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ATKINS ELECTION TO COUNTY COMMISSION WILL SEND MESSAGE THAT SARASOTA CAN BE BI-PARTISIAN AND BI-RACIAL
Fredd Atkins’ story is a testament to the power that citizens have to shake up institutional systems while working together in a bi-partisan and bi-racial good government approach.
Atkins and other City of Sarasota mayors (Kelly Kirschner/Mollie Cardamoe/Elmer Berkel/Kerry Kirschner) who worked in a good govermet bi-partisian/bi-racial goverment
Atkins is one of Sarasota’s longest serving city commissioners, having spent 18 years in public service with being Sarasota’s mayor three times during those 18 years. All those years he was a member of a bi partisan and bi-racial Commission good government approach at Sarasota City Hall.
It is way past time that Sarasota County government have a bi-partisan bi-racial good government approach that is not controlled by a group of good old white guys headed by "Pay to Play" gangster developer Pat Neal.
Neal and his "Pay to Play" gangster developer cronies are no different than the folks in the City of Sarasota, who back in the day kept African Americans from being part of the leadership of Sarasota City Government.
Not until the young Atkins and seasoned Black leaders like Ed James II, John Rivers, Jerome Dupree and a few others got a federal court to approve Single Member District were Blacks elected to the City Commission.
SINGLE MEMBER DISTRICTS FOR SARASOTA COUNTY VOTERS
In 2018 a coalition of white folks together with Africa American, Hispanics, liberals, conservative, Republicans, Democrats and Independents were successful in voting in Single Member Districts (SMD) in Sarasota County.
The coalition was not just to assist Africa Americans and Hispanics to be elected to the Sarasota County Commission but also to elect Republicans, Democrats, Independents, conservatives and liberals to the Sarasota County Commission who will not be in the pockets of Neal and his "Pay to Play" gangster developers.
To get elected to the Sarasota County Commission, anyone involved in Sarasota politics knows a candidate has to take a trip up to Neal Communities in Lakewood Ranch to kiss Neal's ring to get his approval to run for the County Commission.
Once a County Commission canidate was anointed by Neal, it was a mere formality to get the dollars to finance a County-wide campaign and the political operatives to run their campaign. All a Neal candidate needed to do was stand on street corner and wave his campaign sign.
SMD MAKES IT HARDER FOR NEAL'S JUNTA TO STUFF SARASOTA COUNTY CANDIDATES INTO THEIR POCKETS With SMD a candidate with name recognition and favorability, he or she does not need near the amount of money needed to run county- wide to convince voters he or she could beat Neal's handpicked candidate district-wide.
Moran
Atkins was that person to beat Neal's flunky, Mike Moran in a District 1 wide race in 2020. Akins in a previous County wide race that he lost to Moran in 2016, Atkins won District 1.
ATKINS AND 8,000 AFRICAN AMERICAN DISENFRANCHISED IN 2020
Moran and Maio
In 2020 in order to take out Atkins to run against Neal's flunky in District 1, three Sarasota County Commissioners (Nancy Detert, Al Maio and Mike Moran) in a 3-2 vote embraced one of the most blatant, racist acts ever seen in Sarasota. They adopted a racist map, which was a slap in the face to Atkins and the African- American community.
Waechter
This map to remove Atkins was put together by a Neal political operative Bob Waechter, who is a documented three-time arrested criminal, once arrested for political fraud. The Waechter map removed Atkins as an announced Sarasota County Commissioner against the Neal and his gangster "Pay to Play" JUNTA handpicked candidate, Moran.
Thus, Atkins and over 8,000 other local African Americans were disenfranchised from voting for Atkins in the Sarasota County Commission election in 2020 because of the Waechter racist map.
Seidman
SEIDMAN: "WAECHTER MAP ELIMINATES ATKINS AND DISENFRANCHISES AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY"
SHT reporter Carrie Seidman stated that, "How can anyone who knows anything of Sarasota and Newtown’s history possibly think this Waechter map is a good idea? Even if by appearance alone, it echoes historical racial injustices and black voter suppression and sends a clear message to the neighborhood that, once again, the white majority controls its fate."
SEIDMAN: "WAECHTER MAP SLAP IN FACE OF AFRICAN AMERICANS"
Seidman continued, "Is it any wonder why the Newtown community has long had difficulty trusting the Sarasota establishment? Adopting a map like this (Waechter Map) one wouldn’t be interpreted as yet another slap in the face of these constituents?"
SEIDMAN CALLS INTO QUESTION DETERT/MAIO/ MORAN FLAWED ASSERTATIONS
"Making the community hardest hit by this precipitous redrawing of lines one that has long suffered inequities and disenfranchisement represents a step backward in any progress we’ve made toward atoning for the injustices of the past."
IN 2022 ATKINS WON DEMOCRAT PRIMARY FOR SARASOTA COUNTY COMMISSION DISTRICT 2 DESPITE EFFORDS TO BAN HIM AND BEING OUT SPENT
Now in 2022 despite all the effords to stop Atkins to run for the Sarasota County Commission in District 2, Atkins won the Democrat primary and on to the final County Commission election in November. In winning the Democrat primary for the Sarasota Couty Commission, Atkins won despite being significantly outspent. Atkins said that just goes to show community history means more than money in district-level races.
“You cannot buy respect. You can’t buy tradition. You can’t buy a history of a man who has been consistently and persistently fighting for your way of life,” Atkins said. “That’s where we are. We have lived this. We have been disinherited all of our history in Sarasota County.
ATKINS NO DOUBT MOST QUALIFIED TO BE SARASOTA COUNTY COMMISSIONER IN DISTRICT 2
There is no doubt that Atkins is the most qualified to be the next Sarasota County Commissioner in District 2. Atkins having served on the Sarasota City Commission for eighteen years and as the mayor for ten years. During those 18 years he understands how government works, Atkins understands the bi-partisan effort it takes to ensure a better quality of life for ALL people in Sarasota unity.
