Photos: Mike Moran (top), Mike Hutchinson (bottom)

Sarasota County Commissioner Mike Moran only needs to win over a fifth of Sarasota County this year, not the whole county as needed four years ago. But he faces primary and general election opposition. Mike Hutchinson of Sarasota has challenged the incumbent in the Republican primary, which will be settled on Tuesday. Hutchinson previously worked for L3, a major manufacturing company that long worked out of Sarasota. When the business moved its operations to St. Petersburg, he stayed here, and wants to protect the high quality of life and regional jobs in the future. This is the first time Hutchinson has run for office himself.

“We need to preserve open spaces in East Sarasota County,” he said. “There was a lot of open space when I moved here.” A resident of the area since the late 1980s, Hutchison sees an erosion of planning that protects rural areas of Sarasota County. He’s specifically been upset by a vote cast by Moran in favor of a Celery Fields recycling plant; that application was ultimately shot down in a 3-2 vote.But he’s also been bothered by a number of measures that passed with Moran’s support from the Siesta Promenade and numerous smaller proposals.

Moran, for his part, hopes to win a second term on the strength of a range of decisions made during his first four years. Moran pushed for affordable housing, and has called on a reexamination of how the county approaches economic development. He pushed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic for economic dollars to go to help existing businesses get through the economic hardship, as one example. In a recent campaign email blast, Moran wrote about how as a father of a young adult living in the county, it’s important to him that talent raised in the city doesn’t need to leave the region to find professional opportunities. “I made a campaign promise to do everything in my power to attract and retain these sharp young adults,” he wrote.

The County Commission races this year will be decided for the first time in decades through single-member elections. The county commissioner this year made a controversial decision to redraw district lines, including making Moran’s District 1 more hospitable to a Republican candidate. The primary, of course, will only have Republican voters in the district, who will decide if Moran or Hutchinson advances to the general election and face Democrat Mark E. Pienkos.

Photos: Mike Moran (top), Mike Hutchinson (bottom)