Local Election Candidate Preview

After an August primary choc full of landslide upsets, Manatee County voters will decide several key races on the November ballot.

In the Manatee County Commission District 1 race, grassroots activist Carol Anne Felts overcame long odds to defeat developer-backed Steve Metallo in August’s Republican primary despite Metallo enjoying a fundraising advantage of more than five to one.

Felts will advance to a three-candidate race featuring attorney Jen Hamey (NPA) and financial advisor Glenn Pearson (DEM). Felts’ primary upset creates the unlikely scenario in which three grassroots candidates will vie for the seat.

In District 3, software developer Tal Siddique also overcame a developer-backed candidate to win the Republican primary. In the November election, Siddique will take on Diana Shoemaker (DEM), former president and CEO of Manatee Habitat for Humanity, in another race featuring no developer-backed candidate. Shoemaker was unopposed in her party’s primary.

In District 5, Dr. Robert McCann, a retired physician and attorney, upset developer-backed incumbent Ray Turner in the Republican primary. On the November ballot, McCann will face NPA candidate Joseph Di Bartolomeo in another race featuring two grassroots candidates.

In District 7, incumbent George Kruse easily defeated fellow incumbent Kevin Van Ostenbridge in the Republican primary despite Van Ostenbridge having the best-financed campaign in Manatee County history. Van Ostenbridge grew increasingly unpopular with residents after leading the assault on Manatee County’s wetland protection policies and weaponizing his influence to shape county government in favor of the developers who backed him. Kruse will now face Democrat Sari Lindroos-Valimaki, an IT and cybersecurity tech, who was unopposed in her party’s primary.

In the Manatee School Board District 3 race (nonpartisan), former board member Charlie Kennedy will face Jon Lynch in a runoff. Kennedy nearly won a majority in August’s three-candidate race and is expected to cruise past Lynch whose platform seems largely focused on COVID grievances.

The School Board District 1 runoff will feature Heather Felton and Mark Stanoch. Felton, a longtime teacher who famously resigned in protest of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law, had a commanding lead in August, finishing 8 points ahead of Stanoch, a retired IT executive, but was short of a majority in another three-candidate race.

Gene Brown will seek a second term as Mayor of Bradenton on the November ballot. He faces a familiar foe, former Bradenton City Councilman Bill Sanders. Brown enjoys significant financial support from the development community, while Sanders is mostly self-funded. The controversial sale of City Hall for development and the city’s release of tens of millions of gallons of partially-treated wastewater into local waterways will be major issues in the nonpartisan race.

In the Bradenton City Council Ward 5 race, first-term councilwoman Pam Coachman will face political newcomer Iris Thomas Garcia. Coachman, who works in the Manatee County School District administration, is a Bradenton native with deep roots in the community. Garcia was Dean of Students at Southeast High School and later an adult education teacher at Manatee Technical Institute. She also completed coursework from USF to qualify as a Mental Health Therapist for Centerstone Behavioral Health alongside Child Protective Services.

In the Florida House District 71 race, political newcomer Adriaan DeVilliers (DEM) will take on incumbent Republican Will Robinson. Robinson, a close ally of Van Ostenbridge, who also enjoys strong developer support, has angered many residents in his west county district, which includes the island cities. Robinson seemed to join Van Ostenbridge’s feud with Holmes Beach Mayor Judy Titsworth by pushing a state bill to study consolidating the three cities or having them annexed by the City of Bradenton. He also pushed a bill to allow the county to permit its own parking garage on Holmes Beach, both of which passed to the dismay of many voters in his district.

In the Florida House District 72 race, newcomer Lesa Miller (DEM) will face off with former Manatee Planning Commissioner Bill Connerly, who has received enormous support from local developers he regularly supported on the planning commission. Miller, an attorney, says she wants to focus on combatting Republican assaults on women’s reproductive rights, home rule, the environment, and the politicization of public education.