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Barbetta's pro-environment platform wins over voters
By PATRICK WHITTLE
Courtesy of the Herald Tribune

SARASOTA -- Voters found Joe Barbetta's platform of environmental protection and slow growth convincing enough to make him Sarasota's newest county commissioner.

Barbetta, a former Planning Commission member, edged out his opponents with 36 percent of the vote in the three-way open primary.

Former county employee Casey Pilon got 34 percent of the vote and School Board member John Lewis garnered 30 percent in a race that was so close it could not be called until absentee ballots were counted late Tuesday. Barbetta won by 716 votes over Pilon.

Barbetta said he believes voters chose him because they want a steward of the environment and someone to control development.

"I think they recognize these are key issues of importance," Barbetta said. "I think with my stance, it just shows you can be a Republican and care about the environment and the public embraced that."

Before the final tally arrived, University of South Florida political scientist Susan MacManus predicted Barbetta's environmental leanings would tip the scales with votes from Democrats and pro-environment Republicans.

All county voters could vote in the primary because the only candidates were Republicans. Barbetta becomes the new county commissioner because he will not have a Democratic opponent in November's election.

Open primaries tend to attract crossover votes for the candidate who appeals the most to the opposing party, MacManus said. An environmental candidate like Barbetta, who has made curtailing urban sprawl a focal point of his campaign, was almost sure to win the Democratic vote in Sarasota, she said.

Democrats, with no candidate of their own to support, may have helped put Barbetta over the top by handing out his literature and putting his bumper sticker on their cars.

Pilon, a 12-year county government employee and wife of former county commissioner Ray Pilon, looked unlikely to win the primary. She saw her donations dry up toward the end of the campaign. She had raised $45,250 by Aug. 11, compared with $61,223 for Lewis and $70,370 for Barbetta.

"I probably would have done better in a closed primary because I am the only one who has been active in the Republican Party," Pilon said. "Considering the lack of funding I had, I felt I did very well."

Lewis, a former Sarasota police chief and six-year School Board member, said voters clearly favored the candidate who came across as pro-environment.

"I think that was the label that Joe was able to use for his campaign more successfully," Lewis said.

Pilon and Barbetta sparred early on in the campaign. Barbetta accused Pilon of spreading rumors that he beats his wife. Barbetta publicly denounced the rumor, which Pilon contended she had nothing to do with.

More recently, two teachers formed their own political action committee and blasted Barbetta with a TV ad.

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