Although the 2003 mayoral election is still 17 months away, three prominent Republicans have already announced their candidacy. City Council members Alberta Hipps and Ginger Soud (both of whom are former Council presidents) along with former Jacksonville Economic Development Commission executive director Mike Weinstein, now the 2005 Super Bowl Host Committee boss, are all seeking to succeed Mayor John Delaney.
Soud is a Jacksonville native, a licensed real estate agent and an at-large member of Council who is term limited in 2003. She’s married to Circuit Judge A. C. Soud and has three sons. When current City Council president Matt Carlucci resigned from the Council in 1992 to run for the State Senate, Soud was elected and served out Carlucci’s term. (Carlucci beat Ginny Myrick in the Democratic primary, but lost to Jim Horne in the general election.)
Soud met last week with the editorial staff of the Daily Record to discuss her mayoral campaign.
Question: Why do you want to be mayor of Jacksonville?
Answer: That’s an interesting question. I think deep down in my heart I love the city. I know a lot of people say that and I’m sure they mean it. I mean it from the perspective that I’ve been here virtually all my life. I feel the city is special. I don’t really understand all that I mean by that. I’ve worked in real estate since 1980 with people coming here from all over the country. As Council president I worked with a lady who was here from [South] Africa. All of them had a perception that there’s something unique about Jacksonville. They like the people. They think the people are what I would call normal. But they think it’s unusual. Part of it is our Southern heritage. We are very friendly, we’re very accepting, we’re very outgoing. The lady from Africa was from Port Elizabeth. She was a Council member there. She spent an entire day with me. At the end of that day, she put her hand on my arm and said, ‘I have to ask you a question. I’ve been with you all day and the people that you have interacted with, we have been everywhere from the Chamber to the mayor’s office to other areas of the community, and you all just seem to like each other. Why is that?’ I didn’t really have an exact answer for her except to tell her, ‘I really do like them. We enjoy each other. We work work together. If we disagree, we respectfully disagree. And, we try to do what’s best for our community.’ She was very impressed by that, as are people I’ve worked with who are moving here from New York, the west coast, from all over the country. They do feel that our city is unique and I want us to keep that uniqueness as we mature.
Q: Are there any specific factors or issues that prompted you to run for mayor? Are there things you’d like to see adjusted or changed?
A: Specific issues I don’t think were a motivating factor, more than the large picture. The community, I think, is at a pinnacle. We are doing very well. We have a bright future. And, I believe I can contribute to bringing us to the next level of that development given my broad experience in government. I believe that experience is very important to the next mayor because with the continuation of Better Jacksonville, keeping that project going is very important. I believe it’s going to require a level of commitment and integrity.
Q: Why did you declare your candidacy so early?
A: That is a good question and here’s the very important answer. The election is in the spring of 2003. We are at the end of 2001. What is going to happen between those two dates is a statewide election that’s going to take up most of 2002, certainly beginning by late in the first quarter all the way to next November. It’s going to be very difficult for local candidates to raise money during that period or to be heard or seen because you are going to be focusing on the governor and the legislative races and the cabinet races and all of those things. And, that’s as it should be. For me to, number one, have enough funds to do what I need to do during that period, because at the end of that race you will kick into high gear for this campaign — but next year at this time, we will be high gear into this campaign — you’ve got to already demonstrate that you can raise money and put together a grass roots campaign. It’s very important.
Q: You served out Carlucci’s term from 1992-95. How did you get reelected and who did you beat?
A: I beat (television weatherman and insurance salesman) Rufus Hafer three times [laughing]. There were three of us in the first primary and I was first and Rufus was second, so we eliminated the third gal. Then there was the general election and I beat him. That spring, when the City election was held to run for a full term he came back and ran again. And, I beat him a third time. After that, he moved away from town.
Q: You did not run away with the first primary.
A: No, I did not. I had never run before. I did not have any name recognition to speak of other than some vague Soud name.
