Sarasota City Commissioner Battie and challenger Felton to face off for District 1 seat in November
The Sarasota County Commission will have two new members come late November, though one of them will be decided by the Nov. 5 General Election.
The unofficial results of the Aug. 20 Primary Election for the Republican race for the commission’s District 3 seat showed former three-time Sheriff Tom Knight defeating Commissioner Neil Rainford by a margin of 60.93% to 39.07%.
Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Rainford to the commission in June 2023 to fill the seat left vacant by Commissioner Nancy Detert’s death in April of that year.
Rainford had to relocate to Venice to be eligible to participate in the District 3 race, while Knight has been a Venice resident for 50 years, his campaign website says.
In the County Commission District 1 race, former county Planning Commission member and former county employee Teresa Mast, who owns her own building company, defeated Alexandra Coe, an anthropologist, in the Republican Primary.
Coe also is a member of the Sarasota County Charter Review Board, and she serves as chair of the Republican Liberty Caucus of Sarasota and past vice chair of the Republican Liberty Caucus of Florida.
As the state organization’s website explains, “The Republican Liberty Caucus is a 527 voluntary grassroots membership organization dedicated to working within the Republican Party to advance the principles of individual rights, limited government, and free markets. Founded in 1991, we are the oldest continuously operating organization within the Liberty Republican movement. We are the conscience of the Republican Party.”
Mast’s winning margin was lower than Knight’s. She captured 55.4% of the 10,805 votes cast in that race.
District 5 Commissioner Ron Cutsinger of Englewood had no competition as he sought re-election this year. Thus, he is assured of another four-year term.
In the only Sarasota City Commission race on the Aug. 20 Primary Election ballot, incumbent District 1 Commissioner Kyle Battie won 42.72% of the vote, with challenger Sequoia Felton capturing 38.05% of the vote. The third candidate vying for the District 1 seat, Melissa Furman, ended up in third place with 19.23% of the 1,903 ballots cast.
Those results will pit Battie against Felton in the November General Election, City of Sarasota staff reported on Aug. 20.
Felton had entered the race late, in June, but with the backing of former City Commissioner and Mayor Willie Charles Shaw and other leaders of Newtown.
In the Republican Primary in the Sarasota County Tax Collector’s race, County Commissioner Mike Moran of Sarasota — who has to step down from the board this year because of term limits — defeated challenger Charles A. Bear of Sarasota, who said he was working as director of tax operations for the Charlotte County Tax Collector’s Office at the time of his December 2023 filing for the race.
Moran won 65.31% of the 51,304 votes cast in that race, the unofficial results say.
Through Aug. 15, Moran had raised $109,185 and spent $102,379.57, as shown on his campaign last finance report made available before the primary.
Bear did not receive any contributions, his campaign finance documents point out. However, he donated a total of $16,000 to his effort.
In November, Moran will face Tax Collector Barbara Ford-Coates, a Democrat who has held the office since 1984. During her tenure, Ford-Coates has won numerous awards, along with accolades from county commissioners when she has presented her annual fiscal year budgets.
Debates over developers, plus a cease-and-desist order
During his campaigning for the District 3 seat, former Sheriff Knight made it clear to a variety of groups that he is opposed to the pace of residential development that the county has seen in recent years. In remarks earlier this summer, Knight referred to developers as gangs akin to those he fought in law enforcement. “They want to own this whole county,” he said.
And even though District 3 largely comprises the city of Venice, Knight has won over Siesta Key residents with his statements that he would not support the new plans for high-rise hotels on the barrier island. (See the related article in this issue.)
Rainford typically has joined the majority of his commission colleagues in approving new residential construction. In fact, as The Sarasota News Leaderhas documented, he has taken in tens of thousands of dollars from developers, including Carlos Beruff of Medallion Home, Siesta businessman Gary Kompothecras, Pat Neal of Neal Communities, and Benderson Development Co.
Through Aug. 15 — the ending date for his last campaign finance report prior to the Primary — Rainford reported having collected $304,289.93 in contributions and spending $274,878.81.
Additionally, the Friends of Neil Rainford political action committee (PAC), raised $149,000 through Aug. 16, state Division of Elections records show.
Knight’s PAC, Knight Fights for South Sarasota County, ended up with $196,800 through Aug. 16, the state records note. Through Aug. 15, his campaign finance filing with the Supervisor of Election Office says, he had collected $239,461 in contributions and spent $224,375.53.
Unlike Rainford’s reports, Knight’s campaign finance filings documented a multitude of donations under the $1,000 maximum.
In the District 1 race, Mast raised a total of $256,907.92 through Aug. 15; she spent $195,310.87. In contrast, Coe’s contributions added up to $45,040.48, less than a fifth of Mast’s funds. Through Aug. 15, Coe had spent $42,585.73, her most filing says.
Moreover, Mast’s PAC — Friends of Teresa Mast — took in $154,550, state records note.
