Three weeks after Election Day, city council member concedes race he lost by a landslide
Notably absent Tuesday from the review of ballots cast in a Bradenton City Council election Nov. 6 were the candidates themselves.
The results of the election — Bill Sanders beat long-time Ward 4 incumbent Bemis Smith, who was seeking a fifth term, by a landslide — will stand after the candidates’ representatives reviewed ballots cast in two of the city’s 16 precincts, with no significant changes to the outcome. The review put to rest any notion that a computer glitch may have caused the lopsided victory for a political newcomer.
It was the first time in 11 years an incumbent city councilman lost a re-election bid.
Smith said he can rest easy knowing the result of his election was legitimate.
“Now I can feel comfortable and when people ask me about it, I can say yeah, we made sure,” Smith said.
Sanders received 62 percent of the vote in the Nov. 6 election, to Smith’s 38 percent. Smith said the size of the loss left him with an uneasy feeling and he just wanted to make sure there hadn’t been some sort of technical glitch.
A glitch was unlikely given the testing that takes place on the machines to confirm the results, Supervisor of Elections Mike Bennett had said before Tuesday’s ballot review. However, Bennett said candidates are welcome and encouraged to review the ballots if it will put their minds at ease.
He noted it is unusual in races that are one-sided.
After the candidates’ surrogates reviewed ballots from two precincts at Bennett’s office, Smith’s representatives conceded the race.
“The Bradenton voters have spoken,” Sanders said. “It’s time to move forward and I look forward to hitting the ground running after the first of the year.”
Sanders said he appreciates Smith’s passion after serving for 17 years, but called Tuesday’s review an exercise in futility. He said it was time for Smith to let it go.
“I’m still shocked and surprised, but what I can I say?” Smith said. “But hey, the people made a decision and we could talk for years about how a relatively unknown person with no name ID in the area was able to come in and get more votes than any city councilman in history.”
Smith said he is likely done with politics.
“I’m excited about the work I got to do with the city over the past 17 years,” he said. “Apparently attack races sway voters. We are talking about a seemingly repudiation of the work I have done. It’s not like it was a close race. So either people didn’t like what I was doing or they didn’t care enough about the race to get to know the candidates. If it’s either one, then I’m probably not the right person for the job.”
One final twist in the bitter Sanders-Smith campaign was the lawyer Smith hired to represent him in the ballot review, St. Petersburg attorney Jeremy Bailie.
In August, Baile, then a Republican candidate for a Florida House seat, was caught on video replacing his opponent’s campaign fliers with his own. He later apologized, but Bailie lost in the GOP primary.
Smith said he hired Bailie through a friend and was initially unaware of what Bailie had done. He acknowledged he was fine with Bailie representing him after he learned what had happened.
“My feeling is Mr. Bailie apologized for what he was accused of and suffered the consequences,” Smith said. “We just had an overwhelming statewide election to restore voting rights to people who have paid their dues so to not use somebody for making a mistake would seem a little unfair.”