Poll shows Confederate monument had overwhelming public support

A poll commissioned by supporters of the Confederate monument in downtown Bradenton shows a vast majority of residents were not in favor of the decision to remove the memorial from the grounds of the historic courthouse.

Gravis Marketing conducted the survey of 421 registered Manatee County voters. The poll was paid for by Save Southern Heritage and reached out to a cross spectrum of voters, including by race and political party.

Results of the poll were released Wednesday morning at a press conference held by representatives of various groups, including America First-Team Manatee, Daughters of the Confederacy, Sons of the Confederacy, Citizens for Trump and more.

The poll shows 79 percent of voters were not in favor of removing the monument and 74 percent of voters will hold accountable the four county commissioners who on Aug. 22 voted to move the monument in the next election. The vote came a day after hundreds of Black Lives Matter and other groups marched on the courthouse to demand its removal, threatening a protest a week until it was taken down.

America First-Team Manatee’s Barbara Hemingway said the poll was the first step taken in a new “Restore Initiative” to be pursued until the monument is first repaired, and then returned to the courthouse grounds. As part of the county’s motion to remove the monument, suggestions were made to find it a new home.

Manatee County spokesman Nicholas Azzara said the county’s attention is focused on possible threat posed by Hurricane Irma and not on the monument.

“No discussions have been had on the monument since the last board action,” he said.

“Restore the monument as soon as possible,” Hemingway said. “The bottom line, the voters want it in and this is one issue we will remember next November.”

Commissioners Betsy Benac, Priscilla Trace, Carol Whitmore and Charles Smith voted in favor of removing the monument. Smith, in particular, was chastised for his personal involvement in the protest after being seen at the front of the march from Riverwalk to the courthouse grounds.

H.K. Edgerton called for Smith’s immediate resignation. Edgerton, a self-described black activist and a member of the Sons of the Confederacy, is a former NAACP chapter president in North Carolina, who has since disavowed the organization.

“When an elected official who goes out amongst and joins in a protest, never mind that he came from Black Lives Matter that is basically a terrorist organization, but not only to go out and sit among them and lead them through the streets of your city, I don’t care if he was in protest of a garbage can, an elected official can’t do that,” Edgerton said. “Not only you got to go do it, but to walk back into your council chambers and begin to vote on the issue? How can you do that? He should step down right away.”

Hemingway also pointed out that the poll shows 45 percent of black residents did not agree with the decision to remove the monument, “which of course flies in the face of Commissioner Smith’s ramblings about the county’s black residents not wanting the monument. We believe the poll numbers should speak for themselves, but just in case, if you’re not listening, restore the monument.”

Retired Army Col. Mike McAllister, national spokesman for Citizens for Trump, said his organization joins with others “to demand that the Manatee County Commission reverse their ill advised and potentially illegal vote to remove the veteran war memorial.”

This story was originally published September 6, 2017 at 2:10 PM with the headline "Poll shows Confederate monument had overwhelming public support."