Q: Will being an at-large Council member help you during the race?
A: Absolutely. First of all, I’ve run several county-wide campaigns and you learn a lot from a county-wide campaign. This is a very large county. In an at-large role you serve all the citizens of Duval County, including the three small municipalities at the beach and the town of Baldwin. I am, to them, a county commissioner under the [City] Charter. So, you have to run every time in the entire county which is very different than just in a district — obviously much larger, requiring more money, requiring more organization, requiring a higher level of expertise in doing that than in a district race.
Q: Is it difficult to conduct a county-wide race? You have to appeal to someone at the beach one day and someone from Baldwin the next day.
A: You have to know the issues that affect these people and deal with them on these issues. I’ve worked with Baldwin on many issues — Trail Ridge, the Rail to Trails development that we did. That was very important to them. The continuation of the mitigation funds from Trail Ridge to Baldwin was very important to them. That’s their major issue. I’ve helped folks in Baldwin — little small property owners and small businesses — with funding issues that the county impacted. The beach, on the other hand, they have the whole set of other concerns. One concern a gentleman at the beach had was the amount of traffic on Third Street and he didn’t like the signs coming into the city. There were fun things like that. I’ve worked with the elected officials there [the beach]. The most recent thing I helped them get was $500,000 from the Tourist Development Council, which was the final piece of financing for the pier. That was a real big issue. There were strong feelings on both sides, but I think the right decision was made.
Q: What kind of tone do you think this election will take?
A: I intend to run a positive campaign. I intend to run on my record of experience in government, experience in community, personal integrity, government efficiency. I will compare records. I will compare myself to the other candidates. But I’m going to run a quality, professional campaign. What others do, I can’t say. That’s my plan.
Q: What are some of the issues that the next mayor will have to address outside of the Better Jacksonville Plan?
A: At this point I don’t think I want to get into the details of the issues. The broader sense of it, I believe, is the matter of the continuation of the management of the government from the administrative side of it — I prefer to call it management — running our City departments, implementing the policy that the Council has set forth and maximizing all of that. The other issues to me are quality of life issues. Quality of life issues are jobs, transportation, education. Many of those things I have specific ideas and plans to bring to the campaign that I really don’t want to lay out at this point. I am, in fact, developing all of that in a specific message. I believe those are the things people are real interested in.
Q: What are your thoughts on education?
A: Education is a critical issue. In fact, I have heard it said that the two top issues polled are integrity in office and education. Education is important to everyone. I really don’t understand why we have not been able, in spite of a lot of effort and in spite of a lot of good peoples’ work, to get our education system to the level we would like it to be.
Q: Is education on your list of priorities?
A: Well, it has to be on the list. How can a mayor go out to persuade businesses to come here because that’s going to be one of their first questions? If I’m sitting in a board room with a CEO of a company, I’m going to have to convince them that public education is acceptable, otherwise they’ve got to prepare their people to pay for private school or do something.
Q: In a campaign you say, ‘If I’m elected I’m going to get rid of ...’ If elected, what would you change?
A: I’m not really ready to say that yet. At this moment I probably cannot pound my fist on the table and say that. But, I may before the campaign kicks into high gear in the spring.
Q: Are there some ‘hot button’ issues?
A: I’m not ready to put those things on the table. There are things in my mind, absolutely.
Q: How are you going to handle Jacksonville’s growth?
A: We want to carefully plan our growth. We want to be in between the two extremes. You don’t want controlled growth and you don’t want growth without any planning. To me, the middle of that is well thought-out, well planned growth. We don’t want to be Miami. We don’t want to be Orlando. We want to be Jacksonville and we are going to be Jacksonville.
Q: What does that mean?
A: That means we’re going to have well thought-out, smart growth. Not controlled growth and not totally ignored growth. We’re going to follow the middle of the road in smart, planned, well thought-out growth.