As fiscal, growth and social issues threaten the very heart and core of Sarasota, Atkins is the most qualified person to lead us in the right direction, while protecting the character of Sarasota that brought us here in the first place.
Atkins's decades of work on different community and county and city boards has made him an expert on Sarasota issues. Atkins has as much if not more experience in city and county government than anyone on the commission right now. Atkins will preserve the county's neighborhoods, businesses and tourism interests.
Smith
Neal has another local political hack, Mark Smith running against Atkins. Smith is another candidate has been stuffed in Neal's gangster "Pay to Play" developer's pockets,
Jones
Once again Neal and his gangster JUNTA will be using his "bag man" and political operative Stafford Jones out of Tallahassee to attack Atkins and move along PAC money, as he did against Smith's opponent in the Republican primary, Lourdes Ramirez.
Jensen
Smith will no doubt will have over a $150,00 stuffed in his pockets from Neal and his cronies, examplified by 11, $1,000 Rex Jensen contributions and the 5, $1,000 Larry Lieberman contributions stuffed in Smith's primary against Ramirez.
Lieberman and Beruff
Lieberman is Carlos Beruff's BRO in that Long Bar Pointe destruction of Bay-habitat in Manatee County.
ATKINS GREW UP IN A SEGERGATED SARASOTA AND BECAME A MAYOR OF A INTERGRATED SARASOTA
Atkins grew up in Sarasota’s Newtown neighborhood during segregation. He went on to become the city’s first African American mayor in the 1980’s, while serving on the city commission in the Newtown district seat, which was created several years prior following a federal lawsuit by the NAACP.
Atkins was reared in an Augustine Quarters “shotgun shack” located behind Horn’s Grocery Store on 6th Street in Overtown. For fun, Atkins played football and baseball on sandlots and dirt courts. A bicycle tire was easily turned into a basketball rim.
In 1958 the Atkins family built a new 3-bedroom house in Newtown for $7,000 after his aunt hit the jackpot playing Bolita, a numbers game imported from Cuba. There were few new homes in Newtown in 1958. It was a weird kind of experience because the middle class of Newtown lived in public housing. Most of the working class lived in the projects, even some teachers before they built homes.”
As a little boy, there was always some apprehension with Atkins during the desegregation process. He was in caravans when the police turned him and others and sent them back to Newtown.
Atkins can remember going to Lido beach when it had a little colored path in the grass that they could use to get to the water. But they could not talk loudly, or they would get run away from the water. Being told they had no business there, people busted their tires by putting bottles under their tires while they were there. All this "stuff" was happening when Atkins was seven, eight, nine, ten years old.
Atkins and the 40 year reunion of Sarasota High School class of 1972
Atkins participated in the desegregation of Sarasota schools. During the Booker School boycott, he taught at the freedom school set up at Greater Hurst Chapel A.M.E. Church. Then came integration. Assimilation was tough for Atkins and others, but Atkins graduated with his class.
Atkins with his fellow former SHS students
As a member of the NAACP’s youth council, Atkins registered voters in high school, and attended school board meetings. Activism continued in college. He conducted research for the Miami attorney who filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Sarasota.
OBVIOUS CLEAR-CUT OBSERVATIONS OF SARASOTA'S DARK PAST WERE REVISITED IN 2020
What happened at a Sarasota County Commission meeting in 2020, as if was it was back in the in the deep South days of our country, which included Sarasota, when racists operated behind masks. In 2020, Sarasota County Commissioners Detert, Maio and Moran gave the valid perception that the masks were taken off and the Sarasota community had once again been identified as racists.
Bentley
It is now two years later and despite a Waechter and Neal flunky local attorney Morgan Bentley drawing up a racist redistricting map in 2022 to once again attempt to disenfranchise African America voters and deprive Atkins running for County Commissioner--Atkins is on the ballot.
Brill
In addition, despite Neal's flunky at the Sarasota County Republican Executive Committee (REC) Jack Brill and Neal's flunkies on the Sarasota County Commission (Ron Cutsinger, Christian Ziegler, Detert, Maio and Moran) attempted in a referendum in 2022 to do away with SMD---Republican, Democrats and Independents ONCE AGAIN voted to keep SMD.
ATKINS BRINGS BI-PARTISIAN GOOD GOVERNMENT TO COUNTY COMMISSION
Atkins election to the Sarasota County Commission creates a bi-racial County Commission. Atkins also brings a bi-partisan good government approach to the County Commission.
PARTISIAN POLITICS HAS CREATED EXTREME DIVISIVENESS IN SARASOTA
Partisan politics has created extreme divisiveness in Sarasota County elections and Sarasota County School Board races. The divisiveness started in the City of Sarasota elections in 2015 by Democrat leadership wanting to "Turn Sarasota Blue" by electing Democrats who were not near as qualified of the two Republicans running, Eileen Normile ad Stan Zimmerman. Republicans Christian Ziegler and Eric Robinson began to turn Sarasota County School Board partisian in 2014.
In the recent Sarasota School Board races extreme Democrat liberals joined by Tom Edwards, Kay Mathers, Cathy Antunes and Lisa Schurr destroyed a bi-partisan Single Member District coalition and with the help of Zac Anderson of the Sarasota Herald Tribune turned the School Board races into a bitter Liberal Democrat/Conservative Republican conflict.
THAT HAS TO END
FREDD ATKINS BRINGS A BI-RACIAL/BI-PARTISIAN GOOD GOVERNMENT APPROACH TO THE SARASOTA COUNTY COMMISSION