Dent, Thaxton spar at Tiger Bay

When Republican voters step into voting booths for the Aug. 14 primary election, they will choose between experience and change for the Supervisor of Elections office.

Incumbent Kathy Dent and Sarasota County Commissioner Jon Thaxton faced off Thursday, July 5, at Michael’s On East, during the Sarasota Tiger Bay Club Luncheon.

Thaxton, who is known for being meticulous in his research, dug up old emails from Dent and said her tenure has been tainted with controversies.

“There just seems to be a repetitive theme of lack of transparency and blaming others when things have gone wrong,” he said.

But, although Dent has been embroiled in some controversies, she asserts that the job of Supervisor of Elections isn’t suited for someone with a background in policy-making.

She used the disparity when Thaxton brought up malfunctioning touch-screen voting machines during the 2006 election.

“The final decision (to purchase electronic voting machines) was made back in 2001,” she said. “He also voted for the equipment in 2007; I’m only the custodian of the equipment.”

The email Thaxton presented to attack Dent’s record of transparency came from staff member Bobby Walker, an employee who had been in charge of electronic voting machines four years earlier. It contained the phrase “the babies’ diapers have been changed” and was sent to notify Dent that repairs were made to electronic voting machines.

“It’s curious to me why someone would want to use coded language in a public email,” he said.

Dent, who is banking on 12 years of experience in the administrative position to sway voters, explained the staffer was not intentionally trying to conceal operational details but just speaking the way he normally does.
“You don’t know Bobby Walker,” she said to Thaxton, “but there certainly was no coding there.”

“After three years of elections being in the headlines,” Thaxton said, “I’m ready to return to when it’s the candidates in the headlines.”