he got out of the AirForce citing his safety in the AirForce.

    This was after she became a public figure, so it did absolutely nothing to protect his identity in the AirForce.

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