On Tuesday night, Manatee County Republicans overcame long odds and beat the deep-pocketed developer machine, electing Scott Farrington as Supervisor of Elections. The landslide victory means not only that Farrington is the people’s choice but that he has a mandate from voters to administer our local elections.
In the days since his loss, Satcher has made it even more apparent that he is unfit to serve. Once it became clear that the former Manatee County Commissioner was getting his broad tuckus handed to him in Tuesday’s SOE Republican primary, the man-baby began lashing out at employees who were clearly over the moon at the prospect of having a qualified election expert return to their office.
Satcher had reportedly brought his father down from Georgia to watch what he was sure would be a victory, given how much money his developer sugar daddies had poured into the race. But things didn’t go as expected, and it soon became apparent that he would soon be looking for a non-patronage job—something for which Satcher does not have a successful track record.
Satcher was apparently creased by employees who were giddily checking the numbers as more and more precincts reported their results. So much so that one told me the office television was turned off, and workers were given the bogus explanation that it was broken.
Satcher reportedly fired Mark Darnell, who oversaw the vote by mail, of which Satcher has been an outspoken critic. The morning after the election, Satcher fired Chris Palmer, who had served the office loyally for 16 years, going all the way back to SOE Bob Sweat’s legendary administration. Palmer was the voter services coordinator. She supervised dealing with duplicate registrations, voters who had been merged, removing deceased voters from the rolls, and even the complaints of disgruntled voters.
Several long-time temporary employees who had regularly been brought on during elections were also summarily dismissed. That is a lot of institutional knowledge to jettison anytime, let alone just months before a presidential election—especially when you consider that Satcher has already overhauled the office with unqualified cronies whose only merits are fealty to their boneheaded boss.
Palmer told me on Thursday that Satcher did not even have the courage to fire her himself. Instead, she said she was approached by his deputy, David Ballard, who told her, “Your services are no longer required,” a line he repeated each time Palmer asked why in the world she was losing a job that, by all accounts, she had performed stellar in.
What’s more, like a different SOE employee who recently wrote an open letter stating how poorly the office was being administered, Palmer confirmed our worst suspicions regarding how badly things are going in our SOE office.
"It's a mess down there, total chaos,” Palmer told me. “They've created a hostile work environment in which every employee is scared for their job."
I asked Palmer whether she had any confidence that the office would be capable of adequately administering the November election, and Palmer's answer was unequivocal.
"I have no confidence in the competency of the office whatsoever,” said Palmer. “Neither Satcher or Ballard have a clue. They promised they wouldn't change anything when they took over, then immediately began changing everything, and they don't even understand how things work."
Mind you, these are just the bombshells from Tuesday on. From the moment he was appointed, Satcher has been an unmitigated disaster. He increased the budget by nearly a million dollars in the final fiscal quarter, then wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars sending out unnecessary replacement voter ID cards that confused many residents while reading like a campaign letter and buying audit machines that could not be used because he and his cronies had no idea of the processes that needed to be followed prior to implementation.
During early voting and Election Day, there were widespread reports of voter harassment at and near polling locations—all coming from people associated with the developer-backed slate of local candidates that Satcher belonged to. Satcher himself had to be confronted about illegally positioning himself inside the candidate boundary after showing up inside polling locations and introducing himself to voters.
When Republican SOE Mike Bennett tendered his resignation, he gave a full-throated endorsement of his 11-year Deputy SOE and Chief of Staff Scott Farrington. His former House and Senate mate, Bill Galvano, lobbied the DeSantis administration to appoint the developers’ pick, Satcher. Gov. DeSantis made the wrong decision in listening to Galvano over Bennett. Even though the Republican voters of Manatee County rectified his mistake at the ballot box, DeSantis owes it to them to make the situation right and ensure a qualified staff will administer the November election.
Republicans like DeSantis like to talk a big game when it comes to safeguarding elections. Here is his chance to do more than talk and remove the unqualified SOE he installed in favor of a member of his party with a proven track record of success. Click here to sign a petition urging Gov. DeSantis to remove James Satcher from Office and appoint Scott Farrington. Manatee County and the candidates for our upcoming election deserve better than Satcher’s staggering incompetency.
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. He is also the author of three novels and a short story collection, which can be found here.
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WTF
Satcher was unqualified from the get-go; to tell the truth he was as unqualified as a county commissioner as well. The citizens of this county suffered through the incompetency on this individual in both positions. I’ve already sent Governor DeSantis a stern letter on his poor decision making and yet to receive a response.
