Partisan influence looms in commission race

In the 2015 race for two open City Commission seats, one of the most contentious storylines was the active involvement of the Sarasota County Democratic Party in a nonpartisan election.

Now, with two more City Commission seats up for grabs in Tuesday’s municipal election, the Democratic Party is on the sidelines — because there are too many candidates for it to choose from.

“Because there are more than two registered Democrats in the March race, we are not involved at all,” said Kevin Griffith, vice chairman of the Sarasota County Democratic Party. “We’re not endorsing; we don’t have personal favorites. We’re trying to be very transparent.”

That doesn’t mean the local political parties have reconsidered their participation in nonpartisan elections. On Feb. 25, the Republican Party of Sarasota County held a phone-banking event to support Martin Hyde, the only registered Republican in the race.

In an email advertising the event, the Republican Party cast the City Commission as an important springboard for more prominent partisan positions.

“It is important that we start sending Republican-supported candidates to the Sarasota City Commission so that the Democrats don’t build their bench for higher offices,” the email stated.

Joe Gruters, chairman of the Sarasota Republican Party, said the party was only responding to the Democratic Party’s prior participation in the city election. He referred to a deal he proposed to former Democratic Party Chairwoman Christine Jennings during the 2015 city election to stay out of the race — a deal Jennings did not accept.

“I’ve offered the Democrats a truce several times in these local nonpartisan races,” Gruters said. “They’ve rejected them every time.”

In his 2015 message to Jennings, Gruters wrote that “issues that the city deals with on a daily basis are of concern to all the citizens of Sarasota, not just Democrats or Republicans, and deserve a nonpartisan approach.”

Now, however, he admitted the party is taking a more tribal line when it comes to the city election. He described Hyde as a quality candidate deserving of the party’s support, but also said party affiliation alone was enough to trigger the endorsement.

“We don’t vet the candidate,” Gruters said. “Usually, the candidate tries to seek us out. In this case, when we have one Republican, they automatically have the endorsement and the support.”

He’s not alone. The Democratic Party isn’t committed to staying out of the city election. If the race heads to a May runoff, the party could get involved if only one or two registered Democrats advance to the second election.

“From a higher-level philosophical standpoint, we do believe it’s important in all races to let those who are registered Democrats know who are the registered Democrats running in races,” Griffith said. “If in the runoff, there are registered Democrats running, we’ll have to re-evaluate.”

The eight candidates vying for one of two spots on the commission have largely stayed away from a discussion of partisan politics. One exception came at Saturday’s Coalition of City Neighborhood Associations candidate forum. Answering a question about conflict between the city and county commissions, Hyde pointed to the political makeup of the two boards: in the city, five Democrats; in the county, five Republicans.

Even when it comes to local politics, he said, the influence of the major parties is impossible to overlook.

“It is partisan,” Hyde said. “There is a divide.”