Jacob Ogles
After 40 years in office, Sarasota County Tax Collector Barbara Ford-Coates lost re-election Tuesday to Republican Mike Moran. In office since 1972, she was the last Democrat holding partisan office in the increasingly red county.
“I believe strongly that any organization whether they are government or private sector should strive to be better,” Moran said after the win. “I have been directly involved in a number of mergers and acquisitions and without exception most creative and good ideas have come from staff, not leadership. I will do a lot of listening and ensure basic, foundational systems and procedures are in place such as modern technology, and ensuring staff are educated, compensated, motivated properly to carry out exceptional customer service for the residents of Sarasota County.”
Ford-Coates filed for her 11th term this year, confident her record would overcome the shifting demographic in the county. “When voters cast their ballot this November, I hope they will want to keep the same quality of service and efficiency they have experienced when visiting one of my four offices,” she said at the time.
However, unofficial election results show that Moran, an outgoing Sarasota County Commissioner, won just over 51% of the vote, compared to the Democrats’ under 49%.
The Republican Party of Sarasota celebrated a clean sweep in all offices on the ballot.
“Sarasota County had 84% voter turnout in Tuesday’s election, the highest of this century,” reads an email blast from the party. “Republican turnout was 138,498, or 87 percent. This is the result of strong candidates from top to bottom, hundreds of volunteers for the local GOP and well-financed, organized and professionally run operation to get the vote out.”
The difference between Moran and Ford-Coates was less than 7,000 votes despite Republican advantages in the county. In Sarasota County, Republican Donald Trump won the presidential election with more than 50,000 votes, with more than 58% of the vote. Ahead of the election, Republicans made up more than 47% of voters in the county.
Political consultants familiar with Sarasota County say the rightward shift in voter registration in a high-turnout election made for an impossible climate for Ford-Coates to win. Ford-Coates won re-election in 2020 without opposition. The last time she faced an opponent was in 2016 when Republicans made up 43% of voters, and she beat Republican Jim Bender with more than 61% of the vote.
Besides the change in party makeup in the county, Moran significantly outspent the incumbent. Through Oct. 31, the Republican raised almost $131,000 and spent almost $123,000 of that. At the same time, Ford-Coates raised about $87,000 and spent almost $59,000. Most of her spending, about $45,000, was spent after Oct. 18.
She also had little presence on the trail after the unexpected death of her husband, Brian, in September.
Moran campaigned aggressively throughout the election, highlighting what he considered excessive spending by Ford-Coates’ office.
“Mrs. Ford-Coates was paying one employee an annual salary of $448,367.91 and this behavior stopped the next payroll cycle after the public records request. This payroll was reported as $165,474 to the Department of Revenue,” he said.
Ford-Coates said that example involved an employee who took on significantly more work during the COVID lockdowns and continued to work extra hours until this year.
But Moran also questioned longtime practices in the office that resulted in overtaxing residents.
“Mrs. Ford-Coates repeatedly says she is efficient in her operations. Some would agree that she is very efficient in ripping off the Taxpayers of Sarasota County,” he said. “For decades, Mrs. Ford-Coates has been overtaxing the residents of Sarasota County. By Florida law, Mrs. Ford-
Coates is to only collect fees to cover the ‘actual costs’ to run the operation.”
Again, Ford-Coates during the campaign said the practices were mischaracterized, and any time residents were charged more than they owed, they had the excess refunded. She also said her office had the lowest per capita costs for a Tax Collector’s Office of any county in Florida.
