The primary election for Orange County Commission District 3, an area smack in the county’s midsection, pits incumbent Mayra Uribe against a former occupant of the seat, Linda Stewart, and a first-time candidate for the job, Gus Martinez.
If no one wins more than 50% of the vote Aug. 20, the two candidates with the most votes will face off in November.
Uribe, 50, first elected in 2018, and former commissioner Stewart, 75, who served in the post from 2002 to 2010 and spent the last eight years in the Florida Senate, are the contest’s headliners as both are more familiar to voters and have healthy campaign funds.
Uribe has raised over $200,000 while Stewart has about $170,000 between a campaign account and Citizens For Florida, a political action committee she chairs. Martinez, 59, a Republican, has raised less than $15,000 but is hopeful his shoe-leather campaign can win votes.
Orange County Commission elections are nonpartisan — candidates are not identified on the ballot by party affiliation. The district had about 136,000 registered voters as of June 30: 53,000 as Democrats, 36,000 as Republicans and about 44,000 as no party affiliation. Fewer than 4,000 listed themselves as affiliated with lesser-known political parties.
Uribe and Stewart, both Democrats, were on opposing sides of a funding controversy earlier this year when the commission considered a budget cut for Visit Orlando — the tourist-tax-funded marketing agency that promotes Orange County tourism to the nation and world.
Commissioners wanted to steer more money to local arts and upgrade city venues like Camping World Stadium.
Uribe suggested what she described as a “haircut” for Visit Orlando, which gets 30% of the proceeds generated by the Tourist Development Tax — revenues that hit a historic high of $359 million in fiscal year 2022-23 and are on a similar pace through nine months of 2023-24.
Uribe proposed reducing Visit Orlando’s share to 28% but Commissioner Emily Bonilla proposed a cut of 25%.
Stewart said she believed the board wanted a much deeper cut for an agency she credits with keeping tourism strong.
She then introduced a bill in the Florida Senate aimed at keeping Visit Orlando’s share at 30%, which worked out to more than $100 million last year and could be close to that figure this year if tourist-tax collections remain relatively the same through September.
Orange County mayor considering ‘consequences’ for lobbyist over Visit Orlando imbroglio
“It was more of a messaging bill,” she said, which was intended to persuade the board to reconsider.
Her measure died quickly but prompted Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings to fire GrayRobinson, the county’s lobbying firm. One of GrayRobinson’s partners helped Stewart draft the bill which would require a supermajority vote of the board to cut Visit Orlando’s share under 30%.
Some commissioners saw Stewart’s bill as a betrayal, interfering with home rule, the county’s top legislative priority.
In the end, commissioners voted to keep Visit Orlando’s percentage of the Tourism Development Tax the same. But they required the agency to give $10 million a year to a panel that considers funding requests from arts and cultural groups and $5 million to a board tasked with luring high-profile sporting events.
Asked how he’d have voted, Martinez said he couldn’t say without studying Visit Orlando’s return on investment.
Martinez, a New York native, has lived in Orange County about 20 years. He works in information technology.
He criticized commissioners for voting themselves a 25% pay raise in September.
“County taxes are not a blank check for the County Commission to do whatever they feel like,” Martinez said.
His campaign website is votegusmartinez.com .
Stewart, who previously ran for county mayor, could not seek re-election to her state Senate seat because of term limits.
“I cannot retire and just go grow roses,” she joked, adding that she likes public service and pays attention to the commission.
“I think they could use me,” Stewart said. “It doesn’t seem to be operating very efficiently.”
Her campaign website is lindastewartforflorida.com.
Uribe first won election in 2018 to fill the unexpired term of former District 3 Commissioner Pete Clarke, who was required by state law to resign in order to run for mayor against Demings. She won a full four-year term in 2020 and has been part of the majority in several close votes, including the 4-3 decision to ban pet shops in unincorporated areas from selling puppies and kittens.
Uribe said the county must continue seeking solutions to add affordable housing and improve transportation options.
Her campaign website is voteuribe.com .
The commissioner’s annual salary beginning Oct. 1 is budgeted to be $123,382.
shudak@orlandosentinel.com
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