Myra Van Hoose looks to upset Robert Bender in Escambia County Commission District 4 race

Escambia County Commission District 4 candidate Myra Van Hoose is aiming to upset the political conventional wisdom in her bid to unseat incumbent Commissioner Robert Bender.

Van Hoose is running for the office as a Democrat, challenging Bender, a Republican, in a Republican-dominated district.

District 4, which includes the east and north sections of the city of Pensacola, along with the Ferry Pass area and all of Pensacola Beach, backed former President Donald Trump in the last election by about 57%, while President Joe Biden won nearly 43% of the vote share.

In her own words: Myra J. Van Hoose: Candidate, Escambia County Commissioner District 4

In his own words: Robert Bender: Candidate, Escambia County Commissioner, District 4

Bender wins primary: Robert Bender wins Republican primary, will face Democratic challenger Myra Van Hoose

Van Hoose told the News Journal she believes no matter the party label a person has, everyone wants the same thing for their local community.

"We want safety," Van Hoose said. "We want our children to have a good education and a place to work when they graduate to stay near us. We want infrastructure, so we know that we have roads and wastewater management before we allow more growth."

Bender is betting on his efforts to get projects completed in District 4 to win his second term in office.

"People in the communities and the neighborhoods that we've done projects in and we've done the neighborhood cleanups for, I think they see that I focus on the policies over personalities," Bender said. "And that I'm here to work for them."

Van Hoose is a former certified public accountant. Since moving to Pensacola more than a decade ago, she has worked with several community organizations like The Institute for Women in Politics of Northwest Florida Inc. and Achieve Escambia.

Last year, Van Hoose was a member of a group that advocated for Escambia County to form its own charter government and write its own governing laws, similarly to Miami-Dade or Duval counties.

She's no stranger to political campaigns either. Her brother Mark Singel was the Democratic lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania in the 1980s and 1990s and was acting governor for a six-month period in 1993.

Van Hoose points out that her husband, Larry Van Hoose, is a registered Republican, and she would have run as an independent if not for the recent change in Florida's voting law, which requires a candidate to run as a member of a party if they were registered with that party in the last year.

"I can win, and I should win, because it would help the commission to have a diversity of thought on that board and someone who's looking at win-win situations instead of kind of caving to other bullies that are on the board," Van Hoose said.

Bender easily won the Republican primary in August over challenger Stan McDaniels and has raised $69,000 in his campaign, with about $54,000 left in his campaign coffers in the closing weeks of the general election.

Bender said he will continue to be a full-time commissioner for the people of Escambia County and that he will remains focused on the issues facing the county.

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Van Hoose has worked to catch up to Bender's fundraising advantage, raising $46,940 so far. However, Van Hoose has spent $38,725 getting her message out, leaving her with about $8,215 left for the closing weeks of the campaign.

Van Hoose said she is not trying to make a career out of the office and just wants to improve the community.

Van Hoose is critical of Bender accepting the controversial local retirement plan for commissioners. The issue is the subject of a lawsuit between the Clerk of Courts Pam Childers and the Escambia County Commission.

Childers has refused to release any county funds for the program since last year, saying she believes the program is an illegal increase in commissioner's pay.

Bender has defended his actions as the first commissioner to enroll in the program at the time and said he did not realize that elected officials would see an almost 50% contribution of their salary into their individual retirement through the program.

Bender has said he believes the rate needs to be lowered, but added that the issue has become involved in personality politics between Childers and the rest of the board.

"Unfortunately, it just became very political," Bender said in July. "Instead of just trying to resolve it — because I asked the clerk if she wanted an attorney general opinion — and she said no. That could have saved us a lot of heartache and expenses."

Van Hoose said she is glad that Childers has challenged the program and the issue highlights what's wrong with the county commission.

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"It's too much for a part-time job," Van Hoose said of the contribution rate. "It's inexcusable. That pension is more than the median salary we have in this area, and they're putting that straight into their own pocket instead of funding the future for Florida retirement employees."

Van Hoose said she believes voters want a change in the status quo and that the county needs a strategic plan to set its priorities straight.

"(The County Commission is) reactive, putting out fires and putting band-aids on projects, instead of creating a strategic plan and looking at our future," Van Hoose said. "Where do we want to be five years from now, or 10 years from now, or 20 years from now? No one ever is talking about that."

Bender said he's continuing to move forward with projects such as a community center for the Ferry Pass area, putting more funding toward stormwater and flood control projects, and finalizing the comprehensive plan to get the Pensacola and Perdido Bays Estuary Program federally recognized as a National Estuary Program.

"I'm just completing my first term, and throughout the term, I've had people come up to me and say that they think I'm doing a great job," Bender said. "I've always looked at that as, if they didn't really think that they wouldn't have had to say anything, so they've gone out of their way to make those comments, which I appreciate."

Bender said he believes with the changing of the District 2 seat there will be a different tone on the County Commission.

Retired Navy captain Mike Kohler won the Escambia County Commissioner District 2 seat in the primary election, a seat currently occupied by Commissioner Doug Underhill.

"You'll see a board that's not as divisive," Bender said.

Jim Little can be reached at jwlittle@pnj.com and 850-208-9827.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Myra Van Hoose looks to upset Robert Bender in November election