Peter Schorsch
To attract big-name donors, fundraisers often use a range of enticements: sports events, activities and special guests, to name a few.
For Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister, the former interim sheriff running for his first election in 2018, fundraising is taking a somewhat unique approach — special guest Robert O’Neill, the former Navy SEAL best known for claiming to have shot Osama bin Laden.
Hosting O’Neill’s appearance, set for Wednesday, Jan. 24, at Tampa’s World of Beer, is the Hillsborough County Firefighters Local 2296 and the Associated Builders and Contractors, among other local organizations. The event will be split between a VIP reception for the Tampa-based Committee for Responsible Law Enforcement — with an autographed O’Neill book — and one for Chronister’s campaign.
Soon after announcing his campaign in October — where he will hopefully discard the “interim” tag — Chronister held another high-profile fundraiser with a huge list of supporter any politician would envy, having well over 200 names.
O’Neill, who left the U.S. Navy in 2012, is now an author, public speaker, and a former contributor with Fox News. He professes to have taken part in over 400 missions, including the one that killed bin Laden in a May 2011 raid on his Abbottabad compound. Another saved Captain Richard Phillips during the Maersk Alabama hijacking, The Phillips operation was the basis for the film “Captain Phillips” with Tom Hanks.
In 2017, O’Neill wrote “The Operator,” describing his deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, life as a Navy SEAL, and the death of Osama bin Laden.
World of Beer is at 5311 Avion Park Dr. in Tampa. The VIP reception begins at 5:30 p.m., with the general reception for Chronister’s campaign beginning 6:30 p.m.
