Bradenton mayor likes new redistricting map

By , Herald-Tribune
/ Monday, February 6, 2012

Bradenton Mayor Wayne Poston

It never made sense to Bradenton mayor Wayne Poston.

For a decade part of Bradenton was in one congressional district with the rest of Manatee County and Sarasota. That is represented by Longboat Key Republican Vern Buchanan.

The other part of the city – with substantial numbers of Hispanic and black residents – was in another district with Tampa. That area is represented by Tampa Democrat Kathy Castor.

“Splitting the county didn’t make any sense,” Poston, a Republican, said.

But that division may be a thing of the past by Thursday, when the Florida Senate is expected to pass new congressional redistricting maps that will put all of Bradenton and Palmetto into one district. To be sure, the maps would still undergo a review by state and federal courts. Count Poston among those whose hoping that the final product will have all of Bradenton together as one political force in one district.

“It just makes more sense,” Poston said.

Poston said Castor did a good job responding to the needs of the community. But ultimately, having the city’s entire political weight in one district will give the community a bigger voice with whoever is the member of Congress for the next 10 years.

Poston said the new proposal is far better than the previous Senate plan, which would have cut Manatee County into three pieces. He said he’s trying to restrain his satisfaction about the new proposals out of fear something can still go wrong.

Under the plan that will be voted on Thursday, all of Sarasota and most of Manatee County would be together in a new 16th Congressional District. The only exception will be about 6,000 people living in Myakka City and extreme eastern Manatee County.

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Jeremy Wallace

Jeremy Wallace has covered politics for more than 15 years.He can be reached by email or call (941) 361-4966.""More Wallace"Make sure to "Like" HT Politics on Facebook for all your breaking political news.
Last modified: February 6, 2012
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Chuck Luck
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 3:23 am

It’s sad that the new owners of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Halifax Media Holdings LLC, only allows certain articles that they select, to be able to receive comments. Halifax Chief Executive Michael Redding heads up this exclusionary policy. Halifax’s owners are Redding Investments; Jaarsss Media LLC, of Miramar Beach, Fla., headed up by Rupert E. Phillips; and Stephens Capital Partners, who are investors out of Little Rock, Ark., & are under the control of billionaire Warren Stephens. These are the people that readers of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Lakeland Ledger, Winter Haven News Chief, Gainesville Sun and Ocala Star-Banner in Florida need to contact to overturn this policy of controlling the publics voice in political matters. They are trying to influence politics in a slanted way by only allowing public comments to selected articles. For instance today there is an article entitled: “Tea party: Warming or resigned to Mitt Romney?” By Kristen Wyatt of the Associated Press. The public certainly would like to be able to comment on this article as well as all the other articles this news organization distributes about American politics at all levels. We certainly respect your role in the free market, however you’re joined at the hip with your readership by the first amendment. http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20120206/APA/1202061206

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Online staff
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 3:00 pm

Chuck Luck, I work at the Herald-Tribune.

The reason comments aren’t allowed on the article you mentioned is because that story is part of an automatic feed from The Associated Press. None of those feed stories have comments enabled, for some reason. There’s no bigger conspiracy.

I’ve posted a copy of the story here on HT Politics, and welcome your comments:

http://htpolitics.com/2012/02/07/tea-party-warming-or-resigned-to-mitt-romney/

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Chuck Luck
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 4:42 pm

Hello online staff. Thanks for posting this article on HTPOLITICS.com. All policy comes from the top in organizations such as yours. For good reason, as ownership needs to know what is likely to take place with their staff. It IS NOT a conspiracy to present the ownership chain of Halifax Media Holdings LLC & state the obvious. Evidently YOU are the key link to whether an article is selected to be enabled to have comments. Why don’t YOU (no conspiracy here) put ALL politically oriented articles that are in the automatic feed from The Associated Press, into your HTPOLITICS.com so readers may comment. In fact, why doesn’t your new ownership look into having ALL OF YOUR ARTICLES enabled to have direct comments from your readers. The “forums” you have are far distant from real life. When people read something they would like to be able to post their comments then & there. It really is rather silly, considering today’s technology, to have the distant “forums” be the only place your readers can comment on your publication. If you strive to better your publication you will do better in the marketplace. Isn’t that what your new ownership wants?