Field for Jacksonville City Council elections set, with some races already decided

Jacksonville City Council will have several new faces in May.

Waiting on a definitive district map kept some candidates on hold right up to the start of qualifying, but the races are set – and at least 8 seats on the 19 person council will be held by a new representative.

Qualifying ended at noon Friday for elections in March, which will allow individuals to vote for any candidate, regardless of party affiliation. If no candidate receives over 50% of the vote, the two candidates with the most votes will proceed to the May election.

Residents will be able to find their precinct and sample ballot as the election approaches using the Duval County website Precinct Finder.

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Three seats are already set for the next four years, as council members Kevin Carrico, Nick Howland and Matt Carlucci will maintain their uncontested seats.

Two other incumbents face singular challengers: District 6 council member Michael Boylan faces fellow Republican Tom Harris, and District 13 council member Rory Diamond faces Mike Finn.

Races for eight seats do not have incumbents due to council members either leaving office or running in a different district.

Some of those races do have familiar names, like in District 1 where former First Coast News anchor Ken Amaro, a Republican, faces Democrat Alton McGriff Jr.

Other districts, including Districts 2, 3 and 5, will have competitive all-Republican face-offs.

Other races in districts on the west side of the St. Johns river look different than expected when City Council voted on a map last March.

A group of voters and civil rights organizations successfully sued the city for racially gerrymandering, and after months of legal back-and-forth, the city will be using a court-ordered map the civil rights groups developed.

Council seats are elected for four year terms, meaning depending on the outcome of a potential trial in the redistricting case, the seats decided in the spring could change again by the 2027 election.

How redistricting changed the game for some incumbents

Newly drawn districts offered opportunities for political newcomers as the court-ordered map did not keep all incumbents in their seats.

District 7, previously encompassing downtown, Springfield and parts of northern Jacksonville now extends from Springfield to Ortega and includes almost the entire Urban Core. The current District 7 Council member, Reggie Gaffney Jr., resides in the new District 8, leaving the seat open.

Still a largely Democratic district, local civil rights attorney John Phillips entered the race earlier this week, challenging fellow Democrats Jimmy Peluso and Kim Pryor. Republican Joseph Hogan, the son of outgoing Supervisor of Elections Mike Hogan, and no-party affiliated candidate Parrish King are also in the race.

Prior to the district change, Peluso, Hogan and King were campaigning for District 14.

Gaffney, Jr. will be running in District 8 after he opted against utilizing the city charter waiver that would have allowed him to move into the new District 7 to run. District 8 incumbent Ju’Coby Pittman was drawn into District 10 in the new map.

Gaffney, Jr. will instead run against a Republican, a Libertarian and another Democrat. Pittman will run against three other Democrats and a write-in candidate in the new District 10.

Pittman would have run against current District 10 Council member Brenda Priestly-Jackson, but Priestly-Jackson withdrew from the race Thursday, citing her opinion on the new district map as one her reasons.

District 9, 12 and 14 also changed due to the new map, but District 9 incumbent Tyrona Clark-Murray and District 12 council member Randy White stayed in their respective districts.

Voters elected Clark-Murray in August in a special election to replace Garrett Dennis, who resigned to run for state office. She currently has the least amount of campaign funds in the race, but she also had the least in the special election she ultimately won.

Mike Muldoon, a Republican previously running for District 14 prior to the district changes, currently leads in funding. The remaining candidates, all Democrats, are Kamren Stowers, TaNita Noisette-Woods, Celestine Mills and Shanna Carter.

The new District 14 race has John Draper, a Republican and former District 13 council member, leading in campaign funds, followed by fellow Republican Alberta Hipps and Democrat Rahman Johnson.

In District 12, White faces off against two Democrats, Johnny Causey and Tammyette Thomas.

New competition for at-large seats

Two of the at-large council seats will remain the same, as Howland and Carlucci were unchallenged.

City Council President Terrance Freeman and Vice President Ron Salem both face one challenger in group 1 and group 2, while group 5 features six political newcomers vying for the seat vacated by Sam Newby, who is ineligible to run again due to term limits.

Freeman, a Republican, looked to be unchallenged until Jan. 12 when Libertarian Eric Parker entered the race.

Salem, also a Republican, faces Democrat Joshua Hicks for the group 2 seat.

Unlike the other at-large races, group 5 offers a wild, six-candidate field of Democrats Charles Garrison and Nashon Nicks, Republicans Chris Miller and Reginald Blout, Libertarian Jerry Rorabaugh, and Jack Meeks, who is running without party affiliation.

Meeks currently has the most in campaign funds, with the majority coming from a $250,000 loan he made to his own campaign.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville City Council races set for March election 2023