With mail-in voting underway and early voting a little over two weeks away, the candidates for Palm Beach County Commission in District 6 are intensifying their pitches to voters.
“I’m trying to get in front of as many people as possible,” Democrat Katherine Waldron told the Town-Crier. “I think things are going well. We have a lot of good volunteers and a lot of momentum.”
Waldron may have gotten a bit more momentum Sunday, Sept. 27, when she was endorsed by the Sun-Sentinel. If money is a meter, she’ll likely need it going into the final stretch, with incumbent Republican Sara Baxter having a $500,000-plus war chest, according WLRN public radio.
Waldron said this week that she has raised about $150,000 with another $150,000 in pledged funding. However, the Florida Politics web site recently reported a Beacon Insights poll showing Waldron with a 52-37 lead over Baxter, which is well outside the poll’s 5.25 percent margin of error.
Baxter told the Town-Crier that she is connecting with voters as much as possible while doing double duty as a commissioner and the current Palm Beach County mayor. She said she is not thinking about end-of-the-race strategy.
“I leave that to my consultants,” she said. “I have a lot of things in process that will benefit the county and District 6 residents… I want to see those through. I’m a solutions-oriented person. I don’t need to do a lot of pontificating.”
For example, said Baxter, a longtime Acreage resident, Waldron talks about installing smart traffic signals that respond dynamically to changing road conditions, not just remain on a fixed schedule.
“We’re already doing that,” Baxter said. “Experts tell us that we may be able to improve traffic flow by up to 30 percent.”
She added that one of her biggest accomplishments in her first term was making sure “the county’s five-year road plan was fully funded for the first time in 12 years.”
Baxter has previously listed as accomplishments being able to use her influence with the Florida Department of Transportation to move the long-stalled State Road 7 Extension project forward and to get former County Road 880 shifted to state control, saving the county some $200 million in reconstruction costs.
Waldron and Baxter recently sat for a forum at the Wanderers Club in Wellington, an event sponsored by the Greater Wellington Chamber of Commerce and moderated by Tania Rogers of WPTV and WFLX.
In her opening statement, Waldron, a Wellington resident, said voters are telling her they feel they aren’t being heard. “They’re being dismissed,” she said.
Baxter said in her opening statement that she ran for office for the first time in 2022 out of frustration over government regulations that almost forced her and her husband to close their auto repair business.
“When I took office, I found out how bad it really is,” she said. “I’ve kept fighting and fighting [to streamline regulations]. I’m a fighter, and I’ll always keep fighting for our residents.”
Rogers asked the candidates about their position on Amendment 3, a statewide initiative that would raise the homestead property tax exemption from $50,000 to $150,000 in 2027, rising to $250,000 in 2028, while also slowing property tax growth on non-homestead property and imposing new spending restrictions.
Supporters say it would save the average homeowner $1,000 to $1,800 annually, while opponents warn it could force significant cuts to municipal and county budgets and services.
County Administrator Joseph Abruzzo, who also spoke at the chamber event, said the amendment could cut the county’s $600 million annual operating budget in half or more and estimated that eight of the county’s 39 municipalities might fail and have to be absorbed by the county, including their outstanding debt.
Baxter told the group that she strongly favors Amendment 3 and later explained that, “It would force us to take a look at our budgets and get rid of waste.”
She said her first target would be the $174 million that goes annually to support the Palm Tran bus service, adding that moving to a voucher system for use with private carriers would save the county millions.
She also said she would oppose funding for the nonprofit Homeless Coalition of Palm Beach County because “they’re a pass-through agency… [that] is not doing what’s best for the homeless.”
Waldron has said in the past that she does not support shifting the county’s public transportation to a voucher system. As for Amendment 3, Waldron said, “I support letting Floridians decide.”
Still, she expressed concern that “the way the amendment is written, it could create more problems than solutions… [including] taking away a lot of self-determination in how counties and municipalities use tax revenue.”
“I want to lower the cost of living… but I’m afraid this may end up backfiring,” Waldron said. “Public safety — fire and police — is certainly going to be impacted in a big way.”
“No one knows how all this is going to wash out if Amendment 3 passes,” Baxter said, “[but] I will always prioritize law enforcement.”
Both candidates said they would oppose the Okeechobee Blvd. extension from Seminole Pratt Whitney Road to Southern Blvd. near 20-Mile Bend if it means destroying the rural lifestyle of Loxahatchee-area residents.
Baxter also said she will continue to oppose AI hyperscale data centers in unincorporated areas of the county if residents don’t want them. On Sept. 24, county commissioners enacted a one-year data center moratorium initiated by Baxter.
“It’ll give staff and commissioners time to do our research and put parameters in place,” she said. “Fundamentally, I represent what the people of my district want. I refuse to say, ‘I know better than they do.’”
District 6 encompasses most of the county west of State Road 7, including the municipalities of Wellington, Royal Palm Beach, Loxahatchee Groves, Westlake, parts of Greenacres, plus the Glades communities of Belle Glade, Pahokee and South Bay, as well as the unincorporated semi-rural Acreage/Loxahatchee area.
Waldron previously served as a Port of Palm Beach commissioner (2017-2022) before being elected to represent District 93 in the Florida House of Representatives (2022-2024). She also was a board member of the Palm Beach Transportation Planning Agency (2018-2022).
Before and during Waldron’s elected service, she built a career as an entrepreneur and corporate executive. She holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Virginia and an MBA from Palm Beach Atlantic University.
In her public profile, Waldron describes herself as someone who has worked to connect government, business and community groups, including service on boards and local initiatives. She has three children and three grandchildren.
Despite the favorable polling, Waldron said, “It’s nice to see those numbers… [but] I’m still going to be running like I’m behind. I’ll be focused on reaching as many voters as possible.”
Learn more about Waldron’s campaign at www.votekw.com.
Baxter, who won her commission seat in her first run for office four years ago, was born at St. Mary’s in West Palm Beach and raised in Palm Beach and Martin counties. She moved to The Acreage in 2016 but has longtime ties to the area through her grandfather, who lived there starting in the 1970s. She is now a wife and mother of three and holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Palm Beach State College.
Learn more about Baxter’s campaign at www.votesarabaxter.com.
