<\/p>\n
Kim Amontree is running for the District 4 seat on the Charlotte County Commission.<\/p>\n
PHOTO PROVIDED BY KIM AMONTREE<\/p>\n
PORT CHARLOTTE \u2014 Kim Amontree Tuesday won the primary election for District 4 of the Charlotte County Commission with 61% of votes.<\/p>\n
Stephen R. Deutsch will remain in the position until November.<\/p>\n
Amontree said the election went better than she expected.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just ready to get to work and focus on the issues people care about,\u201d Amontree said.<\/p>\n
Amontree said the three main areas of concern she will address as a commissioner is population growth, road treatment, water capacity and area affordability.<\/p>\n
\u201cListening and learning is the first thing I plan on doing,\u201d Amontree said. \u201cI went to a MSBU meeting to learn as much as I can in the next three months.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amontree was a member of the Charlotte County School Board. During her time in the school system, the district went from being ranked 48th among Florida\u2019s 67 counties to 21st and received its first \u201cA\u201d rating in 15 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was accomplished with board members and a superintendent with a common goal,\u201d Amontree said. \u201cNobody operates alone. You have to have the relation, trust, and respect of fellow commissioners as well as other elected officials and congressmen in Washington D.C.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amontree said she wishes Deutsch well in retirement from the Charlotte County Commission.<\/p>\n
Deutsch said he thought it would be a much closer race than it was.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Charlotte County Commissioner Stephen R. Deutsch speaks on Monday during a Memorial Day ceremony in Punta Gorda at the Vietnam Memorial Wall of Southwest Florida.<\/p>\n
SUN PHOTO BY DANIEL FINTON<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a strong anti-incumbent feeling in the state regardless of how we may have been,\u201d Deutsch said.<\/p>\n
Deutsch believes a lot of his supporters were registered as non-party affiliates.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn hindsight, we could have worked with them to switch over for the election, but I\u2019m not sure if it would be enough votes to make a difference,\u201d Deutsch said.<\/p>\n
Deutsch said his campaign focused on hard work and accessibility.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m the only commissioner in Charlotte County that never missed a meeting or vote,\u201d Deutsch said. \u201cI was in the office this morning, and I will continue to work my best until the day my successor is sworn in.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Commissioner Stephen R. Deutsch gave campaign volunteers water at Myakka River Elementary. He said {span}everyone involved in his campaign were composed of volunteers.{\/span}<\/p>\n
PHOTO BY NICOLE DROEGER<\/p>\n
Deutsch said he is proud of the development and utilization of the William R. Gaines Jr. Memorial Park. <\/p>\n
\u201cI appreciate the hundreds of people that came out and support us,\u201d Deutsch said.<\/p>\n
Deutsch plans to continue to work for the county however he can. He will also spend time with his family and attend his son\u2019s upcoming wedding.<\/p>\n
Deutsch left Amontree a voicemail on Tuesday to congratulate her.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou said you would win the election and work hard to win the election,\u201d Deutsch told Amontree. \u201cYou did what you said, and I complement you on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Deutsch is unhappy with Amontree\u2019s campaign efforts.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou said you would run a clean campaign, like I always have,\u201d Deutsch told Amontree. \u201dYou ran the dirtiest, sleaziest, most underhanded campaign in Charlotte County. I wish you the best of luck.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amontree said she would call Deutsch back on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The general elections in November will determine who will officially take District 4.<\/p>\n
Amontree is running against Michael Melton, who is non-party affiliated.<\/p>\n
Deutsch said Melton seems like a nice person.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has some experience and some background,\u201d Deutsch said. \u201cThe problem is she can raise half-a-million dollars, and she has the connections that she may raise another half-million.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amontree said she had nothing to say about Melton.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a good sign for an election,\u201d Amontree said.<\/p>\n
The 2026 Florida general election will take place on Nov. 3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kim Amontree is running for the District 4 seat on the Charlotte County Commission. PHOTO PROVIDED BY KIM…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,152093,71674,152091,44418,128478,152092],"class_list":["post-378153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-charlotte-county-comission","tag-district-4","tag-kim-amontree","tag-primary-election","tag-primary-elections","tag-stephen-r-deustch"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}