Charles Smith Loses County Commission Seat

PALMETTO – Incumbent Manatee County Commissioner Charles Smith famously said that if Reggie Bellamy challenged him in the District 2 Democratic primary, he’d get two votes. Bellamy got exactly 2,200 more than that, which was enough to give him a 4-point victory and deny Smith a second term on the board.

District 2 is the county’s smallest district and includes most of downtown Palmetto and central/east Bradenton. Created to settle a suit filed by the NAACP in the early '90s, it is deliberately gerrymandered to ensure the possibility of an African American on the seven-member board. In 2010, Michael Gallen upset Gwen Brown to become the first Caucasian to win the seat. In 2014, Smith bested Gallen by just 4 votes in a three-way primary.

District 2 contains some of the most blighted and impoverished sections of the county and Smith, a former Palmetto City Commissioner, was a strong advocate for the least advantaged in his district. His crowning achievement was leading the fight to secure funding in this year’s budget for a north river pool in Palmetto that had been promised for over a half-century but never delivered. Alas, it was not enough.

Bellamy is Palmetto High School’s basketball coach and works as a dean at Buffalo Creek Middle School in Palmetto. He is also the Executive Director of the Palmetto Youth Center. His family has deep ties to the community, and he was ultimately able to turn out enough of it to best Smith by 185 votes in the small district.

Bellamy now faces Republican DmitriDenis in the general election. While a Republican has never won in district 2, it’s noteworthy that there’s never been an African American to run for the party in that district until Denis. Whether the relative newcomer to Manatee will be able to turn out enough Republicans in the Democrat-leaning district or convince a sizable number of Smith’s supporters to cross party lines remains to be seen.

It's also noteworthy that voters without party affiliation have increased in the district to the point that NPAs and Republicans combined outnumber Democrats, who now only represent 45 percent of the total registered voters in district 2, where they once enjoyed a solid majority.