For Florida House District 71, TBT recommends Melton Little

As Manatee County voters are well aware, our delegation in Tallahassee has been unresponsive to voters' demands to end the assault on home rule through restrictive preemption bills. We need representatives in the state house who will stand up to special interests and protect our ability to self-govern. We believe Melton Little is the candidate in the D71 Republican primary best suited to the task.

Little, an attorney by trade, is a Bayshore Gardens native who has spent his life in service to our community. He has been involved with more charities, sat on more boards, and helped raise funds for more worthy causes than we could possibly list, and we find him a natural fit for representing that same community in Tallahassee. Little has built thriving business enterprises, and his platform includes innovative ideas to help the small businesses that are the beating heart of our local economy.

Melton is a conservative who sees the value in being a responsible steward of our beaches, beautiful waterways, and other environmental resources, another critical issue near and dear to Manatee County voters. He also understands the folly of poorly planned, unchecked growth that occurs before the investment in the infrastructure it will necessitate, an important distinction from D71 incumbent Will Robinson, who has reached his term limit in the seat but not before compiling a distinctly pro-developer voting record.

What we find most telling is who does not want Melton Little to win this race, namely dark money PACs funded by Big Development, and the Manatee Republican Executive Committee, which, after being suspended then disbanded by the RPOF and seeing the county’s duly elected State Republican Committeeman and Committeewoman discarded, was stacked with loyalists willing to carry out the agenda of those same pro-Big-Development special interests.

Melton Little has a proven track record of serving Manatee County that no other candidate in this primary can compare to. We believe he would be the candidate most likely to fight special interests and work to restore the power of self-governance to local elected officials, and that his broad range of expertise and experience would serve him well in representing our community writ large.