West County showdown

Skidmore v. Angelo: Hometown boy takes on attorney with flair for compromise

It would be challenging to find two more different candidates for Charlotte County Commission than District 3 hopefuls Percy Angelo and Robert Skidmore.

Republican Skidmore, 26, won the Aug. 26 GOP District 3 primary by capturing 46 percent of ballots cast -- 8,769 votes -- to handily defeat incumbent Tom Moore and longtime area builder Richard Sinclair.

Democrat Angelo, 63, was unopposed in the primary, but raised more money in campaign contributions than any local commission hopeful, $50,609, and is poised to be a rarity -- a viable Democratic candidate in a local election.

But it would be a mistake to view this race strictly on party lines.

"A lot of people have told me, 'You know, I'm a Republican and I haven't voted for a Democrat in years. But (county government) is not a partisan issue at all," Angelo said in August.  In fact, Angelo's campaign contributors include a cadre of Republican National Committee heavy-hitters from Boca Grande, including William Farish, a longtime friend of the Bush family and U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain from 2001-04.

While that should be reassuring to GOP hardliners, Angelo's support from Boca Grande and elsewhere will be exploited as a campaign issue by Skidmore.  "I am a product of Charlotte County, a hometown boy," he said. "Percy has done a good job of taking as much money as she could from out-of-town (contributors). I would expect that from someone who has only been in Charlotte County for a few years.  It likens itself to outside interests," Skidmore continued. "The fact of the matter is at the end of the day, these people don't vote in Charlotte County, but they want to throw their checkbooks" into the election.

Skidmore, who has raised $23,771, has been an Englewood-Cape Haze Chamber of Commerce membership director for two years.  Born in Garden City, Mich., he has lived in Englewood since 1985. He got to know many locals while working in his father's video store, he said.  "I think roots are going to matter in this election," Skidmore said. "I didn't just move in to Charlotte County four years ago and decide I wanted to be involved."

Among his most notable supporters are former Commissioner Don Ross, longtime Punta Gorda attorney Drayton Farr and Englewood business owner David Dignam.

In 2000, at 17, Skidmore became one of the youngest candidates ever to run for school board anywhere. He lost, but won experience.

He earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia in 2003, and was elected to the Charlotte County Airport Authority the following year.

Angelo dismisses allegations that her campaign is being financed by "outside interests."  Of 283 contributions by mid-August, 132 -- or 47 percent -- were from Charlotte County, including 65 from West County, primarily from Cape Haze.

That defines her campaign and, perhaps, signals the emergence of a new political presence to challenge the Englewood-centric status quo in West County.

Angelo and her husband, Marvin Medintz, were seasonal residents before moving to Placida full time in 2004, after she retired from the Chicago office of Mayer Brown Platt LLP, where she worked for 33 years as an environmental law attorney.  They were immediately embroiled in the Wildflower controversy, GSR Capital Group's effort to build a 290-unit condo complex on an 80-acre golf course.

In defeating that proposal, Angelo was instrumental in creating the Cape Haze Property Owners Association, which established a cohesive voice among traditionally independent peninsula homeowners groups.

She questions how Skidmore, who has never owned a home, can understand the pressures on local homeowners.  "He doesn't even pay real estate taxes, so how can he understand?" she asked.

"Does that make me any less of a Charlotte Countian?" Skidmore replied. "As a renter, you're still paying real estate taxes -- just someone else's."

By Dana Sanchez and John Haughey