Lakewood Ranch Protest Targets Organizer Of Elite Vaccine Clinic

LAKEWOOD RANCH, FL — Protestors drove through Lakewood Ranch Main Street Saturday afternoon calling for Vanessa Baugh to step down from the Manatee County Board of County Commissioners because of her role in organizing a COVID-19 vaccine clinic that targeted only those living in two of the county’s wealthiest ZIP codes.

“At the very least, we want her to step down as chair,” Robyne Richardson, one of the protest’s organizers, said.

About eight carloads of protestors from the Baugh Must Go Citizens' Group met at the Bank of America on Atrium Drive and drove through Lakewood Ranch Main Street past Baugh’s retail jewelry shop, Vanessa Fine Jewelry, several times.

Baugh, the representative of District 5, which includes Lakewood Ranch, selected the ZIP codes for the state-run pop-up vaccine clinic held Feb. 17-19 in Lakewood Ranch. She also created a VIP list of five people to receive the vaccine at the event, including herself and Lakewood Ranch president and CEO Rex Jensen, and told the county's Public Safety Director, Jacob Sauer, to add their names to the list of those being vaccinated at the clinic.

At the time, Manatee County’s vaccine distribution was conducted through a lottery system where names of those pre-registered were randomly selected.

Text messages between the commissioner and Jensen indicated political motives behind the vaccine distribution event. They discussed how the pop-up clinic could benefit Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Baugh has been under investigation by the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office after a criminal complaint was filed against her at the end of February. MCSO Public Information Officer Randy Warren told Patch that it’s “an ongoing investigation” and there are no details to release yet.

An ethics complaint has also been filed against the commissioner through the Florida Commission on Ethics.

The Baugh Must Go Citizens' Group has organized several protests against Baugh, Richardson said.

They brought a large poster with more than 100 images of residents holding signs protesting Baugh’s actions. It was deemed a political sign, though, and they weren’t allowed to bring it into the meeting. So, they gave it to Commissioner George Kruse and showed the images on an overhead projector, she said.

The group has also protested outside the Manatee County Government Building and Popi’s Place in Bradenton ahead of an event Kruse was holding there, group member Ruth Lawler said.

Baugh “needs to be held accountable for her actions,” Richardson said.

Though the commissioner has responded to the criticism against her actions, “it was a non-apology,” Richardson said. “She was very arrogant and indignant. She just keeps saying she wants us to work together and move on. That’s offensive. You can’t move on until there is accountability.”

She also called Baugh’s refusal to recuse herself from votes about whether she should be removed as chair “unethical.”

Richardson added, “Our group feels, as a minimum, it is owed to us for her chair position to be removed because of her gross ethics violation and her lack of judgment tells us she can’t be trusted to represent us moving forward. We have no faith.”

Lawler said, “It would be so easy for this to be swept under the table. I think we can’t let up, though. We want the commissioners to know that we’re not going away.”

Protest organizers stressed that the group doesn’t have any political motives.

“We have a lot of people accusing us of being a small group of all Democrats who are just acting on some leftist agenda,” Richardson said. “It’s important to acknowledge that this isn’t true. There are a lot of Republicans in our group… Our challenge has been sticking to this one issue so Republicans and Democrats can work together on the issue of Baugh.”

Baugh did not respond to Patch’s requests for comments.