Our county government has been corrupted, and we, as Republicans, are at fault. It is our Republican majority that has elected the worst commissioners in our county’s history after disguising themselves as conservatives when they are really the least conservative and most anti-democratic group of elected officials I can recall.
I served 22 years as a Manatee County Commissioner. We enacted policies to save money, listen to the people we serve, and, most of all, ensure we had a talented and respected workforce. We had a standard of ethics and an open book to all we did on the public's behalf. We were not puppets to the developers and had development impact fees that ensured that residents did not have to pay for the infrastructure like roads and parks. As Republicans, we conserved our rich array of environmental resources. We refused to change policies so that a developer could make a few extra bucks at the cost of our quality of life.
Now, we have a chance as Republicans to correct our failures and elect people who put the citizens over the developers. The election season has started, and the insults to our intelligence are evident in the slick postcard mailers and text messages you've probably started receiving. The incumbent county commissioners, except for George Kruse, fail to have an open public debate, go on a podcast, or even respond to emails you send them because they rely on those slick mailers to fool you into believing they are super-conservatives.
And why not? The majority of Republicans that voted them into office have believed the hyper narrative all orchestrated from polls and then executed by a political hack. That political hack is Anthony Pedicini, and his connection to developer Carlos Beruff is no secret. Recent county commission votes favoring Carlos were worth well over $200 million. So investing a million bucks to have people he can control is an easy decision. And suppose those bought and paid for commissioners fail to stay in line by not voting as the developer pleases. In that case, they are terminated from the PAC money, direct contributions, and his hack consultant so that they can go about installing another puppet candidate.
This is evident with Commissioner Kevin Van Ostenbridge, who has stayed in favor with Carlos, while George Kruse went off script by refusing to be a puppet. Van Ostenbridge, who, for good reason, is loathed in his current district, switched races to challenge Kruse in an at-large seat. The two Republicans will face off in the August primary. It is a perfect race for Republicans to finally start to correct our failures in electing qualified people. While Kruse has not been perfect, he has represented our Republican views with renewed ethics, while KVO has proven to serve only his master.
It is not normal how our current county government is operating, and it is certainly not a government based on our Republican principles. If I had to really describe our county commission’s governance, I would compare it to a Russian form of government where speech is suppressed, and the oligarch developers are really in charge. Our county government has even created its own state media for disinformation.
These commissioners, sans Kruse, are certainly not conservatives as we know them, wasting so many of our tax dollars and having the government remove private enterprises to create their own government-supported businesses. What is most insulting to me as a Republican is the use of their platform to waste staff time and money on culture war issues that are not under their purview so that at election time, they can make artificial claims of being a “real” conservative. If they had spent a fraction of that time fixing our transportation chaos, perhaps we would have a plan to reduce or eliminate congested corridors.
The question I have for my fellow Republicans is, will you be fooled again and vote for a candidate based on a mailer from a political hack who knows how to trigger your emotion based on a poll? Or will you commit to doing your own research and understanding the history of the people running for office and their qualifications? The fact is, dirty money is going to buy quite a few mailers, ads, and yes, those lovely text messages.
These mailers and texts should all be red flag warnings about that candidate. The better candidates who won’t act as puppets to their masters will have a fraction of the money. The developer-funded campaign has already started in my district. The KVO surrogate candidate, April Culbreath, sent five slick mailers, each insulting my intelligence more than the last. Culbreath’s campaign is assisted by Pedicini, which is the same hack that KVO, Ray Turner, and Supervisor of Elections candidate James Satcher are using. There are no solutions, just general hype from a poll, and get this, she messages that she keeps Biden awake at night. Are we Republicans really dumb enough to believe that?
So yes, most Republicans don't like President Biden, but to use Biden as the issue I should vote for someone locally is insulting. We have local issues that need to be discussed, which should be our local candidates' focus. Culbreath refuses to comment or discuss her candidacy on a one-on-one podcast the way that non-developer-backed candidates have. Maybe she wants to hide her troubling past as a cop. Her opponent, Tal Siddique, provided an informative conversation about himself on The Bradenton Times Podcast. It is worth listening to and also quite refreshing. We have a candidate who is young, very qualified, and eager to restore ethics in our corrupt county. I was 33 years old when I was elected, and we could use a good, young, qualified county commissioner with brain power instead of another developer puppet spouting off national talking points.
It is not just the county commission races that we, as Republicans, must fix. We need to elect a Supervisor of Elections who has credentials, not just an appointment stemming from …. you can guess it, our favorite developer. What is most disturbing about this race is that it is one of our Republicans from our own community did the most to place the least qualified applicant as Supervisor of Elections. Bill Galvano, a past Florida Senate President, lobbied the governor’s staff to appoint Satcher. Satcher, a person with zero relevant experience, got the nod instead of Republican Scott Farrington, who has over 20 years of experience with elections and multiple certifications.
Farrington is a very conservative person with proven values. Satcher should be given “the lying preacher award” for his performances as a county commissioner and his first action as a Manatee County Supervisor of Elections. His not-so-secret meeting with KVO resulted in almost a million-dollar request to, among other things, add two satellite offices out east and get better security for our election software.
People, don't be fooled by this deception. Our county has maintained the most advanced election software with safeguards and transparent votes. Bob Sweat, a previous Manatee County Supervisor of Elections, implemented the system we have today with the paper ballots that are scanned and provided an easy way to hand count the actual ballots, if necessary. Every ballot has its picture taken and can be requested for anyone to see. Mike Bennett followed Bob Sweat and maintained integrity of the voting system. He hired Scott Farrington because he was qualified, not because he was the spouse of a fellow commissioner. When Bennett resigned for personal reasons, he had every expectation that the governor would appoint Farrington based on his competency, and of course, he is a Republican.
Galvano, a lawyer with the local Grimes Galvano law firm, people may recall, was the governor’s hatchet man at the New College takeover and even gave Anthony Pedicini his start as a political hack. Pedicini had no issue attacking candidates with misleading campaign tactics and continues today in a world of PAC money that provides nearly unlimited resources. It is also interesting that Galvano's law firm recently hired Bill Clague, who was the county attorney who allowed such actions as the elimination of wetland buffers to proceed without meeting the county's comprehensive plan requirements.
What a mess our county Republicans have created. It is time we roll up our sleeves and do some work correcting our failures. I can go on with so many non-conservative actions that should turn the stomach of any true conservative Republican. Here are just a few:
While most of us are busy going to work, raising our children, watching our grandkids, or just enjoying retirement, there are those busy working against our values, without ethics, and willing to lie to voters so they can make a few extra million and/or tear apart the local government and its policies that allowed them to make those millions to begin with. We have had a pretty good quality of life here in this county, but the greed of a few, along with the incompetent elected officials the sponsor, will chisel away at what we value.
As Republicans, we have a responsibility to right the wrongs we have created. I urge my fellow Republicans, who our elected officials have betrayed, to make a commitment to not vote for any candidate the developer funds or his political hack represents and email at least five people to do the same. You can send this article or write an opinion piece yourself.
We, as Republicans, own this mess. Let's take back our county in this election. If you are not a Republican and are reading this, you can help us clean up this mess by registering as a Republican now. Change back later, but at least you can help in the primary, where most of these races are decided and from which you've been locked out via the write-in loophole.
Here is my personal list of “Do not Vote for” candidates:
Joe McClash is the publisher of The Bradenton Times. He is a Marine Corps veteran who served on the Manatee County Commission from 1990 to 2012.
