Naples City Council election: Beth Petrunoff, Terry Hutchison, Ray Christman win three seats
Newcomer and former executive Beth Petrunoff and incumbents Ray Christman and Terry Hutchison won Tuesday's election for Naples City Council.
Petrunoff won with 23.8% or 3,899 votes followed closely by Hutchison, who garnered 23% or 3,763 votes. Christman took the third-most votes with 21.4% or 3,496.
John Dugan, a Realtor and former management consultant, took home 16.9% of the vote or 2,766 votes followed by Realtor and former Naples police officer Ian Rudnick with 14.8% or 2,426 votes.
The top three vote-getters will be sworn in Feb. 16 at the Naples City Council meeting.
"I'm shocked and very lucky and feel like I've had so much support from friends," Petrunoff said. "I'm beyond grateful, and this has been a team effort."
Before digging into environmental issues and reading up on the city's latest comprehensive plan, she said she's treating all her canvassers to foot rubs at Happy Feet.
Hutchison said he's feeling very humbled and, this being his second campaign, he said it's been about what he's already done on council.
"I was faced with very difficult decisions from COVID to the Sanctuary City for the Unborn to deciding about building code reform," Hutchison said. "I've kept my commitments. I don't cave, and I defend my community."
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Christman said he is very happy with the election results, not just in terms of his win but in terms of the others who were elected.
"It's a good night for Naples," he said, citing what he called the "extraordinary turnout."
The 2022 election saw more people vote than in the most recent city election that did not share a ballot with a presidential preference primary, which tends to draw more voters to the polls.
In 2018, 26% of registered voters cast ballots. This year, almost 40% cast ballots. In contrast, during the 2020 election with a presidential preference primary about 54% of registered voters cast ballots in the city election.
Mayor Teresa Heitmann was celebrating Tuesday's results with Petrunoff and Hutchison at Aqua on Fifth Avenue South and said she's thrilled about the outcome and thinks this is going to be a great team on council.
"I'm excited that the community spoke up again about what leadership they want to see," Heitmann said.
During the 2020 city council election, incumbents running for reelection lost their seats when Heitmann and council members Mike McCabe, Ted Blankenship and Paul Perry were voted into office.
Heitmann said she is looking forward to tackling the priorities still awaiting council decisions and then start looking at what comes next.
John Dugan and Ian Rudnick react to election results
Before results were released candidates Dugan and Rudnick were with supporters around town.
Dugan said he was pleased with the way he ran his campaign: "I left no stone unturned — from walking door to door, sending out mailers and emails. I made 3,000 phone calls just this week."
After the results were in, he said he wishes everyone luck.
"The voters have spoken," Dugan said. "I feel like the campaign we put forward and the people with me did a first-class job, and I wish everybody well."
Rudnick said Tuesday his campaign has been an amazing experience: "The best part has been my daughter who’s probably kissed me like 1,000 times today she’s so excited."
Following the results, Rudnick said he's spent 17 years serving the community as a police officer and does not intend to stop giving back.
"I'm excited," he said. "I'm not going to be on council, but I'm a 39-year-old relatively unknown ex-cop, and to be able to generate this kind of support and funding to me is a win."
This year in-person early voting in Naples was much more successful than the city's last in-person early voting in 2006 when only 20 voters showed up at the polls.
About 300 people showed up each of the four days this year, totaling 1,184 ballots cast during early voting.
By Tuesday morning, 2,968 voters cast mail-in ballots, according the the Supervisor of Elections' website. Between early voting and mail-in ballots, about 27% of the eligible 16,497 voters have cast ballots.
The number of voters to hit the polls on Election Day has surpassed those who came out during the four days of in-person early voting last week. By late afternoon, the Supervisor of Election's website showed nearly 1,700 people had voted Tuesday.
Our previous coverage:
Chilly start to Election Day
Naples voters were in no hurry to cast ballots Tuesday morning at 7 a.m. when polls opened, which poll workers for candidates blamed on the chill in the air.
“My sense is once the temperature goes up, the people will come out,” George Miserendino, who was working on behalf of Dugan and Rudnick at Precinct 477, St. Ann Catholic Church.
A U.S. Marine Corps veteran, he arrived at the church at 7:15 a.m. and not one voter had arrived yet. Two hours later, he estimated there had been 150 voters.
Voters at the polls all expressed interest in controlling the growth and development within the city
Joan Loos, a 42-year resident of Port Royal, cast her ballot at the church. For her the most important issues are controlled growth and the safety of residents.
“It’s grown faster than I would have liked,” she said, adding that she’s pretty happy with how the city council has been performing.
Shirley Hulse, a resident of Naples for 35 years who also voted at the church, said the city council has been doing a good job.
“I think we’re doing just fine,” she said. “I’d like to see less high rises but it’s progress. It’s still a great town.”
Controlling development, especially large condominiums, is a big concern to Cathy and Charlie Shriver. They have lived in Park Shore since 1998.
“I don’t want to have to make a reservation three months in advance to get in a restaurant,” he said. “We would just like to limit the growth.”
They also want a city council that is transparent in how they make decisions, he said.
Voter Cathy Rothwell at the Faith Lutheran Church precinct said she's lived in the city since 1994 and wants to do her part in the election.
"I think it should be a duty of the American people to come out and vote," Rothwell said. She said she's voting to keep the city the way it is.
Karl Schneider and Liz Freeman are reporters at Naples Daily News.
This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Naples election results: Voters select Christman, Hutchison, Petrunoff
