Six people have filed to run as write-in candidates for the Sarasota County Public Hospital Board, including a pair of North Port Republicans who share the same address at Gran Paradiso in Wellen Park.
On Thursday, three of the six filed and qualified to run for the At-Large Seat 1.
On Wednesday, Donna Hurlock filed to run for At-Large Seat 2, while Curt Erlandson filed to run for At-Large Seat 3. and qualified Thursday.
Those filings came on the same day that current Hospital Board Member Victor Rohe appeared at the ultra-conservative America First Southwest Florida Caucus meeting and discussed the process required to file as a write-in candidate in general.
Hurlock said she was at the America First meeting Wednesday but did not attribute her decision to file to Rohe’s statement.
“It’s kind of a fun thing to have your name on a ballot,” Hurlock said.
Erlandson could not be reached for comment.
Ethan Garrett, Suzanne Hatatah and Jennifer Lee Zambrano all qualified as write in candidates for At-Large Seat 1 while Emilio Carlesimo, a former Venice City Council member, qualified as a write-in for the Central District Seat 1.
A quest to keep Republican primaries closed
If only members of one political party file to run for an elected office, the primary race is open to all eligible voters to cast ballots. If candidates from more than one party, or write-in candidates file, the primaries are “closed,” meaning only registered voters from the respective parties participate, with the party winners moving on to the general election.
Write-in candidates do not have to declare their party affiliation and their name will not appear on the Nov. 5 ballot but voters can write their name for the appropriate office.
With qualifying set to end Friday, there will be GOP primaries for all four seats on Aug. 20.
In November, voters can then choose between the Republican primary winner, the Democratic candidate, and one write-in candidate in three of the four races, while for At-Large Seat 1, they could opt for the Republican or Democratic candidate or one of three write-in candidates.
Email prompts flurry of write-in applications
Rohe told the Herald-Tribune that he received an email regarding a June 9 story on the Florida Politics website which appeared to spark the burst of write-in candidates.
“I got this as an email and the first line of the email was that Florida Politics is openly calling for Dems to pull out to get an open primary,” Rohe said.
Based on that, he chose to address the America First meeting.
“I felt like the RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) and the Democrats would like to be able to gang up on us and defeat us,” he added.
The practice of closing out primaries is fairly common in Florida politics.
A write-in candidate recently closed what otherwise would have been a universal primary for the Sarasota County Commission District 1 seat.
Rohe started his comment by noting that he was not representing any organization – such as the hospital board – nor was he encouraging people to file as write-in candidates.
“I”m not asking anyone to do anything,” Rohe said. “I’m not soliciting them, all I’m doing is giving them information as to how the system works.”
The candidate filing dedline for all primary races is noon Friday, so he suggested Thursday was the last day for someone to file as a write-in.
“If someone, anyone files in the hospital races, any one of four of them – if they file to run as a write-in vote (sic) that will keep the primary closed,” Rohe said at the meeting. “Why is that so important? On Monday, there was an email that went out – or some type of communication from someone in a Florida Politics organization that a head of the Democratic Party in this county suggested that they should pull all four Democratic candidates out of the race, so they could have an open primary and vote in our primary.
“That very likely will happen in my opinion,” he added.
Democrats says they’re still in the race for Sarasota Hospital Board seats
The article by columnist Peter Schorsch that appeared June 9 on Floridapolitics.com took Sarasota County Democratic Party Chair Danuel Kuether to task for recruiting four candidates to file to run in the hospital board race, as well as for picking a fight with Sarasota Tiger Bay on whether Democratic speakers had equal treatment at the luncheon forums, as well as urging Democrat candidates to boycott Tiger Bay’s current slate of forums.
On Wednesday, Kuether said: “I have no intention of pulling the Democratic candidates out of this race.”
That fact was underscored by a Thursday email from Kuether noting that Central District Seat 1 candidate Vicki Lynn Nighswander had officially qualified for that race.
Nighswander ran for that same seat in 2020 and lost to incumbent Sarah Lodge.
That was the last time Democrats fielded candidates for the hospital board.
In 2022 the Democrats opted to sit out races for five hospital board seats and back mainstream Republicans – with candidates from three separate Republican factions jockeying for office.
In a year of heightened awareness because of the COVID-19 pandemic, three “Health Freedom” candidates, including Rohe, won seats on the volunteer hospital board,
The nine-member public hospital panel sets policy for the Sarasota Memorial Health Care System, which includes all Sarasota Memorial Hospital campuses, related healthcare facilities and clinics and First Physicians Group.
Who’s running in the Sarasota hospital board election?
For At-Large Seat 1, incumbent Republican Sharon Wetzler DePeters will face Tamzin Rosenwasser in the primary with the winner facing Democrat Alan Jerome Sprintz in November, where one of three write-in candidates – Ethan Garrett, Suzanne Hatatah, and Jennifer Lee Zambrano – will also be options.
For At Large Seat 2, Republicans Kevin Cooper and Dr. Stephen Guffanti are in the primary with the winner facing Democrat John A. Lutz and Donna Hurlock is a write-in candidate.
For At-Large Seat 3, Republicans Pam Beitlich and Mary Flynn O’Neill are in the primary with the winner facing Democrat Dr. George Davis and Curt Erlandson a write-in candidate.
For Central District Seat 1, incumbent Republican Sarah Lodge will face Tanya Marie Parus in the primary with the winner facing Democrat Vicki Lynn Nighswander and Emilio Carlesimo a write-in candidate.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Write-ins add to crowded field of Sarasota hospital board candidates
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