- August 11, 2026
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About our recommendations:
District 1 — In this crowded field of five candidates for this open seat, three candidates stand out — Elizabeth Arnold, Mark Stanoch and Leland Taylor. Each would be an earnest and conscientious, civic-minded commissioner serving the district well.
But here is the difference: As a retired economist with Chase Econometrics, Microsoft and a principal at IBM Global Services, Stanoch has an analytical mind and vision that would be a valuable addition to the County Commission.
Stanoch understands that Manatee’s population is going to continue to grow. Rather than jump on the Bob McCann wagon for moratoria and see the Future Development Area Boundary as an inviolable wall, Stanoch urges rational problem solving.
“People are great at describing problems,” Stanoch told the East County Observer. “I’m more on the solutions side. Now, I don’t have all the answers, but I think in those kinds of terms.”
Another key point: At a recent Manatee Republican Club debate, Stanoch apparently was the only District 1 candidate who had a grasp on the county’s $1.3 billion budget. That’s the job: Oversight on the spending.
It would behoove Manatee voters to add to the commission a person with the business acumen of Stanoch.
We recommend: Mark Stanoch
District 2 — Incumbent Amanda Ballard believes and articulates what we seldom hear from candidates for public office — references to our nation’s core principles:
“Individual Liberty is what allows all of us to work hard and live out our dreams … It’s freedom that empowers families, not bureaucrats …” You can say that again.
Ballard could be more of a spending hawk, but on balance, Manatee voters need her to remain on the commission. The alternatives would be economically disastrous. In this primary, Ballard’s opponent is the former aide to Manatee Commissioner Bob McCann. One McCann is more than enough.
We recommend: Amanda Ballard
District 4 — This race has only two candidates — Republicans Mike Rahn, the incumbent, and challenger Glen Gibellina. The victor will be the next District 4 commissioner.
You have to like Gibellina. He is one of those few engaged citizens who can drive sitting commissioners nuts. He attends every meeting and asks questions. He wears a T-shirt that says “Free-range gadfly.” Perhaps he is annoying at times, but he serves as a check that every government body needs.
He should stay in that role.
Incumbent Commissioner Rahn, a Desert Storm veteran and Marine, has spent his career in the mortgage industry in Manatee and Sarasota counties. His detractors see him as a shill for developers because of his former positions as president of the Manatee-Sarasota Building Industry Association, vice president of the Florida Home Builders Association; a board member of the National Association of Home Builders and an inductee in 2017 into the Florida Housing Hall of Fame in 2017.
Take your pick: Gadfly or a businessman. This is a serious job. Rahn understands in depth how development and housing fits into Manatee’s future; he knows he cannot be the shill his detractors portray.
We recommend: Mike Rahn
District 6 / At-large — Of the four candidates vying for outgoing Commissioner Jason Bearden’s seat, one of them should be a shoo-in, hands down: Tara Poulton.
Indeed, among all of Manatee County’s commission candidates, you could make a strong case that Poulton is the most qualified of all the candidates to be a member of the commission.
While her resume may look like she can’t hold a job, it’s because she was constantly being recruited to fill slots over the past decade: District chief of staff for Congressman Vern Buchanan; division director and substitute administrator for DeSoto County; Southwest Florida Water Management District; Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau; Manatee Chamber of Commerce; United Way of Manatee County. Demonstrated competence and experience with the wide range of issues commissioners face.
We recommend: Tara Poulton
District 2 — Cindy Spray, currently chair, has proven to be a competent, trust board member and steward for Manatee County schools and taxpayers. She is a steady, positive force that brings a solid level of mature thinking and decision making to the board. Says Spray: “I’ll lose hair, I’ll lose weight, but I won’t lose my integrity.”
We recommend: Cindy Spray
District 5 — In this race, there’s a Gen Zer, 23-year-old Camden Bedinghaus; a substitute teacher, mom, all-things-education enthusiast and second-time board candidate, Chantal Wilford; and a long-time small business owner and civic leader (president of the Bradenton Kiwanis Club and Tiger Bay Club board member), Jonathan Mullis.
To cut to the quick, the five-member board needs a second, non-education connected member. Cindy Spray, the chair, is from the business sector. The remaining three — Chad Choate, Heather Felton and Charlie Kennedy — have all been Manatee district teachers.
Good board governance is having disparate perspectives. Mullis would bring that — in particular, business acumen — to the board.
We recommend: Jonathan Mullis.
County Commission — Longtime Sarasota-Siesta Key architect Mark Smith gave it his all. And like many elected officials, he had a mixed record — on balance acceptable, but also some rotten tomatoes (the boatyard purchase; rejecting the Cox workforce housing project; the tax collector-school board fiasco; and his blanket no on data centers). But the biggie: the county’s runaway spending over the past four years.
