Who’s Sarasota’s developers’ candidate? Both campaigns point the finger.

To run for local office in Sarasota County, any association with real estate developers has become a scarlet letter.

The tens of thousands of dollars from builders to pay for campaign mailers and social media advertisements are now outweighed by the tainted label of being a “developer-backed candidate.” Concerns about over-development — from clogged roads and the erosion of greenspace for seemingly endless suburbs to housing affordability — are now top of mind for Republican primary voters.

For Sarasota County Commissioner Joe Neunder and his reelection challenger Jim DeNiro, this year’s District 4 primary has become a battle of who can paint the other as most friendly to developers. 

As both candidates knock on doors under the unforgiving summer sun and make their pitch to voters at election forums, there is a simple throughline that concerns all most of potential constituents: overdevelopment and infrastructure.

DeNiro’s signs line local throughways with a simple tagline: “Stop Overdevelopment.” Likewise, Neunder told Suncoast Searchlight that the development community is “out to get” him.

While both candidates argue the other is too closely aligned with developers, the reality is more complicated. Campaign finance records show both men have accepted tens of thousands of dollars from development interests, while Neunder’s voting record and the candidates’ own positions on growth blur the lines drawn by campaign rhetoric.

DeNiro has received more than $24,000 from development, construction, or real estate interests, between his campaign and his political committee, “Friends of DeNiro.” Much of that money comes from donors connected to Willis A. Smith construction company, which is run by DeNiro’s brother-in-law and Sarasota County Planning Commissioner John LaCivita.

Neunder has received more than $22,000 from the same interests, including $8,000 from One Stop Housing’s Mark Vengroff and $4,000 from luxury homebuilder John Cannon.

Neunder, a chiropractor by trade, is seeking a second term after nearly four years on the County Commission and two years on the Venice City Council. He is campaigning on his experience navigating county government during a period marked by rapid growth, hurricanes and infrastructure concerns. 

DeNiro, who spent over 30 years with the Sarasota Police Department, has never held elected office, though he has served on the county’s Environmentally Sensitive Lands Oversight Committee and Traffic Advisory Council. He has cast himself as a political outsider frustrated with the county’s direction, arguing leaders have allowed spending and development to outpace infrastructure.

District 4 encompasses the city of Venice and its surrounding area, running along where Interstate 75 and Tamiami Trail curve eastward. The area is heavily conservative, with the Republican Party outnumbering Democrats two to one. 

The winner of the Aug. 18 primary will have more than the inside track to the commission dais, but must still contend in November with Julie London Ferguson, who is running unopposed for the Democratic primary.

With accusations of developer support, online hit-pieces and attack ads, the battle for District 4 has become a bitter contest between the cop and the chiropractor.

Infrastructure, stormwater, and county budget dominate election conversations

Both candidates seem in general lockstep over what ails Sarasota County: traffic congestion, flooding risks, inadequate stormwater infrastructure and the rising cost of living.

Where they differ is over how the county reached this point — and whether voters should trust the current commission to fix it.

Neunder has served on the county commission through two very distinct periods — one before the back-to-back 2024 hurricanes, when the board was generally more receptive to development proposals, and one after, when concerns over flooding and growth shaped many of the debates. His own voting record reflects that shift.

In 2024, on the heels of Hurricane Debby’s historic flooding, Neunder took heat for to approving Pat Neal’s 3H Ranch development, a master-planned community that will bring up to 6,576 homes, office space, and commercial and retail tenants east of Interstate 75 and south of Clark Road. 

The next year, he voted to allow a huge expansion of Lakewood Ranch Southeast on more than 1,000 acres. The commission had already agreed to the development in principle in 2022 – before Neunder was elected.

At the same time, Neunder also cast votes that frustrated developers. 

He joined the rest of the commission in voting against a plan by D.R. Horton to build a housing development next to the Celery Fields bird sanctuary. He also helped to delay a proposal that would have seen the county pay $14 million to widen Bee Ridge Road to benefit the Hi Hat Ranch mega-development, though the proposal was ultimately approved.

And Neunder backed the county’s effort to reinterpret Florida’s Live Local Act to exclude apartment projects in rural areas, even though the county attorney warned it would likely prompt legal challenges. That prediction proved correct: Developers have sued the county, arguing the policy violated state law.

The commissioner told Suncoast Searchlight he regretted the 3H vote, saying he better understands the area’s watersheds and stormwater concerns than he did at the time.

“That one is in my district specifically,” he said, “and there’s no doubt I understand the watersheds now a heck of a lot better than I did.”

