OPINION | The winners and losers of Manatee County politics in 2021
Some political players shined. Others, hopefully, have had better years.
Manatee County politicians had their moments — some glorious, some embarrassing, some potentially criminal — in 2021. Like the rest of us, most probably want to forget about the whole thing and have long been looking forward to 2022 — especially those hoping voters in the coming election year give them another chance.
Here’s a look at the politicos, activists and government and school administrators who left their mark, for good or bad or to be determined, in 2021.
The Big 5 Winners of 2021
No. 5: Women’s Voices of Southwest Florida
Born on Facebook and nurtured by the intransigence of Manatee County Commissioner James Satcher and his crusade against non-existent abortion clinics in the county, a cadre of this group’s activists became a fixture at county commission meetings. Sometimes theatrically, they demanded that the commission take a public stand against’s Satcher’s proposal to declare Manatee a “sanctuary” for the unborn and to ban abortion clinics. The debate again split a commission already divided on many other issues and slowed work on other matters — something for which WVSWF made no apologies for.
After numerous protests, including one that drew about 1,000 abortion rights supporters to downtown Bradenton, and an opinion from Attorney General Ashley Moody that declared Satcher’s proposal illegal in Florida, at least for now, WVSWL declared victory and in what is a promising sign for local democracy, promised they were not going away.
No. 4: Manatee County Commissioner James Satcher
Commissioner Satcher lost, for now, on abortion, but as every politician can appreciate, many more people now know his name. Not bad for maybe the most low-key of seven county commissioners.
Satcher, the commission’s newly elected vice-chairman, also proved to be the fourth vote needed to adopt a commission redistricting plan by holding fast on getting a map more to his liking.
No. 3: Manatee County Commissioner Carol Whitmore
One of the key moments in the abortion debate was when Commissioner Whitmore revealed that she had had an abortion in the early 1970s, a bombshell that helped lower the intensity of the often bitter debate, while winning her sympathy from members of the opposing sides.
Whitmore, a fervent supporter of animal welfare issues during her 15 years on the commission, enjoyed a career moment when she successfully shepherded through the commission a ban on pet store sales of dogs and cats.
No. 2: Schools Superintendent Cynthia Saunders / County Administrator Scott Hopes
The Manatee School Board and County Commission are often defined by their dysfunction but at least for now, they benefit from having strong administrators in charge of the day-to-day of their respective agencies.
At the school district, Saunders and her staff took sometimes conflicting COVID-related directives from the school board and officials in Tallahassee and somehow made them work as the district transitioned from remote learning during the early months of the pandemic back to brick-and-mortar campuses.
Saunders, frequently the punching bag for the district’s critics, also played a leading role in winning by a surprisingly wide margin, voters’ renewal of a special property tax to boost teachers salaries and other programs in the district.
Hopes, one of Saunders’ former bosses when he was on the school board, drew kudos for his handling of one crisis after the other, including the potentially catastrophic failure of the toxic mess at Piney Point, red tide, and a fatal COVID-19 outbreak in the county administration building. Hopes, who is never shy about his varied career background, sometimes talks as if he is the county’s eighth, un-elected commissioner, but circumstances during his first months in office probably demanded that type of strong leadership.
No. 1 U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan
Congressman Buchanan on Jan. 6-7 voted against objections to Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory after the 2020 election. But his subsequent reticence to publicly acknowledge that Biden, in fact, won might have earned Buchanan a spot on the other list if not for his strong finish in 2021.
Ironically, he can thank Donald Trump for that.
First, the former president hired Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., to run his new social media company, improving Buchanan’s chances of becoming the top Republican on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. If the GOP retakes the House in November 2022, and Buchanan is re-elected, that likely would make him chairman of a House panel whose bailiwick covers large swaths of the American economy.
That should be nothing but good for the folks back home.
And earlier this month, Trump endorsed Buchanan for re-election, despite a GOP primary challenge from Martin Hyde, whose policy positions and fiery, nonfactual style and temperment are much closer to Trump’s than to the incumbent’s.
Buchanan has differed with Trump on certain policies, such as oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, but he did twice vote against impeaching Trump, which for the former president was probably enough for Buchanan to win his support in 2022 — and just what an otherwise non-Trumpist like Buchanan needs to again easily win re-election.
The Big 5 Losers of 2021
No. 5 Manatee County Commissioner George Kruse
Commissioner George Kruse, who often acts like an elected official who actually cares about policy making, pushed hard for his colleagues to give property owners a modest but symbolically significant reduction in the tax rate, and prevailed. In a normal year, he might have joined Satcher and Whitmore on the Big 5 Winners list.
By that point, however, Kruse was already responsible for the most awkward moment of the year when he admitted during a county commission meeting on the fate of former administrator Cheri Coryea that he had had an extramarital affair. His private life mattered only because the revelation explained, as he put it, why he had changed his mind and decided to vote in favor of firing Coryea.
Kruse, the commission’s vice-chair during 2021, said he publicly admitted to the affair because there were some on the commission who were prepared to use his indiscretion against him. Which may be one reason why Whitmore earlier this month used a swift parlimentary maneuver to block Kruse from being elevated to the commission’s chairmanship.
No. 4 Manatee School Board candidate Garin Hoover
Hoover was a leading spokesman in the factually-challenged campaign to defeat a possible extension of the school district’s special property tax, and failed spectacularly despite the support of political heavyweights like Sheriff Rick Wells and county Commissioner Vanessa Baugh.
Sure, more voters probably know his name, but that might not be enough for Hoover to unseat incumbent Chad Choate, who was appointed to the school board last year by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
No. 3 Manatee County Commissioner Reggie Bellamy
Bellamy, the county commission’s lone Black member and lone Democrat, fought hard to preserve as much of his current district as he could during redistricting. His colleagues listened respectfully as he made his case and then a majority of the six Republicans on the board voted for a radical redrawing of his district that could not only imperil his chances at re-election next year, but leave the county commission with no minority members.
No. 2: Manatee School Board candidate David Levin
The only admission against self-interest in local politics bigger than Kruse’s is found on Levin’s campaign website: He did time in jail after pleading guilty to hacking into computers at the Lee County supervisor of elections office in 2016.
As the year ends, he remains the only announced candidate for the school board seat now held by Charlie Kennedy.
No. 1: Manatee County Commissioner Vanessa Baugh
Even without vaccinegate, Commissioner Baugh might have still topped this list for how her haphazard chairmanship of county commission meetings contributed to the board’s frequent dysfunction and scorn from the public.
With vaccinegate, the ridicule went global, after it was revealed that not only had Baugh organized a COVID-19 vaccine clinic exclusively for residents of Lakewood Ranch — which went against a policy adopted by the whole commission — she had made sure her name and those of four others were included on a VIP list she wanted to make sure got their shots.
The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office cleared Baugh of any criminal wrongdoing, but the Florida Commission on Ethics this month found probable cause to believe Baugh had misused her office. She hasn’t yet been found guilty of anything but depending on the outcome of the case in 2022 or beyond, she could still be forced out of office.
You can reach the writer at Marc.R.Masferrer@gmail.com.
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