With Steve Bannon in the news, here's an archive story from me and Adam Smith on Bannon's extensive Florida connections:

SARASOTA — Steady weekend visits to the "Winter White House" in Palm Beach have solidified President Donald Trump's status as a Floridian. But it's not just Trump who is adding a new dimension to the state's storied political history.

Chief adviser Steve Bannon — the rumpled former executive of Breitbart News, revered as a brilliant strategist and reviled as a xenophobic champion of the extreme right — was shopping for a home in Sarasota last year before Trump enlisted him to fix the campaign.

Bannon, 63, surfaced in Sarasota more than a decade earlier for the most unlikeliest of reasons: nasal spray.

He was part of a team formed to guide a startup named SinoFresh. But the deal got bogged down in lawsuits, the inventor ejecting Bannon from the board. Years later, Bannon formed a film company in Sarasota that made an effusive documentary about Sarah Palin. He set up a research outfit in Tallahassee that churned out investigations on Hillary Clinton and, along with Breitbart News, went after two of Florida's top Republicans, former Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio.

Bannon also rented a home in Miami and registered to vote there in 2014 before switching his registration to Sarasota last August. A former wife has lived in Florida, and Bannon lent his support as she dealt with drug and alcohol issues.

Still, the Florida footprint of one of the most powerful men in the country is sprinkled with mystery. When Bannon's voter registration was discovered last year, the collective reaction was: Really?

Bannon has no visibility in Florida political circles, with many of the GOP regulars having little use for the Breitbart wing. The handful of people who could fill in key details refused to talk — underscoring how polarizing a figure he has become.

"You are certainly aware of the well-publicized demonstrations and threats that are being made now daily by individuals and groups against Steve Bannon," wrote a lawyer for one of Bannon's business associates, Andy Badolato, a venture capitalist in Sarasota County. "Unlike Mr. Bannon, my client does not have access to Secret Service or other police protection should your article inevitably turn those protesters on him and his family."

Read the full story here.