Say exactly the same for Joe Neunder.
Voters have a tough choice: The incumbents’ challengers — Kristina Sargent (District 1 against Smith) and Jim DeNiro (District 4 against Neunder) — are not widely known. So voters do not know how they’ll perform. All they know is what they promise: Better fiscal management., But Neunder did that bait-and-switch, too.
Or perhaps you can hope (not a good strategy) Smith and Neunder have learned their lessons and should be given a second chance.
Our litmus test is past performance. Smith and Neunder had four years. They should not be rewarded. Give the newcomers a chance and hold them accountable from Day One.
We recommend: Kristina Sargent, Jim DeNiro
Sarasota School Board — (Editor’s note: Candidate Megan Tennimon’s political party affiliation previously was incorrectly reported. The correct affiliation for Tennimon is Non-party Affiliate. The text below also was updated Aug. 5.)
Mea culpa. Mea culpa.
With embarrassment, some shame and apologies and gratitude to one of our readers, we are updating for the second time our recommendations on the Sarasota County School Board races.
As our reader pointed out, we didn’t do what we should have: Research the candidates more thoroughly.
In particular, two candidates who have the Republican Party’s support: Frank DiCicco, District 4; and Michell Pozzie, District 5.
But first, as previously noted, school board elections are supposed to be nonpartisan. Reality is they’re as partisan as any race.
And likewise, as previously noted, all three Republicans currently on the five-member board are vacating their seats — Bridget Ziegler, Robyn Marinelli and Karen Rose.
Which means Sarasota County Democrats will be doing everything they can to flip the board their way.
Here’s how the races break down:
District 1 — Republicans: Heidi Brandt; Teresa Ann DeWitt; Democrat: Jimmy Glover.
District 4 — Republican: Frank DiCicco; Non-party Affiliate: Megan Tennimon.
District 5 — Republican: Michelle Pozzie; Democrat: Beth Mayberry.
When you hear these candidates at forums or read their platforms, all of the candidates are heartfelt earnest in wanting Sarasota County public schools to maintain their A-grade status. But one of the big unknowns for voters is how any of these candidates will perform if elected. None of them has widespread name recognition gained from community involvement and previous public service.
One of the other unknowns is: If elected, what would a Democrat majority do? Go woke? Current board members Tom Edwards and Liz Barker have had strong endorsements from the local Democratic Party. Barker has publicly endorsed Tennimon.
But here is another crucial piece to this puzzle: What qualifications do these candidates have to be the stewards for taxpayers over a $1.3 billion school board budget?
Voters should know:
• Since 2008, candidate DiCicco has had 15 complaints filed against him in the 12th Judicial Circuit Court related to unpaid obligations. They included two foreclosures; six contract and indebtedness cases; five small claims; and two property evictions.
Responded DiCicco: “I’ve been here for 30 years, and I’ve been in business. So, you know, sometimes lawsuits happen.
“Of them,” he told us, “five I countersued and were dismissed. Seven of them I settled with the businesses and paid them. So there are no judgments.
“There was a foreclosure on an investment property in 2009,” he said. “That’s when the world came to an end real estate investment-wise. There was a second mortgage there that I did pay off.”
Added DiCicco: “The part that bothers me about this is it’s not really being communicated correctly. You’re talking about over a course of 30 years of being in business. People have businesses. Some work out, some don’t.
“But I’m a believer that people could just go bankrupt and walk away. I didn’t do that. I dealt with every one of those. And I resolved every one,” he said.
• In the case of Pozzie, her financial travails are nowhere close to DiCicco’s. Lest another reader cite us for negligence, we’ll note that court files show that a bank foreclosed on her and her now ex-husband in 2008 — the real estate crash.
Pozzie and her husband were young, first-time homeowners then, and husband Pozzie’s North Port construction business experienced what many contractors experienced during the real estate crash: Business crashed as well.
Pozzie said she and her husband settled the foreclosure by turning the home back to the lender — deed in lieu of foreclosure.
Then, in 2011, the court ruled in favor of an eviction of Pozzie and her ex-husband from a property in North Port.
Pozzie’s cases are 15 and 18 years ago. Things change. Fortunes change. Asked about them, she said those were unexpected life challenges. She then made note that in 2021 she was one of the few school board observers who warned against the district hiring too many people with federal funds that would go away.