In November, Knight will face Sharon Kay Thornton of Venice, who also has stated her opposition to rampant residential growth in the county. She has no party affiliation.
As a Planning Commission member, Mast routinely voted in favor of recommending that the County Commission approve new developments. During her tenure as chair of that board, she also chastised opponents of the first high-rise hotel planned on Siesta Key in 2021, when the Planning Commission conducted its hearing on that application.
In the days leading up to the primary, Coe charged that Mast and Mast’s supporters had violated state law in creating and distributing “a fraudulent voter guide intended to deceive voters.” Mast’s action, Coe added in a news release, “may constitute a violation of Florida Statute 817.034, which addresses schemes to defraud.”
Coe explained, “The voter guide, which falsely claims to represent the official stance of the Republican Party, was produced by two political action committees — one chaired by Teresa Mast and the other by her campaign treasurer, Eric Robinson (a former chair of the Republican Party of Sarasota County, who is a CPA; Robinson has been serving as Mast’s campaign treasurer). This calculated attempt to manipulate voters’ decisions during the election process not only undermines the integrity of our republic but may also meet the criteria for criminal prosecution under Florida’s organized fraud laws,” Coe pointed out in that news release.
As a result, Coe said in the release, she officially had filed a cease and desist order against Mast’s campaign.
“Under Florida Statute 817.034,” the release explained, “any individual or entity found to be engaging in a scheme to defraud can face severe penalties, including felony charges, depending on the value of the property or benefits obtained through the fraudulent activity. This statute explicitly aims to prevent such deceptive practices, particularly when they involve the use of communication technologies, such as text messaging and social media, to mislead the public.”
In an Aug. 18 update, Coe wrote to the news media, “Today, the Republican Party of Sarasota County finally issued a public statement confirming that ‘There are no official Republican voter guides for this primary election.” In response, they posted signs at polling locations today, the last day of early voting, to inform voters of this fact.”
Coe added that, “despite the Republican Party’s statement and the cease and desist order, the Teresa Mast campaign persists in distributing their misleading guide. Their team continues to man positions at all entry points of polling locations, directing voters away from engaging with other campaign tents. Many people have also taken steps to inform the public through social media, urging anyone who was approached by individuals wearing ‘Republican Voter Guide’ shirts and misled into believing the guide was authentic to contact the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office.”
Details of the primary turnout
The unofficial results of the Aug. 20 Primary Election show that 31.79% of the 326,826 voters registered in time to cast ballots proceeded to do so, the Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections website reported just after 11 p.m. on Aug. 20.
The figure was slightly lower than the 32.29% who participated in the August 2020 Primary, data on the Supervisor of Elections Office website note. The total number of eligible voters for that event was 329,553.
However, for the 2016 Primary Election, the website data show, only 26.08% of the 294,199 registered voters cast ballots. For the 2012 Primary Election, 16.47% of the 270,353 registered voters who could cast ballots did so.
On Aug. 19, Paul Donnelly, director of communications and voter outreach for the Supervisor of Elections Office, and Tyson Pruitt, the office’s communications manager, reported that of the 93,017 vote-by-mail ballots sent to voters ahead of the primary, 52,012 had been received as of that day.
By the midpoint of the voting on Aug. 20, Supervisor of Elections Office staff posted on Facebook that the count of the vote-by-mail ballots had risen to 57,794, with Election Day turnout at that time having added up to 12,565.
Donnelly and Pruitt also noted that, through the Aug. 18 early voting period, 14,330 citizens had cast ballots.
In response to an Aug. 21 News Leader inquiry about whether any problems were encountered during the primary, Donnelly wrote in an email, “With 103 precincts and 84 polling locations, there are bound to be some issues between solicitors or between solicitors and voters. These elections are increasingly partisan affairs and people on all sides are very passionate.
“That said,” he continued, “we are responsible for keeping order within the 150-foot no solicitation perimeter. To my knowledge, there were no issues [on Aug. 20] within that boundary. Now, outside of that boundary? Yes, we did receive calls and emails about solicitors harassing each other and aggressively trying to share information with voters. While that is not ideal, it is outside of our jurisdiction.”
The 150-foot zone is measured from the entrance of the polling location, or the mail ballot drop box, if the box is outside, state law says.
The races with the biggest primary turnout were the nonpartisan ones for the Sarasota County School Board. Incumbent Tom Edwards won 55.84%, defeating two challengers. The total number of votes cast in that District 3 contest was 96,653.
However, the election for the other School Board seat had an even higher tally: 100,486. In that race, Liz Barker won 51.49% of the votes, defeating incumbent Karen Rose.
Gov. Ron DeSantis had advocated for the re-election of Rose, as she has been part of a conservative School Board majority over the past four years.
Edwards routinely has cast the solitary “No” vote on initiatives that the board majority has led.