A challenger worthy of attention

Meet Curtiss Bryant. His friends call him Curtiss or CJ.

He and his wife own a photography business. He grew up in Inverness, lived a spell in Beverly Hills, and now calls Lecanto his home.

CJ’s a bright guy. We spent a good 90 minutes chatting at Cattle Dog the other day, and the time flew right by. He knows his stuff.

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Is he county commissioner material? We’re going to find out in the coming months.

Bryant is taking on District 1 incumbent Jeff Kinnard. Ballot qualifying is in June, so anything can still happen.

So far, Bryant is leading my “candidate most likely to be a viable candidate” competition by a long shot. Hopefully, his entry into the race will encourage others because all three commission incumbents are vulnerable this election season.

Let’s jump into it.

First off, no incumbent wants to hear he or she is vulnerable. All incumbents believe they should sail to re-election, and they can’t understand why everyone doesn’t see that.

Some get downright offended if challenged. Two years ago, Inverness Mayor Bob Plaisted publicly ranted during City Council meetings about the audacity that anyone would take him on. He was re-elected; another incumbent councilman was not.

Well. That cynical approach aside, every two years, we get to choose representatives on the County Commission. Experience can be a boon or a bust. 

And timing is everything.

Kinnard ran unopposed four years ago. Kinnard was considered the logical commissioner on a board with Ron Kitchen Jr. and Scott Carnahan. Voice of reason, that kind of thing.

Well, that was then. Everything changed since the Suncoast Parkway opened in 2022, and citizens are in a panic about what they see as unbridled growth. Does the County Commission have a plan for it? That seems like a common topic of debate.

Kinnard, in particular, is the perfect pendulum swing incumbent. More so than his colleagues, Kinnard has eight years in office and a pattern of, in general, voting for development.

If he went to the Publix parking lot and asked 20 random people, “Do you support quality development even as it adds thousands of residents to our county?” I’m not sure he’d get half to answer in the affirmative.

For all the public angst about county commissioners and lack of direction, I don’t too many people stepping forward with solutions.

Just as it’s not leadership for commissioners to just say no all the time, the same is true for us citizens. Criticism only goes so far, unless it becomes a movement. That's how incumbents lose.

There’s a loyal Just Wright Citrus reader from Ozello who is very unhappy that the glampground vote did not go his way. At every possible JWC opening he takes a shot at Kinnard. That, to me, is an indicator that Kinnard's votes have lost favor.

Except…other than that one Ozello man, I haven’t seen or heard any consistent complaints about Kinnard or the other incumbents, other than the occasional specific issue.

That indicator is bigger than the first one. It tells me folks outside Ozello are either supporting Kinnard, indifferent to him, or opposed and keeping quiet for now.

That's another reason why we need great candidates. The best way to have conversations about where we've been, and where we're going, is to run strong (yet vulnerable) incumbents against strong challengers.

Back to Curtiss Bryant. He’s the kind of candidate I’d like to see in the other commission races, someone in the community who has a better-than-decent grasp of how the government works. He knew details only someone who pays attention would know.

Hope he’s serious about this. We have much to discuss.

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