What was supposed to be a full candidate forum Wednesday night in Venice turned into a Democrats-only session after Republicans failed to show up.
Democratic candidates for state Senate District 23, state House District 74 and the Sarasota County Commission turned out to answer questions and stump for votes, as did independent candidate Robert Samuel Kaplan for that 74th District seat.
However, James Buchanan, Greg Steube, state Senate District 23 candidate Joe Gruters and two county commission candidates- Alan Maio and Christian Ziegler, all chose not to attend.