Phil Ammann
Librarians, as a group, are not to be taken lightly, as Jimmy Conner could soon learn.
Conner, the incumbent Lake County commissioner, is facing Wendy Breeden in the Republican primary for the District 3 seat.
Breeden has served for a decade as the county’s library services director before being promoted to public resources director.
The primary can be described aptly as “the librarian versus the insider politician.” And in 2016, the year of the outsider, the librarian could be the one with the upper hand.
One predictor — a canary in a coal mine, of sorts — was a pair of recent “hob nobs.”
At Clermont’s South Lake Hob Nob Aug. 10, Breeden, a past president of the Florida Library Association and former director of the Lake County Board of Commissioners Public Resources Department, narrowly lost to Connor, 208 to 205.
Then, the following week, the beleaguered incumbent lost in a landslide at the much larger Leadership Lake Hob Nob in Leesburg. There, Breeden won decisively, 439 to 199.
Although hob nobs are certainly not scientific, they can indicate momentum.
And momentum is exactly what is needed in the days before the Aug. 30 primaries.
Think back to 2010, and the race between newly independent Gov. Charlie Crist and Republican former House Speaker Marco Rubio. Angry conservatives, looking to change the status quo, took advantage of the voter split between Crist and Democrat Kendrick Meek, which gave Rubio momentum, propelling him to the seat in which he is now seeking a second term.
That said, a secure, long-serving county commissioner should never lose 2-to-1.
After Connor’s defeat in Leesburg, could the longtime board member be ceding ground to the upstart librarian?
Conner’s campaign strategy has rested on a single “NIMBY” issue — opposition to CEMEX, the company seeking to build a sand mine in south Lake County. As most incumbents in Florida rarely have trouble with re-election, Connor has instead been reeling from attacks over votes to raise property taxes by double digits and put 16,000 new homes in southern Lake County.
In addition, during his tenure on the Lake County Commission, Connor has earned a reputation in the eyes of many — including a few of his fellow commissioners — as one quick to employ manipulation and intimidation to get what he wants. On Feb. 14, Commissioner Leslie Campione described Connor to the Daily Commercial as someone who “either bullies people to back down or … showers them with praise if it will make them toe the line.”
A Daily Commercial op-ed piece, also dated Feb. 14, echoes the same theme, with the twist that Connor may also have a “woman problem.”
In “Liberal Connor is a bully,” marketing and public relations professional Amanda Wettstein writes that Lake County needs a “tough, conservative woman” like Breeden to put Connor in his place.
“Conner got away with bullying vendors and sticking it to taxpayers,” Wettstein writes. “He even got away with bullying tough, professional women all over Lake County. But he can’t get away with it forever.
“Conner is now seeking to extend his decades-long career as a professional politician,” she adds, hitting a familiar note heard nationwide throughout the current election cycle.
Despite this spate of grassroots conservative populism, Connor remains positive about his chances.
“I’ve always had an opponent, I think people should have an opponent,” he told the Orlando Sentinel. “I look at an election as an evaluation of performance.”
Connor may just be right. But if the recent hob nobs are any indication, that may equal bad news for him — and very good news for the librarian.
