Former Manatee County commissioner continues to allege defamation

As the 2026 elections near, former Manatee County Commissioner Kevin Van Ostenbridge continues to allege he was defamed during the 2024 election by Take Back Manatee, a political action committee, and its chairperson, former Commissioner Betsy Benac.

Commissioner Bob McCann said Van Ostenbridge’s lawsuit is an attempt to suppress support for any anti-developer candidates. McCann was one of the “anti-developer” candidates to be elected in 2024. 

Van Ostenbridge was elected to represent District 3 in 2020, but in 2024, he ran against Commissioner George Kruse for the District 7, at-large seat. Kruse won the Republican primary. 

Kruse was sworn in for the second time Nov. 19, 2024. A week later, Van Ostenbridge filed a lawsuit claiming Benac and Take Back Manatee sent mailers that contained false statements about him. 

Judge Charles Sniffen dismissed Van Ostenbridge’s lawsuit with prejudice April 17. Dismissing with prejudice means the same lawsuit cannot be filed again, so on April 27, Van Ostenbridge filed a motion for a rehearing of Sniffen’s ruling instead. 

Sniffen ruled that mailers are protected under Florida’s anti-SLAPP statute. Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation are prohibited under the statute “to protect the right in Florida to exercise the rights of free speech in connection with public issues.”  

When reached for comment, Van Ostenbridge said his motion “says it all.” 

The 13-page motion states that the magistrate didn’t consider whether the mailer’s statements were true or false based on this quote from the magistrate’s report: 

“If statements such as those were actionable for defamation under Florida law and the United States Constitution, our judicial system would likely be overwhelmed with defamation lawsuits during and following every political campaign and election, which in some cases would be filed by multiple political candidates running for the same political office. The amount of those lawsuits would be nothing short of cosmic.”     

Benac declined to comment because of the ongoing litigation. 

“Developers and their cronies always threaten lawsuits to intimidate, so that you’ll either give them what they want or back off,” McCann said. “The people in 2024 were not intimidated, and I don’t think the people in 2026 will be either.”