Race Analysis: Bradenton City Council Ward 2

Political newcomer David Levin and incumbent Marianne Barnebey will compete for the Bradenton City Council Ward 2 seat in a non-partisan race on the November ballot.

Barnebey was first elected as Ward 2 Councilwoman in 1998, a seat she kept until relinquishing it for a failed bid for mayor in 2012. The current Mayor of Bradenton, Gene Brown, was actually appointed to fill her vacant seat, and Barnebey was then appointed to the seat in 2020 when Brown left for his own mayoral run.

Barnebey is an MHS graduate with deep ties to the Bradenton community. She developed the Winter Wonderland event and has worked in some capacity with most civic and charitable organizations in the city over the years. Both her commitment to the community and her understanding of it remain unchallenged by Levin, a recent transplant. Given her name recognition and time in service, she’s the clear betting favorite in the race.

That said, Barnebey has rarely broken with the status quo of the Bradenton good old boy network or otherwise distinguished herself via her votes as a member of the city council. If a politically-connected developer gets their way with the city, it’s unlikely she voted against the measure.

Levin has also repeated the criticism that Barnebey’s husband is a partner in a law firm that represents the most politically-connected developer in the city and that the firm also collects hundreds of thousands of dollars as the city’s attorney.

While neither Mr. or Mrs. Barnebey have ever been directly accused of unethical behavior in this regard, given the developer-driven decisions that have plagued City Hall for many years and the potential conflict of interests that are so often raised by these scenarios, it is understandable that some voters find this troubling.

For his part, Levin is a bit of a loose cannon. He's not long on tact and speaks his mind with very little filter and it is doubtful that his energy and enthusiasm could translate into effective coalition building if elected. At best, I think he could fill a useful role as a watchdog of sorts on a board that has too often been able to push forward with questionable policy decisions by way of self-congratulatory back-patting and little in the way of opposition or even debate.

That said, he offers a much more youthful perspective than the council has had in, well É almost forever. He’s been erroneously attacked as a "felon who tried to rig an election"–a grossly overblown mischaracterization of an ill-advised attempt to prove the vulnerability of Lee County’s election database. We discussed it at length when he was our guest on The Bradenton Times Podcast, which you can listen to here(Barnebey did not accept our invitation to be a guest).

This race is a simple matter of whether or not you think the city is moving in the right direction. If so, Barnebey is a known entity that will bring you more of the same. Levin brings many question marks but is worth a look if you are frustrated by rubber stamping for developers, scandals within the police department, and the city’s struggle to provide quality services in basic areas like garbage collection and the responsible handling of wastewater.