The political tides are shifting in Sarasota and Manatee counties as voters react to a an attempted right-wing takeover of local governments, two guests told WMNF WaveMakers with Janet & Tom on Tuesday (Aug. 27).
Last week’s primary elections for School Board, County Commission and the Sarasota Memorial Hospital Board signaled a notable pivot away from the far-right politics Sarasota and Manatee counties have seen since the rise of Donald Trump.
School Board member Tom Edwards, targeted for defeat by Gov. Ron DeSantis, was reelected with 66 percent of the vote. A second School Board member backed by DeSantis was defeated. They were among the 23 races DeSantis targeted this year, with 11 of his favored candidates losing. It was a stark contrast to 2022 when 25 of 30 DeSantis-backed School Board candidates were elected.
“I am thrilled that our community recognized what I had been saying to them for four years which is that the extremists and the culture war and all of the noise we had been experiencing is not who we are,” said Edwards. “I am pleased that the community really went to the ballot box and expressed their displeasure with the culture wars.”
While culture wars drove much of the School Board debate, a growing anti-developer movement played out in both the Sarasota and Manatee county commission races, said Michael Barfield, a reporter for the Florida Trident, the online news site of the Florida Center for Government Accountability.
A Sarasota commissioner appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis was defeated by the former Sarasota County Sheriff Tom Knight, who criticized the commission for being in the pockets of developers. In Manatee, all five candidates backed by developers were defeated.
“For quite a number of years developers have had a field day with government giving them anything they asked for,” Barfield said.
Meanwhile, four candidates for the Sarasota Memorial Hospital Board backed by disgraced Trump advisor Michael Flynn over Covid restrictions were defeated. Voters were alarmed at the prospect of the board being controlled by right-wing extremists pushing a political agenda rather than focusing on the smooth operation of the hospital, Barfield said.
The bi-partisan pushback on DeSantis’ proposal to add golf courses, pickleball courts, hotel rooms and other commercial activities at state parks underscores the political winds are changing, Barfield said. Republican lawmakers who supported virtually anything DeSantis wanted are now standing up to him. That opposition, Barfield said, is “another example of the waning influence of Gov. DeSantis and a more engaged citizenry, and those are always great things to see when you have citizen engagement and can respond quickly to something like that.”
Part of the public reaction, Barfield said, is tied to the fact that government transparency has been lacking. Big government has not been transparent for the past four years,” he said.
Hear the entire conversation by clicking the link below, going to the WaveMakers archives or by searching for WMNF WaveMakers wherever you listen to podcasts.
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