Who’s Afraid of Elizabeth Arnold?

In an excellent piece of investigative journalism, TBT’s Dawn Kitterman followed up on her reporting earlier this week regarding the scurrilous negative ads targeting Liz Arnold, TBT’s endorsed candidate in the Manatee County Commission District 1 Republican primary. Now that the veil has been pulled back a bit further, the stench has become all the more noxious.

Arnold is the heir to the legacy of the late Carol Felts, who represented the district until her passing in January. Like Felts and District 4 candidate Glen Gibellina, she has attempted to participate in the process of fixing our broken community from the outside, only to be ignored time and again, like countless others whom the powers that be deem unworthy of having a seat at the table. They would prefer that the good ol’ boys' network decide what’s best for the rest of us behind closed doors, sighing and rolling their eyes as they torturously endure a few minutes of “public comment” from those who feel differently.

Arnold and her husband are the victims of one of the most intellectually dishonest campaign attacks I’ve seen, and, trust me, in nearly two decades of covering local politics, I’ve seen more than a few doozies. The TLDR is that a shady PAC has taken a long-resolved incident in which the Arnolds’ dog was attacked by a stray and is using deliberately deceitful means to portray the couple as “under investigation” for all sorts of animal cruelty. 

Kitterman’s reporting links right-wing nut Agatha Mantanes, disgraced one-term Manatee County Commissioner Kevin Van Ostenbridge, developer Pat Neal’s new favorite political consultant, a shady PAC and its convoluted funding, and potentially even elements of Manatee County Government to the coordinated, midnight-hour attacks on the Arnolds, using a hot-button local issue for which many of the voters likely to support Arnold are immersed: animal welfare. Sit with that for a beat.

The people who run things in Manatee County really don’t want Liz Arnold to win Tuesday’s election. The unexplained behavior of leadership within Manatee County Animal Services, who have genuinely earned the ire of the animal welfare crowd, suggests they would prefer the status quo over a reform-minded board. The county administrator's behavior makes me wonder whether he fears he might actually be held accountable for his innumerable missteps if a new majority is elected. And Big Development, well, it would clearly like to continue to run roughshod over the community, the will of its citizens be damned.

Consider the current majority’s efforts to rush through a new comp plan and secure a costly, long-term extension of the county administrator’s contract, and it begins to make even more sense. On Tuesday, voters can choose between meaningful change and more of the same. I know what the people who have given Manatee County its current mess of overdevelopment, fouled waters, failing infrastructure, mountainous debt, its current state of animal welfare, and excruciating congestion want. We will soon find out whether voters will allow for it.

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. Mitch's new novel, Fish Kill, is currently available here, along with his previous books. He can be reached at editor@thebradentontimes.com.