By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter
A former Republican county commissioner from Alachua County announced at Tuesday’s Levy County Commission meeting she is running for the State District 22 House seat in 2024.
Raime Eagle-Glenn said current State Rep. Chuck Clemons, R-Newberry, is restricted by term limits from serving another term of office, and she would like to take his place in the Florida Legislature representing District 22.
“He has served us very well and he has done good things for us, especially in the radical land of Alachua County,” said Eagle-Glenn, who was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to serve on the Alachua County Commission.
Eagle-Glenn said she was the third Republican in the history of Alachua County to hold a county commission seat and it didn’t last long, but she said she accomplished much. She lost her re-election bid, but it wasn’t a surprise.
“Ideology-wise, we are the Berkley of the South and we deal with some pretty radical things,” she said referring to Alachua County. “Chuck Clemons, I’m behind him 100 percent.”
District 22 includes all of Levy County and portions of Gilchrist and Alachua counties.
She said Clemons sponsored a bill in the Legislature to create an oversight board for Gainesville Regional Utilities in response to GRU’s progressive tendencies.
“They are so progressive and they are using our utility as a cash cow to fund their radical agendas like hiring personnel for every single aspect of your life to have knocking on your door and invading your privacy, telling you the government wants you to do it their way or they’re going to fine you,” she said.
She said one of the most crucial things she accomplished while she was on the Alachua County Commission was to “refund” the police, “because the radicals wanted to defund the police and send out social workers instead of men and women in uniform and we were losing deputies to rural counties.”
“I was able to secure raises to bring our deputies’ salaries to a competitive level again. If I was not there, if a Republican was not there, that would not have happened,” she said. “I want to continue this work in the Legislature because I live in Alachua County. I understand what we’re up against nationally with this radical spirit of Marxism and Communism that trickles its way to our local level.”
A woman in the audience attempted to interrupt Eagle-Glenn when she spoke against the radical spirit of Marxism and Communism in this country. Eagle-Glenn refused to stop talking and finished her statement.
Commission Chairman Matt Brooks warned audience members they couldn’t interrupt speakers. Brooks said Eagle-Glenn had 30 seconds left in her allotted 3 minutes of time during the public comment section of the board meeting. He said the person who tried to interrupt her was wrong for doing so.
There was confusion on the part of the board when Eagle-Glenn first came forward to speak. Brooks said he had received no public comment forms from people who wanted to speak, so he opened up the meeting to anyone who hadn’t submitted a form.
When Eagle-Glenn arrived at the microphone, she said she thought she had sent a public comment form to the county commission office. Commissioner John Meeks interrupted saying she had indeed sent a comment form two weeks ago. He had seen it. He didn’t say why the form wasn’t given to Brooks. He apologized to Eagle-Glenn and Brooks for not forwarding it to the chairman.
—————————
Board of County Commission Regular Meeting March 21, 2023; Posted March 21, 2023
