Expansion divides Lee County commissioner candidates

FORT MYERS, Fla. – Are local candidates brewing a bitter political race for a Lee County commissioner seat?

Retired urban planner and businessman Dick Anderson is running against incumbent Larry Kiker and insists Kiker is allowing rapid development.

“I think overcrowding and water pollution — I think that hurts business. It hurts tourism. It has the potential to drive down our economy and our real estate values,” Anderson said.

Kiker ran four years ago, defeating longtime commissioner Ray Judah who had been in office for more than 20 years.

Judah owes part of his defeat to a 2012 campaign ad funded by sugar and agricultural interest groups and predicts similar attacks on Anderson.

“There’s no question that the sugar industry will end up, through the funneling of money into the political action committees, try to bring down Anderson during this campaign in support of Kiker but I think the people have Kiker’s number this time around,” Judah said.

His wife is completely opposed to another long political campaign season, so this year Judah said he is staying out of the race.

That brings the candidates down to Anderson and Kiker. Many believe Kiker has an important role in Lee County’s expansion, swinging votes in favor of development proposals 3-2.

In 2012, Kiker ran for county commissioner with the promise of ushering in “a better tomorrow.” Four years later he says kept his campaign promise.

“Not only have we balanced the budget, but we’ve paid down a tremendous amount of the death we that we inherited,” Kiker said.

Kiker has raised $120,000 in campaign funds from hundreds of citizens, including realtors and builders. He said the political contributions do not mean he is partial.

“You know a lot of people hang tags on developers, if you will, like they’re bad evil people. Well it is our job to talk to developers. It’s our job to talk to universities. It’s our job to talk to the school systems and the hospitals,” Kiker said. “It’s our job to talk to everyone.”

Federal primary elections will be held August 30.