It’ll be one of the only times the two debate face-to-face
By Florence Fahringer
Original Air Date: August 30, 2024
Host: The race for Sarasota Tax Collector is usually of little interest — Not this year. Term limited county commissioner Mike Moran is taking on long time incumbent Barbara Ford-Coates. Florence Fahringer has more.
Florence Fahringer: Next Thursday, the Tiger Bay Club will be hosting Barbara Ford-Coates and Mike Moran for a forum and luncheon. Ford-Coates and Moran are the two candidates for County Tax Collector; Ford-Coates, a Democrat, is the incumbent of forty years, Moran, the outgoing chair of the Sarasota County Commission, is her Republican challenger. The Tiger Bay Club has been the host of many such forums, previously hosting Incumbent commissioner Neil Rainford and then challenger Tom Knight at a luncheon — it was one of the only times the two candidates had sparred face-to-face. This luncheon will be a similar occasion; Ford-Coates and Moran have not yet had the opportunity to have an in-person formal debate.
Ford-Coates is the only elected official in Sarasota County to be a member of the Democratic Party. She’s continuously held office since 1984; by the time Moran moved to Sarasota County in 2002, Ford-Coates had already been Tax Collector for nearly twenty years. She’s not a particularly controversial Tax Collector either, in fact, she’s attracted far more praise during her tenure than criticism.
Moran is termed out of his time on the Sarasota County Commission. He’s sat on the commission since 2016, and is its current chair. He’s made a name for himself as the tax-payer’s crusader, pushing for austerity at the county level. While Ford-Coates may have few critics, Moran has become a particularly vocal detractor in the past year. He’s accused her of being out-dated, claiming tax collecting in Sarasota has fallen behind technologically; while also claiming her tax office has “gone rogue” and broken state laws. His campaign strategy is reminiscent of other moneyed Republicans across the county: attack mailing, lawn signs which litter the roadsides of developer properties, and a lack of direct public outreach. As of this recording, his campaign website has a link to a campaign ad which leads to nowhere, though it once led to an edited version of a campaign video from three years ago. His “about” page also inexplicably features a sequence of what seem to be stock images — one of a garden (subtitled “gardening”), one of a palm tree, one of a rowboat on a lake, and one of an underwater SCUBA diver.
Moran is running as a Republican, and faced a primary challenge from one Charles Bear on August 20th. Moran beat Bear handily, with thirty-three thousand votes to Bear’s eighteen thousand — that’s almost double the vote share.
For a relatively minor bureaucratic role, this race has become uncharacteristically contentious. Both candidates have raised tens of thousands of dollars — numbers which are usually seen in higher profile races, like those for county commission. Ford-Coates has relied almost exclusively on grassroots donations, while Moran’s fundraising presents an antipodean strategy, taking thousand-dollar donations from individuals and businesses enmeshed with development. The one exception is that of Hugh Culverhouse, one of Sarasota County’s most powerful developers; Culverhouse initially gave Moran seven thousand dollars, until he and Moran seemed to clash over the 211 helpline. After Culverhouse saved 211 from Moran’s budget cuts, Culverhouse donated ten thousand dollars to the Ford-Coates campaign.
In-person debates for Tax Collector are rare things, though the contentiousness of this election desperately calls for some face-to-face interaction between the candidates. While the election will take place on November Fifth, the Tiger Bay luncheon will take place next week, on Thursday, September Fifth. Doors open at Eleven, and the forum will take place from Noon to One Thirty. It’ll take place at Michael’s on East. Tickets for Tiger Bay members will be thirty-four dollars, for non-members, thirty-nine dollars. Reservations are required.
This is Florence Fahringer, reporting for WSLR News.
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