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Voters have spoken, incumbents are out
By Mary Kelli Palka, The Times-Union
Aug 28, 2008
Incumbents who lost
7th Circuit state attorney : John Tanner, a Republican, lost to R.J. Larizza. Tanner has served 16 out of the past 20 years.
Putnam sheriff : Dean Kelly, a Democrat, lost the nomination to Jeff Hardy. Kelly has served one term.
Putnam schools superintendent : David Buckles, a Democrat, lost to Tom Townsend. Buckles has served three terms.
Clay County Commission : Harold Rutledge lost his District 5 seat to Ronnie Robinson. Rutledge has served one term.
Baker County Commission : Julie Combs, a Republican, lost the District 1 nomination to Michael Ray Crews. Combs has served two terms.
St. Johns County Commission : Ben Rich, a Republican, lost his District 3 seat to Mark Miner. Rich has served one term.
Nassau County Commission : Marianne Marshall, a Republican, lost the District 5 nomination to Walter Boatright.
Incumbents who won
Clay County sheriff : Rick Beseler (54 percent)
Clay County School Board : Chairwoman Carol Studdard in District 2 (69 percent)
Clay County Clerk of Court : James B. Jett (70 percent)
Duval County School Board District 7 : Tommy Hazouri (69 percent)
St. Johns County School Board District 2 : Tommy Allen (75 percent)
St. Johns County District 1 Commission : Cyndi Stevenson (67 percent)
St. Augustine mayor : Joseph Boles (61 percent)
Nassau County sheriff : Tommy Seagraves (56 percent)
Established politicians who won, are in a runoff or are their party's nominee
State House District 14 : Former Jacksonville City Councilwoman Mia Jones is the Democratic nominee.
State House District 17 : Former Jacksonville City Councilman Lake Ray is the Republican nominee.
Duval County School Board District 1 : State Rep. Stan Jordan made it into a runoff with Ken Manuel.
City Council At-Large Group 2 : Former Jacksonville City Council members Dick Brown and John Crescimbeni made it into a runoff.
Established politicians who lost
State House District 14 : Former Jacksonville City Councilwoman Pat Lockett-Felder, a Democrat who served two terms.
City Council District 10 : Former City Councilman King Holzendorf, a Democrat who served two terms.
State House District 18 : Former City Council President Elaine Brown, a Republican who served two terms.
MARY KELLI PALKA /The Times-Union
Some were Republicans. Others Democrats. Some served one term. Others three or more.
By the end of Tuesday evening, Northeast Florida voters sent seven incumbents packing and knocked down three established politicians seeking another shot at elected office.
"It's not an anti-Republican year. It's not an anti-Democrat year. It's an anti-incumbent year," said national political strategist Dave Beattie, who has offices in Washington and Fernandina Beach.
Voters wanted a new state attorney in the 7th Judicial Circuit, new commissioners in St. Johns, Baker, Nassau and Clay counties and a new sheriff and school superintendent in Putnam County.
But Beattie said it wasn't all about incumbents. Nationally, people who once held office and ran on what they had done more than what they were going to do didn't fare well, either, Beattie said.
Locally, well-known politicians and former Jacksonville City Council members King Holzendorf, Pat Lockett-Felder and Elaine Brown didn't win in their races Tuesday night.
"This is not a good year to have been in elected office," Beattie said.
In some cases, controversies took center stage during campaigns.
Clay County Sheriff Rick Beseler, who had two opponents, received 54 percent of the vote, despite claims by prosecutors that his deputies botched a homicide case.
On the other hand, Putnam County Sheriff Dean Kelly took a beating, winning only 37 percent. Kelly had been dealing with allegations reported by the media that he shot a beer keg last year.
State Attorney John Tanner, the top prosecutor for Volusia, St. Johns, Putnam and Flagler counties, said he thinks the controversy involving his investigation into allegations of abuse by guards at the Flagler County Jail were mostly the cause of him losing his job. A Flagler County grand jury indicted officers in the case, but a Duval County grand jury later cleared them.
Tanner said he thought that incumbents had a tough time in part because of the "general dissatisfaction in the country and certainly in Florida, not only with the economy but with the war and politics in general."
R.J. Larizza, who replaces Tanner as state attorney, said voters also made an issue of how long Tanner had been in office.
"They thought he had a chance; it's time for somebody else to have a chance," Larizza said.
Julie Combs chalked her loss for a third term on the Baker County Commission to her party switch in 2004. She said she was elected twice as a Democrat, but her views never clicked with the Republican Party after she switched. She also had to deal with a controversial landfill proposal that her opponent told voters she supported, though she said she was just learning about the issue before making a decision.
While the suburbs lost quite a few incumbents, some of Jacksonville's more established politicians failed at their attempts to get back in public office.
Holzendorf was trying to rejoin the council, and Lockett-Felder was targeting the state House.
Henry Thomas, an associate professor of political science at the University of North Florida, said voters seemed to go against "civil rights-era" elected officials. A lot of them supported Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for president, he said, but Jacksonville voted for Barack Obama.
He said it's possible voters linked Holzendorf and Lockett-Felder to the group that supported Clinton, even if they didn't. And those same voters may have been reminded of Obama when voting for Mia Jones, who beat Lockett-Felder for the state House nomination, and Reggie Brown, who's in the runoff for the council District 10 seat.
Duval County Democratic Party Chairman Travis Bridges said there is a movement from the "old core to the new, or newer, blood."
A GOP example was Elaine Brown, 65, a two-term councilwoman and former council president who lost the House District 18 primary race to physician Ronald "Doc" Renuart, 44.
"People are looking for the younger generation," Bridges said.
mary.palka@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4104
Copyright 2008
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