BRADENTON — Former Bradenton City Councilman Bill Sanders will challenge incumbent Mayor Gene Brown in November’s non-partisan mayoral race. The race is shaping up to be the most expensive mayoral race in city history.
Brown, a local funeral director, was appointed to the Bradenton City Council’s Ward 2 seat when Marianne Barnebey vacated the seat to run for Mayor in 2012. Brown was then elected to the seat twice before giving it up in a successful run for mayor in 2020, following Wayne Poston’s decision not to seek another term (at which point Barneby was appointed to fill the vacancy created by his departure).
Sanders was elected to the Ward 4 seat in 2018 after pulling off a major upset over longtime incumbent Bemis Smith. Sanders was immediately positioned as an outsider on the board, routinely calling expenditures and the competitiveness of vendor contracts into question.
The relationship between Sanders and Brown was strained as council members and became downright dysfunctional once Brown became Mayor and Rob Perry was hired as City Administrator. Sanders was the principal opponent of how the city sold off its City Hall property, arguing that not enough was done to ensure taxpayers got the best deal possible.
By the end of his first term, Brown and the board majority had Sanders isolated, and he lost to local attorney Lisa Gonzalez Moore in a three-candidate race in the November 2022 election.
Brown has raised over $105,000 as of the most recent filing. His support comes from a broad array of local business interests. This includes the development community and those associated with NDC Construction, a firm that gets the bulk of the city’s construction contracting, which Sanders has suggested is linked to its consistent campaign generosity to certain officials.
Sanders’ campaign, with 101,000 raised as of the most recent report, is mostly self-financed, with a sizeable amount of small donations from local residents.
Sanders does not always have a delicate touch and has feuded with numerous staff and officials in his efforts to subvert what is often called the “good old boy” network of Manatee County/City of Bradenton politics. However, while he’s made some enemies in the power structure, he has also built a loyal base of supporters among rank-and-file voters. Given his 2018 upset over Smith, he is undoubtedly a threat to Brown in this race.
Brown is perhaps more diplomatic, but it remains to be seen as to whether the same anti-developer candidate mood that dominated the August primaries will hurt him in November, especially given his close friendship with political ally Kevin Van Ostenbridge, who was soundly defeated in the Manatee County Commission District 7 Republican primary.
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WTF
You will see the same wave in the city of Bradenton as we have seen in the county. Citizens are fed up with the cronyism with developers and back door deals. I have witnessed several sunshine violations on a routine basis within the city of Bradenton council. You have a state's attorney who doesn't think it's worthwhile to prosecute sunshine violations and therefore rarely is anything done to correct the problem. Bill Saunders is a whistleblower and that's why he was marginalized during the last election cycle. He will be a breath of fresh air and bring accountability and transparency back to the city of Bradenton that has been lacking for years.
If you really want to get to know Bill come on our to our meet and great on Wednesday September 4th from 5pm to 7pm at the great Wilder’s Pizza located at 827 14th St W. BTW…. When was the last time mayor Gene Brown had a meet and greet?
I thought so, I can’t remember either…For The Record
Monday, September 2 Report this
David Daniels
In just the last year, Bradenton has dumped millions of gallons of sewage into the Manatee river. It was just reported this past week. Now it seems every time there’s a rain the city is dumping sewage into the river. Developers are allowed to build right up to the curb on manatee ave at 9th dt downtown so there’s no chance to relieve the bottleneck. Poor leadership on both issues. In my neighborhood, developers promised to save beautiful oak trees on a church property that was bought. The developers lied and there was no accountability. Plus being buddies with KVO it’s time for a change
Wednesday, September 4 Report this
rjckeuka4
Anyone who is a close friend of KVO is suspicious. Just sayin'!
Wednesday, September 4 Report this