Republicans love single-member districts for other parts of Florida, just not Sarasota

Zac Anderson, Sarasota Herald-Tribune
·3 min read
A text message with an image of Congressman Greg Steube and former President Donald Trump is part of a campaign by the Sarasota GOP in support of single-member districts for county commission races.
A text message with an image of Congressman Greg Steube and former President Donald Trump is part of a campaign by the Sarasota GOP in support of single-member districts for county commission races.

The Republican Party of Sarasota County has declared war on single-member districts and is going all-out to repeal the new system of electing county commissioners, which 60% of voters approved in 2018.

With single-member districts, only voters who live in a commission district - instead of every county voter - can cast a ballot in that race.

Last week the Sarasota GOP sent an email describing single-member districts as “Chicago-style, parochial, back-room trading.”

Having commissioners elected by voters countywide “is simply good government that creates the greatest accountability to the highest number of voters,” the party email states.

The assault on single-member districts includes text messages and mailers sent to voters.

By the way: Mysterious Tallahassee organization donates $100,000 in Sarasota County’s single-member districts referendum

Previously: Voter registration deadline for the single-member districts referendum

Opinion: Sarasota County voters must say 'No' to countywide voting

One text message sent by the Sarasota GOP features a picture of former President Donald Trump and GOP Congressman Greg Steube. It declares that the "Pro-Trump" Steube supports having commissioners elected by all voters countywide. Another text message states that Florida GOP Chair Joe Gruters also supports repealing single-member districts.

Republicans have embraced the idea of implementing single-member districts elsewhere in Florida, though.

One side of a mailer sent by Sun Coast Alliance to Sarasota County voters in support of the repeal of single-member districts. Critics of single member districts, including the Sarasota GOP, have waged an aggressive campaign to repeal them in Sarasota County, even as Republicans support a referendum that would ask voters in Alachua County if they want single member districts.

Republican leaders appear eager to adopt single-member districts for county commission elections in Alachua County.

Republicans representing Alachua County in the Florida Legislature proposed a bill that would put a single-member districts referendum on the county ballot this year. The bill has been advancing through the Florida House with unanimous support from GOP lawmakers.

“This not about Republican/Democrat... this is about proper representation,” Republican state Rep. Chip LaMarca said in supporting the bill during a recent committee hearing.

So why do Republican leaders seem to love the idea of single-member districts for Alachua County but not for Sarasota County?

So why do Republican leaders seem to love the idea of single-member districts for Alachua County but not for Sarasota County?

Single-member districts can make it easier for the political minority in a community to win a seat.

Sarasota County is heavily Republican. Alachua County is heavily Democratic.

Every Alachua County commissioner is a Democrat. Every Sarasota County commissioner is a Republican.

Yet Sarasota County has large pockets of Democrats. President Joe Biden carried many of the precincts north of Clark Road. Democrats have a majority on the Sarasota City Commission.

And Alachua County has large pockets of Republicans. Outside of deep blue Gainesville, home to the University of Florida, much of Alachua is rural and conservative.

By carving the counties up into smaller, single-member districts, Alachua Republicans and Sarasota Democrats could have enough influence to carry one or more districts.

Conservatives in Alachua County are so upset about the policies approved by Democratic leaders they have talked about splitting the western portion of the county off into a new county, called Springs County.

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One of the people helping to organize the Springs County effort is Tim Marden, a Republican who serves as a city commissioner in Newberry and works for the far right John Birch Society. Marden testified in favor of the single-member districts referendum during a recent legislative hearing.

Alachua conservatives are eager to gain some political clout, and single-member districts could help that effort.

So are single-member districts antithetical to “good government,” as the Sarasota GOP suggests?

Republicans don’t seem to think so when it comes to Alachua County.

Single-member districts may be antithetical to a one-party control, though, and Republicans are not giving up that control in Sarasota County without a fight.

Florida Democrats' messaging on single member districts also has varied depending on whether it is politically advantageous. The Sarasota County Democratic Party wants to keep single member districts, while prominent Democrats in Alachua County have opposed implementing the system there.

Democrats in the Florida Legislature joined with Republicans in unanimously supporting the Alachua single member districts bill at its first two committee stops, though.

Follow Herald-Tribune Political Editor Zac Anderson on Twitter at @zacjanderson. He can be reached at zac.anderson@heraldtribune.com

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Florida Republicans supporting single-member districts bill in Legislature