Winter Park Candidate Launches Sexist Attack On Debate Moderator

An eruption and threatening attack by Winter Park's Phil Anderson during a recent Mayoral debate left the Chamber's female debate moderator aghast. Betsy Gardner Eckbert of the Winter Park Chamber took the brunt of the attack which met harsh criticism from the public and demands for an apology from the candidate. At the close of the debate, taking issue with a question posed by an audience member, Anderson hijacked a microphone and launched into a threatening verbal assault within arm's length of Ms. Eckbert. He “grabbed the microphone from its holder and demanded that she ‘never do that again!'” the Chamber’s statement detailed. “The candidate’s anger and proximity prompted Ms. Gardner Eckbert to ask if she was being threatened and prompted a Chamber employee to run up to the podium to insert herself between the two. The exchange was described as inappropriate and disturbing by some who witnessed it.” The Chamber further conveyed that its board members were “particularly sensitive to such conduct directed at a woman in her place of work – a subject we take very seriously.”

A statement from the Chamber Board strongly chastised the actions of Mr. Anderson: "We, the Board of the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce, strongly condemn this behavior." Mr. Anderson's rash behavior surfaced two times during the debate, with a smaller conniption fit arising mid way into the forum as well when the moderator asked the candidates about their positions on the now-suspended Henderson Hotel development, enraging Mr. Anderson (though the query came from an audience member). 

A member of the majority Anderson-backed commission, Todd Weaver, deflected from concerns about sexism and the threatening behavior of Mr. Anderson, instead focusing on what led up to the incident: “The Chamber and its CEO Betsy Eckbert owe my colleagues and the candidates an apology for allowing such slanderous accusations in their public forum.” “I am astonished that the Chamber of Commerce would tolerate that kind of accusation and language in a question,” Anderson stated. 

Though Anderson and the Chamber now appear to have made amends, Anderson issued no public apology. Now some resident watchdogs have begun sounding the alarm. His decorum at the Mayoral debate, they worry, may only be a harbinger of things to come. “We believe a public apology from the candidate is the appropriate next step,” the Chamber’s statement demanded. Anderson did not respond to inquires fromThe Orlando Local News.