Correction: Daniel Kuether is the chairman of the Sarasota County Democratic Party. An earlier version of this story said otherwise.
The League of Women Voters of Sarasota County will host four candidate forums before the Nov. 5 general election.
Three of the forums are for countywide races, though the first one on Sept. 23 is for the North Port City Commission, with three of five seats on the ballot.
The others are for the Sarasota County Public Hospital Board on Oct. 2, Sarasota County Tax Collector on Oct. 7 and Sarasota County Commission District 3 on Oct. 10.
Shawn Bartelt, president of the League of Women Voters of Sarasota County, said that with the number of races on the ballot in November, the organization had to limit the number of races it could highlight.
Bartelt said the League plans to host a fifth forum for the State House District 73 race, a rematch between Republican incumbent Fiona McFarland and Derek Reich, a longtime Sarasota County resident and teacher at Sarasota High School.
Finding locations for a live forum can be problematic, which is one reason both the Tax Collector and County Commission District 3 forums will be conducted via Zoom and live streamed on YouTube.
In 2022, McFarland earned more than 55% of the vote to win the race for the newly redrawn District 73. In 2020, she won her first term in the Legislature in District 72, when she beat Democrat Drake Buckman.
Bartelt had hoped to have an in-person forum for District 73 in September but that has been postponed until late October, after McFarland, who is pregnant, has her fourth child.
Links to learn more about all scheduled forums, register to attend and submit questions for consideration are at https://www.lwvsrq.org.
North Port City Commission
The forum for this non-partisan race, open to all registered voters in the city of North Port, is scheduled for 5:30 to 7 p.m. Sept. 23 at Shannon Staub Public Library 4675 Career Lane, North Port.
The District 1 race pits incumbent Alice White against challenger Demetrus Petrov, while District 2 incumbent Barbara Langdon will go against Joshua Smith, with Landgon and Smith the top two finishers in a three-way primary that included former city commissioner Cheryl Cook.
The District 3 race is between two friends, David Duval and Andrew Sias.
Sias previously ran for the commission in 2016, when Debbie McDowell first won a seat on the council.
McDowell cannot run again because North Port city commissioners are limited to two full terms.
Commissioners must live in the district they represent but ballots in all races are cast citywide.
Sarasota County Public Hospital Board
The forum for this partisan race is set for 5:30 to 7 p.m., Oct. 2 at the Venice Community Center, 326 Nokomis Ave., S., Venice.
Four of the nine hospital board seats are on the ballot.
Incumbent Republicans Sharone Wetzler DePeters, in At-Large Seat 1, and Sarah Lodge, in Central District Seat 1, will face Democrats Alan Jerome Sprintz and Vicki Lynn Nighswander, respectively.
The At-Large Seat 2 race pits Republican Kevin Cooper against Democrat Dr. Dale P. Anderson, while the At-Large Seat 3 race includes Republican Pam Beitlich and Democrat Dr. George Davis.
Sarasota County Tax Collector
The forum between incumbent Democrat Barbara Ford-Coates and Republican challenger Mike Moran, who is finishing his second term on the Sarasota County Commission, will be conducted from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., Oct. 7, via Zoom. It should be the second time in roughly a month that the two will share the stage at a forum, with Ford-Coates and Moran scheduled to appear Sept. 5 at a forum hosted by Sarasota Tiger Bay.
Sarasota County Commission District 3
The forum between former Sarasota County Sheriff Tom Knight, a Republican, and non-party affiliate candidate Shari Thornton will be from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., Oct. 10, via Zoom. In the August primary, Knight upended incumbent Neil Rainford, who was appointed to fill the seat following the death of Nancy Detert.
Other League presentations
The League of Women Voters have several other election season programs scheduled before Nov. 5.
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Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections Ron Turner will talk about “guardrails” in place for a smooth November election, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., Sept. 12 in Gelbart Auditorium at Selby Library, 1331 First Street, Sarasota.
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Sarasota County Superintendent of Schools Terry Conner will talk about the impact on programs and infrastructure of the optional one-mill dedicated property tax for the School Board from 6 to 7 p.m., Sept. 19, in Gelbart Auditorium at Selby Library, 1331 First Street, Sarasota. A referendum on extending the optional property tax was overwhelmingly approved in March 2022 but is on the ballot again in November after a change in state law requiring that such votes be hosted on a November ballot.
Sarasota is one of only 20 Florida counties that have home rule power in a county charter, and the only one with an elected charter review board.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: League of Women Voters of Sarasota County hosting candidate forums
