As we approach Election Day, the stakes could not be higher. Either enough Manatee County voters will turn out to send Van Ostenbridge and his ilk packing by 7 p.m. Tuesday, or our community will face its further descent into a rotting carcass of what had once been paradise.
There are a lot of sleazy politicians, especially here in Florida. That said, in two decades of political analysis, I have never met one as wretched and reprehensible as Van Ostenbridge.
In my experience, the worst people to empower with authority are those who enjoy playing the role of the villain. For all their faults, most politicians have a desire or even a need to be liked. They enjoy being lauded by constituents, and even when they must play the game in order to keep their seats, all else being equal, they will seek to help their constituents whenever possible.
Every once in a while, however, you encounter one who seems to enjoy being the heel. They lean into it, and more often than not, when there is a smile on their face, it is because there is a frown on the face of the person standing across from them.
Van Ostenbridge bullied a 15-year-old who dared to stand up against an extraordinarily irresponsible gutting of wetland protections the first-term commissioner led at the behest of his developer sugar daddy. When a member of the community presented him with a thoughtful packet of information regarding an upcoming vote during a public meeting, he showed his contempt for constituent input by getting up from the dais and throwing it into the trash. When the mayor of a small beach town refused to give him her endorsement, he launched a childish attack on the city that has been nothing but a waste of time and money for taxpayers.
Most importantly, Van Ostenbridge is the ring leader of an organized cabal of developer puppets who consistently vote against the will of the community and in favor of a small number of already filthy-rich developers. They drape themselves in conservative rhetoric but are anything but conservative. For all of these reasons, KVO must go!
Another critical contest in the Republican primary is the Supervisor of Elections race. James Satcher is not only incompetent but also possesses a dangerous character trait. When a person is both staggeringly dumb and inexplicably overconfident, disaster is bound to ensue, and just a few short months of Satcher as the installed figurehead has demonstrated just how much chaos and incompetence this man-baby is capable of.
Satcher and his team have resorted to political maneuvering, closing what should have been an open primary. Yet, he has the audacity to accuse those who switched party registration in order to regain their vote of trying to "rig" his election. He has shamelessly used his position to campaign for himself, squandering public funds in the process. This is not the behavior we expect from a public servant, and certainly not from someone entrusted with the integrity of our elections. James Satcher has got to go!
April Culbreath is a former Manatee Sheriff Deputy with a record so shamefully dishonorable that the elected sheriffs she has worked for owe this community a serious explanation as to why on Earth she was allowed to remain in uniform so long. Culbreath has run a campaign based on lies and deceit, avoiding any forum in which her actual record could be addressed with voters. If elected, she will be but one more developer puppet willing to embarrass herself to the public in service to her paymasters. Culbreath must be defeated.
Ray Turner may be more palatable in his approach and come without the litany of public scandals, but his record is clear. He does whatever the developers who got him appointed to the seat when their last puppet retired wish him to do. And why wouldn’t he? He’s a real estate broker. Overdevelopment is good for business. In the race for District 1's vacant seat, developers have backed an unknown candidate in Steve Metallo. One look at the money trail, and it is clear that he is also in the developers' pocket.
Each of the aforementioned candidates has an ethical, grassroots primary opponent who is far more qualified for the seat. It is crucial that Carol Felts (D1), Tal Siddique (D3), Robert McCann (D5) and George Kruse (D7) win their Republican primaries on Tuesday.
If you are reading this column, chances are I’m preaching to the choir. But there are a lot of disengaged voters who nevertheless participate in elections, and there are a lot of Republicans who do not typically vote in the primaries. If you want to save Manatee County, forward this article, our endorsements, and/or our printable voter guide to Republicans you know and urge them to turn out and vote these puppets back into obscurity!
Dennis "Mitch" Maley is an editor and columnist for The Bradenton Times and the host of our weekly podcast. With over two decades of experience as a journalist, he has covered Manatee County government since 2010. He is a graduate of Shippensburg University and later served as a Captain in the U.S. Army. Click here for his bio. His 2016 short story collection, Casting Shadows, was recently reissued and is available here.
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sandy
I changed my affiliation. But the person trying to "rig" this election is Pedicini. By using the write-in loophole which closed the republican primary for SOE for half the voters in the county from voting in what is essentially a one party race and making it go to the general when you know the write-in never wins. That's "rigging". They used the write-in for District 3 and District 7 which was unnecessary because of a Democrat candidate, it closed the primary automatically. In my 30 years in Manatee County I never stressed over a primary as much as this one. Of course, I couldn't vote in the others because a Democrat. That is why I changed. We need better representatives that are independent of the developers.
Saturday, August 17 Report this
writerlynn9717
I don't think the counting of ballots will be fair in this election. I hope everyone who voted checks if their ballot was counted. I personally would like to see mine to make sure no votes were changed. I really, really have lost trust in Manatee County's election process since DeSantis appointed Satcher. DeSantis also put out ads for KVO! DeSantis is also contributing to our county's unrest over election process. Satcher constantly lauds himself as "chosen by God" to do the job of Supervisor of Election. His fight to be right will obviously lead to whatever he deems is necessary for him to win, no matter if legal or not by the statutes, because God told him to do it. He has no regard for the office of SOE, which requires the lead to be non-partisan, as evident by his constant blather about the liberals are out to make the election "rigged." And, the county commissioners presently, gave him the extra hundreds of thousands of dollars, to do whatever he wants at the SOE office to tighten security, when there isn't a security problem in the first place. They also need to lose their jobs, every time they come up for election. How dare they waste our money like that for their good ole boy, Satcher's, conspiracy theories. Don't stop with this primary of getting the terrible county government heads out permanently, so all citizens can feel trust and respect the leaders.
Sunday, August 18 Report this