While many participants in Naples St. Patrick’s Day parade this weekend predictably will be wearing green, many others also will be decked out in red, white and blue.
At least a dozen candidates seeking various elected positions ranging from Collier County supervisor of elections to U.S. senator are planning to get their names and faces in front of the thousands of spectators who will line the downtown Naples route for the largest privately funded parade in Florida.
“It’s not unusual to have this many politicians in the parade in an election year,” said Patrick Kirk, chief parade marshal.
The annual parade will start at 11 a.m. Saturday, March 16, at the corner of Third Street South and 10th Avenue South, venture north on Third Street, turn east onto Fifth Avenue South and then south onto Eighth Street South, ending in front of Naples City Hall.
The City Hall ending has a double meaning for three parade participants who hope to score Naples City Council seats in the March 19 election, which has its early voting period wrapping up on parade day. Naples Mayor Teresa Heitmann and City Council are on the parade roster. Heitmann, seeking a second term as mayor, is being challenged by City Council member Ted Blankenship, who said he plans to participate in the parade. The three-way race includes former City Council member Gary Price, who also is scheduled to participate in the parade.
Berne Barton, one of the six candidates vying for three open seats on City Council, is the only hopeful listed on the parade roster, which was finalized March 8.
Keith Gross, a Melbourne lawyer running against Sen. Rick Scott in the 2024 GOP primary for U.S. Senate, will bring his Freedom Bus Tour to the Naples event. Gross is coming to Sen. Rick Scott’s hometown to campaign against the senator, who not only is seeking re-election but is lobbying to be the Senate’s GOP leader after Mitch McConnell steps down near the end of the year.
The parade starts less than 2 miles north of Scott’s beachfront home on Gordon Drive in Port Royal, but Scott has not registered to participate in the parade. In the days leading up to the Collier County event, Gross was scheduled to be in a different county every day, visiting Flagler, Clay, Nassau and Alachua counties this week.
Also in the parade, Marco City Council member Greg Folley is running for the Florida House seat in District 81, which includes part of western Collier. Incumbent Bob Rommel, R-Naples, who termed out after serving four two-year terms since 2016, is setting his sights on a Florida Senate seat in 2026.
Two of the five candidates for Collier County Commission District 3 will be in the parade. Richard Conover and Frank Roberts are running against incumbent Commissioner Burt Saunders and two other challengers—John C. Johnson and Floyd “Tag” Yarnell—for the Commission seat.
Two of the three candidates for Collier County School Board District 2—incumbent Stephanie Lucarelli and challenger Pam Cunningham—will be in the parade. They also will face Mariela Naranjo.
Two of the three candidates for Collier County Supervisor of Elections—Tim Guerrette and
Dave Schaffel—are on the parade roster. They are challenging incumbent Melissa Blazier, who was chief deputy of the Collier elections office before appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to complete the term of Jennifer Edwards after she retired last April.
Seeking his fifth term in office this November, Sheriff Kevin Rambosk is running unopposed so far and is on the parade roster with the Sheriff’s Office. Also planning to have entries in the parade are the Collier County Republican Executive Committee and the Women’s Republican Club of Naples.
This story appeared in The Naples Press on March 15.
