Week in review: Race baiting in Manatee election + Cortez real estate deals turn sour + guns and county government + the high cost of housing + Holmes Beach parking fight + dirty Tampa Bay oysters

The rent is rising, and so are tempers over how to fix the beach parking situation on Anna Maria Island. And there is monkeypox nearby.

But first there’s my take on one particularly dirty political campaign underway in Manatee County. …

Mike Rahn and Manatee County Commissioner Vanessa Baugh are wrong for playing the race card against Commissioner Misty Servia.

Injecting race into a political campaign is usually ugly but in this case, thanks in part to Fox News, it’s also not based on reality. Servia has not described Gov. Ron DeSantis, or his COVID-19 vaccine policies, as racist, regardless of what Rahn and Baugh have claimed.

Rahn is challenging Servia for the Republican nomination for the District 4 seat on the county commission in the Aug. 23 primary. Baugh, who frequently clashes with Servia, may be Rahn’s No. 1 supporter.

The controversy about what Servia said, or didn’t say, about DeSantis races back to the “vaccinegate” scandal in 2021.

Manatee County Commissioner Misty Servia and Mike Rahn face each other in the Aug. 23 Republican primary for the District 4 seat on the commission..