Sarasota News Leader
December 28, 2012
Page 53
AUG. 14
Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent handily
defeats Republican challenger Jon Thaxton in
the Republican primary, winning 75 percent of
the vote after a brief, but hotly debated campaign.
Only 28,415 Sarasota County Republicans (24
percent of the party) voted in the election, and
overall turnout for the primary was abysmal,
with just 16 percent of county residents casting a vote. Thaxton, a 12-year county commissioner who is being term-limited out, waged
an aggressive campaign. During a series of
July debates, Thaxton did not shy away from
bringing up Dent���s controversial record, most
notably how she handled the 2006 election,
when the county���s voting machines recorded
a massive undervote in the tight Vern Buchanan/Christine Jennings race. Before Election
Day, Dent���s office was warned by the company that made the county���s touchscreen voting
machines that the devices might not function
correctly. She was advised to put up posters
alerting voters to the potential for error, but
chose not to.
Attorney Charles Hines defeats tea party challenger Randy McLendon in the Republican
County Commission primary, besting him with
59 percent of the vote.
AUG. 15
Roughly 50 people come to the Payne Park
Auditorium to talk with Walmart representatives about a proposed new ���supercenter���
at the old Ringling Shopping Center. The
���maestro��� for the event is Michelle Belaire,
a battle-hardened corporate PR woman from
Miami who by turns welcomes, answers and
deflects questions from the crowd. ���We want
to be good neighbors, and that���s why we���re
City of Sarasota staff released a preliminary
site plan for the Walmart proposed for the
Ringling Shopping Center, which used to house
a Publix. Image courtesy City of Sarasota
here,��� she says at the outset. Walmart plans
to scrape the site bare ��� razing the city���s first
shopping center anchored by its first Publix
��� and build a 98,000-square-foot general retail
and grocery store. ���We are not asking for any
variances or zoning changes,��� says Belaire.
���This parcel is appropriately zoned ���commercial,��� and we need only administrative approval of the site plan. Construction will take
about one year from the ground up.��� She says
the doors should open in 2014. While a public hearing is required before the city Planning Board, approval should be a pro forma
decision if the company���s planners follow the
city���s rules.