This is what it comes down to for voters: Take some time to look up their platforms online. Then make a judgment. From our perspective, District 1 candidate Heidi Brandt, longtime volunteer and PTO president at Southside Elementary School, will make a solid school board member and, if in the minority, a counterbalance that every board needs. In Megan Tennimon, voters would get a lifelong Sarasota resident, Sarasota High graduate, former Sarasota County teacher and mother. Brandt and Tennimon’s values and desire to eschew political shenanigans would be welcome.
But whoever is elected, here’s what they should do: Support, advise and let Superintendent Terry Connor do his job; he is doing it well. Provide fiscal oversight; implement what Tallahassee mandates; advocate for less intervention from Tallahassee. And stay out of the political muck.
We recommend: District 1: Heidi Brandt; District 4: Megan Tennimon. District 5: No recommendation.
Sarasota Hospital Board — Bill Woeltjen, former chief financial officer for Sarasota Memorial Healthcare, is challenging incumbent Brad Baker.
To be sure, Woeltjen, a longtime CFO in Tampa Bay and Sarasota hospital systems, knows the industry and would bring expertise to the hospital board.
But there is a notable “but”: If Woeltjen is elected, six of the nine hospital board members will be or will have been associated as SMH employees or as healthcare doctors or nurses. Stacked with insiders.
Baker, a longtime, successful Sarasota entrepreneur with operational and finance experience, has performed well and serves an important role as an independent board member.
It is good corporate governance to have out-of-the-industry directors. Baker serves that role well.
We recommend: Brad Baker
Charter Review Board — Two high-quality Republicans are vying for the District 5 seat — Erin Halstead and Andrew Sias. We urge voters to read Sias’ responses to the Observer’s candidate questions on YourObserver.com. He’ll make a great Charter Review Board member, but his responses also will convince you he is suited for higher office — county commission? The Legislature?
For the other seats, incumbent Nicholas Altier has earned re-election, and Chip Adams stands above his opponent. Adams’ endorsements make the case: state Reps. James Buchanan and Danny Nix; Sheriff Kurt Hoffman; County Commissioner Teresa Mast; Charter Review Board members Joe Justice, Tom DeSane, and Jay Riley; and Venice City Council member Rachel Frank.
We recommend: Nicholas Altier, Chip Adams, Andrew Sias.
If you try to put a blanket characterization on the Sarasota City Commission primary election, here are few ways to sum it up: Stop and go. Past and future. Less and more. Resist and pursue.
But there is also an in-between: rational thinking, good reason.
With the Aug. 18 elections, city voters will be filling the commission’s two at-large seats — held currently by Jen Ahearn-Koch and Debbie Trice.
Trice decided not to seek re-election. Ahearn-Koch is seeking her third term.
On the ballot, voters are allowed to fill in the bubbles for two of the five candidates. The top three vote-getters will qualify for the general election in November if none of the candidates receives more than 50% of the votes.
Historically, that’s what happens. In the 2022 primary, the top three voter-getters were Ahearn-Koch (34%), Trice (19.58%) and Dan Lobeck (19.02%).
When you look at the five names on the city ballot, you can divide them as follows:
And, sorry to say, Yvegeny Khodorkovsky not on the radar.
The city’s neighborhood associations and the downtown anti-noise, anti-development condo dwellers are working hard for Ahearn-Koch and her shadow, Entler.
Amazingly, Entler has stated in her campaign: “I’m ready to be the partner Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch needs to refocus City Hall on the people it actually serves.” So much for independent thinking. One Ahearn-Koch is enough.
At the same time, the pro-Ahearn-Koch supporters are avidly trying to thwart Harshman and Rominiecki from winning. Here’s why: They are convinced Harshman and Rominiecki would align with incumbents Liz Alpert and Kyle Battie, giving pro-growth advocates a super majority and usher in a developer’s dreams come true.
Be real. The foursome is not going to happen. Never say never, but Ahearn-Koch cannot and will not be beaten. We’ll give Ahearn-Koch credit for being a fiscal hawk on a new performing arts center and other matters, but she has been too stridently on the side of the “againsters” throughout her two terms. In the words of that famous 1992 Florida constitutional amend on term limits: Eight is enough.
That leaves Trice’s seat. In all likelihood, the November ballot will have three names: Ahearn-Koch, Harshman and Entler. For once in a blue moon, it would be a hugely positive development to have a respected and accomplished business and community leader on the City Commission. That would be Harshman.
A long-time commercial real estate brokerage owner, Harshman knows development; he knows the city; and he’s a rational thinker when it comes to growth and development.
We recommend: John Harshman and Rob Rominiecki
This article has been updated with more information on the Sarasota School Board race and to reflect that Megan Tennimon is not affiliated with any political party.
