UPDATE: Candidate attended school but did no graduate, UCF says
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MANATEE COUNTY
Just days before the election, Manatee County Commission candidate Charles B. Smith finds himself fending off an allegation that he did not receive a college degree he has long touted.
Charles Smith (Photo provided)
Smith lists a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from the University of Central Florida among his credentials.
He cited the degree on a candidate questionnaire from the Herald-Tribune. It is mentioned in other media reports of his current and previous political campaigns, his biography as a Palmetto city commissioner on the city’s website, his candidate information on the Manatee County Elections Office website and in the current League of Women Voters’ election guide.
Smith, a former bail bondsman, reported receiving the degree in 1986.
The university states it has no record of Smith, 51, receiving a degree in any year and continued to check Wednesday for any record of attendance.
UCF spokesman Chad Binette said “the closest match” the registrar’s office found is for Charles Smith, now 37, who received a bachelor’s degree in criminal science in 2000.
On Wednesday, Smith said he did not know if there is a problem with UCF’s records. Except for the year, the birth date of the younger Smith in UCF’s records differs by one day — Sept. 24 instead of the candidate’s birth date of Sept. 25.
Smith said any conjecture that he did not receive the degree is “absolutely false. . . I absolutely stand by my resume.”
Smith said he is aware of supporters of other candidates making the allegation. “I am very upset about the whole thing of being ambushed,” Smith said.
Corie Holmes, who opposed Smith in the Democratic primary, said he attempted to verify Smith’s degree with UCF prior to the Aug. 26 election and could not.
Holmes said he felt uncertain about the lack of information. “So, I did not use it,” Holmes said.
County Commissioner Michael Gallen, who lost the primary to Smith by four votes in a recount, said he heard the allegation before the primary but did not check into it.
“I heard that during the campaign but you hear a lot of stuff,” Gallen said. “I just dismissed it. . . I didn’t want to go negative.”
Asked whether Smith’s candidacy should be in question, Patty Bensen, chairwoman of the Manatee County Democratic Party, declined “to comment on the whole situation.”
Troy Thomas, a write-in candidate and Smith’s opponent on Tuesday’s ballot, said he was not immediately available to talk.
Thomas has not actively campaigned.
Holmes and Gallen contend Thomas qualified as a write-in candidate so the Democratic primary would be closed to Republican and independent voters. They contended that the closed primary increased Smith’s chances of getting the nomination in District 2, where nearly half of the registered voters are Democrats and about a third are minorities.
Smith, the first African-American on the Palmetto City Commission, contended that a black should again represent District 2 on the otherwise all-white County Commission.
District 2 spans much of east Palmetto, Ellenton and east and central Bradenton.