The other developer backed puppet commissioners jumped for joy when this buffoon got appointment and lavishly approved $800,000 for him not having not a clue what the money was for.
We all know what happened to those three of those puppets, and only three more to go. I suspect he will be spending a lot of time in the confessional booth for his nasty deeds and uncouth behavior as a human being much less an appointed official.
He not only fell from grace from the voters of manatee county he also fell from grace from the developers who lavishly supporting his lifestyle. He will soon find out that he has no "puppet value" anymore and his strings and money will be cut.
For the Record
As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him,
Titus 3:10
Friday, August 23 Report this
sandy
DeSantis created this mess by appointing an inexperienced, incompetent Satcher to the position. Galvano is complicit in this. Satcher wasn't even a good commissioner. I have little hope that DeSantis will actually correct the situation.
I pray that we can get through the general election without becoming a total joke in the state after years of having a great reputation under the leadership of Bob Sweat and Mike Bennett.
Saturday, August 24 Report this
misty
I appreciate the petition but hold little hope that it will matter. We will likely have to live through the final months of 4-years of corruption - but keep your eyes on the horizon because a new day is coming.☀️
Saturday, August 24 Report this
Seaniep
DeSantis did us a favor by putting this moron in this position. Satcher is a dim bulb, he did not realize that he was being removed from the BOCC for a reason and was convinced that he was being promoted when he was clearly a sacrificial lamb as the SOE. There was no way he was going to beat Farrington. County voters won and got a good laugh at the same time.
Saturday, August 24 Report this
mp1616
As a commenter previously mentioned, you know these losers are going to "burn it all down" on their way out the door. Also, very "godly" of the Rev. Satcher to fire people for doing their jobs, then hiding behind his deputy to do the dirty work. #loser
Saturday, August 24 Report this
rayfusco68
Florida is an at-will state, which means an employer may fire, demote, hire, promote and discipline employees for pretty much any reason, or no reason at all. This is why Satcher's lackey wouldn't give a reason for firing a long term competent employee. He just kept parroting that their services were no longer needed without giving a reason. The employees might want to think about unionizing so that they worked under a union contract which would give them some rights related to for cause termination. Another solution would be for the legislature to modify the right to work laws to help protect employees from unwarranted termination, fat chance that will happen,
Sunday, August 25 Report this
writerlynn9717
Thanks for the timeline of this craziness in the SOE office. Very disappointing that Satcher didn't have to leave right after he lost his campaign. Worrisome that our votes in November will not be interfered with because he is so incompetent. I hope people sign the petition link to DeSantis, in your opinion, even though I don't think we will ever see DeSantis admit he made a mistake. I believe when the commissioners, except for Kruse, took away some wetland buffer after decades of having it, they angered the red and the blue and the independents, and it was the straw that broke the camel's back. True Floridians would never do something that dumb, given that we all rely on the water quality being pristine for our boating and fishing, swimming, manatee watching, and more.
Sunday, August 25 Report this
David Daniels
Another great column in The Bradenton Times, followed by intelligent comments, I know who wrote the column because the writer provides their first and last name. I wish the commenters would do the same. We are a community that fought together to take our government back. The comments here played a role by helping define public opinion. Commenters, please Introduce yourselves to all of us. We should know each other's names. Who knows, we might be working together again soon. :-)
Sunday, August 25 Report this
very.prickly
I found the petition to sign and did so but when I got down to the bottom there was an ask for funds. As I am not used to petitions being combined with fund raising, I thought it was a scam.
I will be writing the Governor a letter asking for removal of Mr. Satcher.
Thanks for any movement to rid us of this person.
Sunday, August 25 Report this
Rlasunto
Great article, unfortunately, DeSantis won’t do the. right thing because he has to rely on voter obstruction for Trump and Scott plus other Republicans to survive this 2024 election
Sunday, August 25 Report this
Debann
Signed and shared. Good luck with the governor doing the right thing in removing the pathetic Satcher...He's a pathetic Christian man said no one ever...he is a certified LOSER. THE BEST MAN WON...YOU AND BALLARD NEED TO FIND JOBS..THE CITIZENS NAILED IT..
Sunday, August 25 Report this
Charles
The valued employees can be hired back, I have no doubt of that — the concern is, what this vindictive loser will do with the coming election — the governor never will do this, but the public can raise such a ruckus and keep it going that he will leave — now is the time to crank it up and keep it as an issue wherever public input is allowed... Bennet could volunteer to return until professional replacement is possible.
Monday, August 26 Report this
Cat L
I won't be shocked to see Satcher in prison for his efforts, after it's all said and done.
Wednesday, August 28 Report this