DeNiro said Neunder’s more recent positions are too little, too late. Although he called Live Local a “big brother” law that residents were justifiably upset with, he also said the county’s response could cost the taxpayers in legal fees as the county fights state law.

“It’s political season,” DeNiro said. “Would this really be happening if we weren’t having elections right now?

To DeNiro, that criticism underscores the central message of  his campaign: “Overdevelopment is that we’ve outpaced infrastructure, plain and simple.” 

If elected, DeNiro said he would evaluate new development proposals based on whether roads, utilities and stormwater infrastructure are already in place to support them.

“I don’t want to see any development out east than we already have,” DeNiro said.

He also questioned the county’s spending priorities, criticizing major investments in new government facilities —  including  the new county administration building off Fruitville Road budgeted at $100 million. The board approved the facility in 2021, before Neunder was elected.

DeNiro has also blamed Neunder for the county’s ever-increasing budget, which has ballooned from $1.455 billion in 2023 to $2.524 billion in 2026. Much of that increase came from the about $400 million in federal grants the county received for hurricane relief and recovery in recent years.

The county’s general fund, which is mostly funded through property taxes and pays for everyday services – such as public safety, roads and parks — was $379 million when Neunder took office in 2022. It is preliminarily set at $509 million for the next budget — a 34% increase over four years. 

Candidates spar over sources of funding

Neunder’s primary financial backer has emerged as Dave Balot, the Siesta Key businessman behind The Hotel Siesta. Balot told Suncoast Searchlight that he supported Neunder because of the professional relationship they have built over the years.

“I like (Neunder) the same way I liked Tom Knight,” Balot said. “I think he has integrity.”

Balot’s business interests include real estate holdings and vacation rentals. In May, he created a committee called “Take Back Sarasota” which has raised $36,000 — largely from Balot himself and the restaurateur Rick Munroe, another Neunder backer. The committee has distributed mailers that frame Neunder as willing to stand up to “big developers.”

Neunder rejected the suggestion that campaign contributions influence his votes.  He described Balot and Vengroff as “not developers per se,” and praised Vengroff’s work building affordable housing. 

He also pointed to DeNiro’s campaign support from executives tied to Willis A. Smith.

“I’m not related to a developer,” said Neunder, referring to DeNiro’s brother-in-law.

LaCivita, members of his family and other Willis Smith executives have contributed $5,000 to DeNiro’s campaign. A political committee controlled by LaCivita and largely funded by his construction company has also spent thousands of dollars supporting DeNiro.

DeNiro said he would recuse himself from any vote involving LaCivita’s construction company – whose $100 million a year in revenue comes in large part from contracts from local governments across the area to build libraries, municipal buildings and fire stations.

DeNiro called the attacks against him as a Trojan horse for development “noise.” 

“I believe in accountability and transparency,” DeNiro said. “I don’t want people to think, ‘Oh, he’s in the pocket of a developer.’ It’s not true.”

Development influence less clear in 2026

The Sarasota County Commission’s high-profile race for the GOP primary election in 2024 seemed more clear-cut: Knight, the former county sheriff, cut through both the local Republican establishment and major development interests to defeat the better-funded Neil Rainford campaign. 

The region’s major developers: Neal, Benderson Development Co., Carlos Beruff of Medallion Homes, and Rex Jensen of Lakewood Ranch, had given nearly $100,000 to Rainford.

Although those prominent developers have not poured money directly into either candidate’s campaign — at least not in ways that are traceable — the issue has continued to shape the race through outside groups and political attacks. 

In recent weeks, Florida Politics publisher Peter Scorsch has published a series of columns criticizing Neunder over his relationships with campaign donors and his ties to a political committee known as Conservatives for a Brighter Future. 

The committee, chaired by Collin Thompson, who works part time for Neunder’s campaign, has collected more than $160,000 from prominent Sarasota developers since 2025, according to campaign finance records. The committee distributed mailers for Neunder during his 2022 campaign, though there is no indication it has spent money to support his reelection bid this year. 

Scorsch also criticized Neunder for voting to approve the county’s $21 million purchase of waterfront property off Stickney Point using funds meant to preserve environmentally sensitive land. The parcel belonged to restaurateur Christopher Brown, a major Neunder donor.

Neunder disputed the suggestion that donations have influenced his decisions.

“Just because they give me money, that doesn’t mean that I’m going to always support what they do,” Neunder said of his donors. “You can’t buy my vote, if that’s the narrative. I’ve done what I want, when I want, how I want my entire life.” 

Christian Casale covers government and politics for the Suncoast Searchlight. Email him at christian@suncoastsearchlight.org.