He obtained ambassadorships by contributing to campaign funds that contributed to the election of two Bush presidents. Eventually, he expressed support for Donald Trump.
In 1997, Mel Sembler was in his St. Petersburg, Florida office. Apart from his work on shopping malls, he also lent his support to Republican figures like Dick Cheney, Newt Gingrich, and Mitt Romney to aid their election campaigns.
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Mel Sembler, a prominent real estate developer and a major contributor to the Republican party, who was rewarded with ambassadorial positions by two presidents, passed away on October 31 at his residence in St. Petersburg, Florida. He was 93 years old.
His son Brent confirmed that the cause of death was lung cancer.
Mr. Sembler, known for his role in creating over 350 shopping centers and retail projects in the Southeastern United States, was a highly sought-after fundraiser for the Republican party. He had a remarkable ability to generate substantial contributions, once raising $11 million at a single fundraising dinner. He also provided guidance and support to influential figures within the Republican establishment who held prominent roles in politics prior to the emergence of Donald J. Trump. Notable beneficiaries of his support included Dick Cheney, Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, and members of the Bush family.
Mr. Sembler was openly candid about the influence of money in politics, acknowledging that financial resources play a crucial role in having a say in political matters. He expressed this sentiment in an interview with The Tampa Bay Times in 2019, stating, “Money gives you a voice. Without money, you have no voice.”
His fundraising activities spanned from the 1980s, when a $100,000 donation was considered substantial, to the present era of multimillion-dollar contributions to super PACs, following the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling in 2010.
After contributing more than $100,000 to George H.W. Bush’s successful presidential campaign in 1988 and serving as the chairman of his inaugural committee, Mr. Sembler was appointed as the ambassador to Australia. He served in this role throughout President Bush’s term, from 1989 to 1993.
The appointment of ambassadors for political support was a longstanding practice ingrained in both major political parties, a fact humorously depicted by cartoonist Garry Trudeau in a “Doonesbury” comic strip, where Mr. Sembler is portrayed as the highest bidder at a black-tie auction for the ambassadorship to Australia.
Mr. Sembler established particularly close relationships with the Bush family. As the finance chairman of the Republican National Committee during the 2000 election, he successfully raised over $220 million in contributions for George W. Bush and other Republican candidates. In recognition of his contributions, the second President Bush appointed him as the ambassador to Italy, a position he held from 2001 to 2005.
The Sembler family once hosted a Shabbat dinner at the White House. After the meal, Mr. Bush, who preferred to go to bed early, got up from the table and jokingly said, “Alright, Semblers, time to head home,” as Brent Sembler recounted in an interview. Mr. Bush later worked on his memoirs while wearing a robe on the terrace of the Sembler residence. His brother Jeb affectionately referred to Mr. Sembler’s wife, Betty, as the “ambassadorable.”
For Jeb Bush, who was the third member of his family to run for president, Mr. Sembler managed donations exceeding $100 million for a super PAC in 2015. This amount was so substantial that many analysts believed Jeb Bush would be a formidable candidate in the Republican primary, which was taking shape at that time.
However, Jeb Bush, a former governor of Florida, dropped out of the race early. This was due to a combination of factors, including fatigue with the Bush family name among Republican voters and the rising populist movement that was boosting Mr. Trump, ultimately reshaping the Republican Party.
After Jeb Bush’s early exit, Mr. Sembler expressed his disillusionment with the state of the country, telling The Tampa Bay Times that he was seriously considering voting for Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, in the general election.
Nonetheless, like many traditional Republican donors, Mr. Sembler eventually came around to supporting Mr. Trump. He was appointed as a financial vice chairman by the Republican National Committee in 2016 to help raise funds for Mr. Trump’s campaign. Subsequently, he also raised money for Trump’s presidential inauguration.
Mr. Sembler explained his shift in stance, saying, “I’m a supporter of the party, and he’s the leader of my party.”
Melvin Floyd Sembler was born in St. Joseph, Missouri, on May 10, 1930, to Benjamin Sembler, a businessman, and Fanny (Magoon) Sembler, a homemaker.
Mel Sembler and Betty Schlesinger met while they were students at Northwestern University and got married in 1953. Betty passed away in 2022. Mr. Sembler is survived by his three sons, Brent, Martin, and Greg, along with his sister, Delores Krakower, and 12 grandchildren.
During the early 1960s, Mr. Sembler convinced a group of downtown Dyersburg, Tennessee, merchants to relocate to a new arrangement of side-by-side stores along a highway, which can be seen as an early version of the strip mall.
In 1968, after moving his family to St. Petersburg, Mr. Sembler began developing shopping centers in small towns across Florida, typically anchored by a Publix or another supermarket. The Sembler Company went on to create the BayWalk entertainment complex in St. Petersburg and Centro Ybor, a shopping mall in Tampa.
Starting in 1976, Mr. Sembler also funded and supervised a series of residential drug treatment centers for teenagers, known as Straight Inc. The program used a strict approach, including confining teenagers and providing intensive counseling and peer pressure.
The motivation behind these centers, as explained by Brent Sembler, was the Sembler family’s discovery that one of their three sons had developed a drug dependency. In the 1980s, Nancy Reagan, the first lady at the time, visited one of the Straight centers and drew from the experience in creating her “Just Say No” anti-drug campaign.
Several centers were established in multiple states, but the program faced controversy and closed down in 1993. A Virginia jury awarded $220,000 to a former Straight Inc. resident who had been confined against his will, and a Florida jury awarded another former client $721,000 in a lawsuit over abusive practices.
Mr. Sembler continued to support anti-drug initiatives, including donating at least $1 million in 2016 to oppose a constitutional amendment in Florida that aimed to expand access to medical marijuana. The amendment was overwhelmingly approved by voters.
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