Dr Susan MacManus at Wesley Chapel Rotary
By Cathy Warner
Pagelli's Restaurant at Shops of Wiregrass Mall in Wesley Chapel is home for the Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel's weekly meeting on Wednesdays at 12:15pm. Ben Alexander opened the meeting after honoring God and Country with singing God Bless America, the pledge of Allegiance and prayer. After the traditional raffle, guest speaker, Dr. Susan MacManus had everyone’s full attention.
MacManus is a Political Science Professor at University of South Florida. She is a nationally known political commentator as well as political analyst for Channel 8 and Florida Sun Coast's most quoted columnist. Susan is home grown in Land O'Lakes, Florida and has brought honor to her home town, Pasco High School and alma matter Florida State University. Her family is diverse from union workers to Baptist preachers making it easy for her to be a non-partisan analysis who can look objectively at the whole number of subjects. The MacManus family is half Seminole, half Gator; half Republican and half Democrat. That may be why she choose to be a "Scientist Political."
She lead the Rotarians through a fascinating overview of the political landscape, nationally and in Florida, which contains 10 distinct media markets, a high nonaffiliated voting pool, age and demographically diverse. Additionally, she explained the cost of campaigns, new laws governing campaign contributions as well as the new campaign media habits tied to handheld devices which are impacting how campaigns will be conducted. She reserved judgement on the Presidential election but said, "Most likely it will be tied closely to the economy."