For Randy DeFoor, City Council wasn't stepping-stone to next public office | Mark Woods

As I type this, it’s more than 24 hours from the polls closing on election day. So it's hard to say anything about Tuesday's results.

Here's what I can safely predict months in advance, though: Randy DeFoor will not be re-elected in City Council District 14.

I can make this prediction because DeFoor decided not to run for re-election in District 14 next spring. She’s not running for another office, either. She will finish her term next June and leave public office.

This alone makes her a bit of a political unicorn. She won her first election. She isn’t term-limited. She’s walking away.

We’ve seen many a person get a taste of election victory and public office and end up craving more — doing everything possible to get more.

She didn’t do that while in office. To put it in banking terms — after all, she is a descendent of the Barnett Bank founder — she spent her political capital rather than saving it for political advancement.

And now at age 58, she’s going to leave office and continue the job — counsel for Fidelity National Financial — that she never stopped doing.

“I don’t think most people realize I actually have another job,” she said. “I felt it would be very hard to sustain the level that is required to properly represent this district while maintaining that job. So I did not feel called to run again. But I’ll tell you, it has been the most tremendous honor, and I have learned so much about myself and our area.”

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While this decision gave me something I could safely write this week, not dependent on any election results, that’s not the only reason to write a column about DeFoor now.

In a time when we’re all weary of the ugliness of political campaigns — of mailboxes stuffed with candidate fliers, of the numbing repetitiveness of the television ads — it’s worth noting something that happened after DeFoor won election. Something that maybe offers a glimmer of hope. Maybe false hope. But these days I’ll take even that.

In the initial race to succeed Jim Love in District 14 — which includes Riverside, Avondale, Ortega and Argyle — DeFoor, a Republican, ran against another Republican (Henry Mooneyhan), a couple of Democrats (Sunny Gettinger, Jimmy Peluso) and a write-in candidate (Earl Testy).

DeFoor and Gettinger went to a run-off, with DeFoor ultimately winning a race that had the highest turnout in the city.

After her victory, DeFoor didn’t bury her District 14 opponents. She developed relationships with all of them.

Befriending former foes

It tells you something that Peluso, who is running again for the seat next spring, says it’s a shame DeFoor isn’t.

“She’s been kind of a politician from a bygone era for Jacksonville, somebody who knows the city so intimately and cares about it in such a way that goes beyond party labels,” he said. “She's definitely made some votes that I was pretty displeased with. And then there were some votes that I was pleasantly surprised with. She consistently showed that whatever mold some people may have made her out to be, she broke that mold. And that's something to be applauded.”

During that initial campaign three years ago, Gettinger recalls people saying it was a shame so many people were running in the district. She would always say, no, that’s what all of the elections should be like — filled with people who are excited to serve their communities, who have different ideas and are having a discussion in the public arena about what's best for the city.

“That conversation doesn't have to end after an election,” Gettinger said. “If you are committed to serving your city, you can do it in a lot of different capacities and Randy always appreciated that and was willing to take a call even when she didn't agree.”

DeFoor says this actually started on the campaign trail, when the opponents would end up at the same meetings, or bumping into each other’s families while out campaigning door-to-door.

“It’s such a unique experience and it brought us close,” she said.

This, of course, isn’t necessarily the case. Elections these days tend to do the opposite.  They ramp up hatred and divide neighbors. So this is a tribute not just to DeFoor, but to her opponents and, she says, to her district.

“I feel so fortunate to live in this district because it is a very, very special place,” she said.

Not a stepping-stone to next office

She rode into office described in our coverage as the “party establishment pick.” (Meaning the City Hall powerbrokers, from Mayor Lenny Curry to political consultant Tim Baker.) But once in office, she didn’t automatically do what that establishment wanted — most notably with the expected rubber-stamping of JEA plans.

She and Brenda Priestly Jackson, a Democrat representing Northwest Jacksonville, found common ground (lawyers, deep roots in Jacksonville, profound questions about the JEA sale) and came together to push back against the deal and earning mutual respect and an EVE award.

“I cannot tell you how many people looked at me and said, ‘It's a done deal. Everybody's on the bus. You’re wasting your time,’” DeFoor said. “And my comment was, ‘I'm the one that has to look in the mirror. If I lose, then at least I can explain this to my children.’ I mean, if we had given away our access to our water to a private entity, we would have been forever held hostage.”

It’s the kind of stance that makes her husband, Allison DeFoor, tell one of the Barnett family stories.

He knows a thing or two about running for office. Before becoming an Episcopal priest, he was a prosecutor, public defender, judge and sheriff of Monroe County. And in 1990, he ran for lieutenant governor in Gov. Bob Martinez’s unsuccessful bid for a second term.

When Randy considered running for office, he told her to be really careful to not allow politics to become the primary focus. He told her it can change people. And then she watched that happen around her.

“It can be just soul-sucking,” she said. “It really can be. … I’ve seen good people go in and come out completely different people.”

Allison DeFoor proudly says that didn’t happen with his wife, that she remains “a chip off of the Barnett block” — which leads to the story he likes to tell.

After her great-great-grandfather founded Barnett Bank in Jacksonville in the late 1800s, the bank was robbed of $1,000. Not only was this a sizable amount at the time, and a decent percentage of what the bank had in it, this was pre-FDIC protection.

After the robbery, someone came to the bank and asked to see Mr. Barnett. The visitor said he knew who stole the money and could help get it back. For $100. Mr. Barnett responded to this offer by reaching into a draw, pulling out a pistol and telling the visitor to put his hands on the table while a clerk called the sheriff.

William Barnett didn’t get the $1,000 back. But he did make it clear that wasn’t going to work with him.

Not that Jacksonville politics today are quite as dramatic. Although with million-dollar campaigns and billion-dollar plans, even more money might be involved. And if you look at everything from the attack ads to the political games, DeFoor says it’s no wonder people are afraid to run for local offices.

When she announced her decision not to run again, she hoped to encourage some good candidates to get in the race for District 14. And she believes that has happened.

“It’s not about using it as a stepping-stone,” she said. “You see that in some council races, where people are literally using it as a stepping-stone to where they’re going next.”

mwoods@jacksonville.com

(904) 359-4212

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville City Council member Randy DeFoor befriends former foes