Manatee commission candidates for District 1 and District 3 share views for the county
Five of the candidates running for a seat on the Manatee Board of County Commissioners participated in a debate focused on ideas, not personal attacks.
In a forum put together by the Bradenton Kiwanis Club, candidates running for District 1 and District 3 shared their ideas for improving Manatee County, building teamwork on the board and the impact COVID-19 has had on residents.
Candidates were given 35 minutes to provide written answers to four questions, but Janene Amick, executive director of the Manatee Performing Arts Center and moderator for the debate, came up with a twist.
“We’re not looking for responses to your opponent’s opinions. We don’t want you interrupted by what someone else’s thought process is,” Amick explained.
“Bradenton Kiwanis wants to unify our community, so when you start on rhetoric of opposite opinions, it really de-unifies the community. We just want to focus on your vision.”
As part of the unorthodox debate style, Amick read off candidates’ written answers to debate questions and then gave each candidate two minutes to expand on their answer. The result was a debate free of any personal attacks.
District 1
Of the three candidates running for the District 1 seat, only one of them is guaranteed to move forward to the general election in November. Democrat Dominique Brown will face the candidate Republicans pick during the Aug. 18 primary election.
Pastor James Satcher is challenging incumbent Commissioner Priscilla Whisenant Trace for the Republican nomination. If elected, Satcher promised not to “go along with the crowd” on any issue that comes before the board.
“I do have a conservative mindset that I bring to the table. I do believe in limited government. I believe in low taxes and a strong defense, which at the county level, that means a strong sheriff’s office,” Satcher said, noting that he would push the board to approve as many deputies as Sheriff Rick Wells requests.
“I want to defend the sheriff, not defund the sheriff,” he added.
Trace, who is seeking re-election to a second term, said she already brings strong leadership to the board and is committed to doing what’s best for the district, which includes Parrish and parts of Ellenton and Palmetto.
“We know we have problems there, and I know them. I’m willing to work on them. I set my goals to make District 1 the best district in Manatee County,” Trace said.
Brown, a lawyer and 12-year Air Force veteran, pitched herself as having a different perspective than current commissioners and vowed to work as a transparent elected official who openly communicates with her constituents.
“Since I started my campaign, I realized that a lot of people have a lot to say and they don’t feel their voices are heard and that only certain voices are heard when decisions are made,” Brown said. “I would ensure that I speak to the people in the community to make sure they have a voice to speak to their leadership and let them know their concerns.”
District 3
With Commissioner Stephen Jonsson retiring at the end of his term, the race to represent West Bradenton and Anna Maria Island in the District 3 seat comes down to Matt Bower and Kevin Van Ostenbridge.
“I want to be the voice of the people. I have several different priorities — traffic, infrastructure, natural resources and helping our first responders,” said Bower, who is running without party affiliation.
Bower has pledged to decline campaign contributions from any developers, and has argued before that such donations would make a commissioner “beholden” to the donor. That decision will make it easier for him to step up to big decisions on the board, he said.
“I firmly believe that integrity has everything to do with who we are and what we’re about. At the end of the day it’s not how you react when things are easy — I tell my son this all the time. It’s about how you react when things are difficult,” Bower said. “When I’m this board, politics are out the door. I don’t care about Republican, Democrat, Independent. I only care about doing what’s right for this community, especially when things are hard.”
Van Ostenbridge, the Republican nominee for the seat, noted that before the COVID-19 pandemic began, his main goal was to fix and replace aging infrastructure. But the coronavirus situation and rampant unemployment means that boosting the local economy comes first.
“We’re talking about real people with bills and mortgage to pay. They have kids to feed. If that’s not your top priority right now, I don’t know what else possibly could be,” said Van Ostenbridge. “What we need is a stable economic environment, so you need a principle leader at the helm to ensure that business environment exists.”
A recent sewage spill from Longboat Key’s main sewer line is the perfect example for why infrastructure in that part of the county needs to be prioritized, Van Ostenbridge said.
“We have an awful lot of aged infrastructure that needs to be replaced. We have old roads. We have old bridges,” he pointed out. “For a long time, we’ve focused on things that we’ve wanted, but not things we need. It’s time to buckle down.”
The Bradenton Kiwanis Club plans to host similar debates in the coming weeks. On July 21, District 5 and District 7 candidates will participate.