Q: The Jacksonville Economic Development Commission has given out a lot of incentives over the last couple of years and the City Council has approved a lot of them. Do you really believe in giving away as much “corporate welfare” as we have over the last five years?
A: I have a concern about using public funds to bring in companies who compete with our existing companies. My idea of bringing in companies would be to bring in things that we don’t have. Initially, our real goal was to bring in the high-tech, high-paying jobs that we didn’t currently have. It was to bring in corporate headquarters, not just the type of jobs that we had that were the low-paying jobs. I think these should be used to attract businesses we don’t have, bring to us corporate headquarters and to increase the level of income and hence the quality of life we have for our people. It’s not just to get anybody here. I’m very sensitive to that. I don’t feel that we have done as good a job as we could have and should have done with the criteria in evaluating some of those.
Q: Will we see a strong campaign push between now and the end of the first quarter next year, then a cooling off period for the state elections, then another strong push starting a year from now?
A: I think the progression will probably be that between now and the end of the first quarter of next year I will continue raising funds, developing the campaign message and strategy, putting the group together and then continue that work quietly until you reach the fall of next year about this time. That’s when people begin to think about this campaign. Obviously in January of 2003, it will be full blown.
Q: Is that when we will start seeing, television, radio and newspaper advertising?
A: Yes.
Q: How much money will it take to win?
A: People throw all kind of numbers around. I’ve heard everything up to a million and a half dollars. I think what a candidate is going to need is going to depend on what they already have. I feel that the level of name recognition that I have, the level of grass roots support that I have, will lend itself to me being able to run this campaign on less money than some of the other candidates. And so, I’m not anticipating it’s going to cost quite as much as some of the others.
Q: Where do you think your funding will come from?
A: Across the board, totally across the board. I have very strong business support from every segment. I have very strong support from the faith community at large, and from ordinary folks.
Q: What do you think are your deficiencies are in the campaign?
A: The gender issue is an unknown at this point. But, I will say when I was elected to the Council in 1994, a woman had never been elected to an at-large seat before. That was a first. When I came on the Council, there was one other female Council member. Today, there are 10 female Council members and nine men. That demonstrates to me a huge change. I think the gender issue really isn’t going to be an issue for me. If my experience tells me correctly, both men and women are looking for candidates who believe what they believe, who think like they think and want to achieve what they want to achieve. I have not had any problems in my dealings with people in that arena.
Q: If gender is not a problem, what would be a problem? You are tied closely to First Baptist Church. There may be a negative edge to that as the columnist [Ron Littlepage] on the other daily newspaper points out.
A: There’s some folks that think that and perhaps there is. I don’t encounter it a great deal. I think a campaign would have a hard time bringing that kind of negative to bear because there would be a huge backlash because all of those folks who probably wouldn’t be motivated to vote, if I were criticized for those areas, probably would vote and end up helping me. I’m not sure of the wisdom in that kind of campaign strategy if one were to try to do that [use religion as an issue].
Q: Will religion play a major role in the campaign?
A: I think a person’s faith may be an issue because times have changed and people seem to be changing, going back to a more traditional view that one’s faith should impact their life.
Q: Some people believe that if the election were today, you would win. Given that, who would be your closest competitor?
A: I think that would be determined by a couple things: ability to raise money and whether they actually stay in the race. You’re going to have to demonstrate between now and the beginning of 2003 the ability to raise money. There maybe some who won’t be able to muster that. If they remain in the race without the proper resources, it would be very difficult. I don’t know the answer to your question. It’s going to depend on how a campaign is run, how well a campaign is run, the proper resources being available, who else gets into the race.
Q: Let’s say you’re the front runner. Who is your single biggest opponent, declared or undeclared?
A: I want to answer your question specifically, but it’s a wild card. It’s dependent on resources, it’s dependent on the ability to run a campaign. It’s hard for me to predict.
Q: Given those factors, when could you answer that question?
A: I think early 2003 you would be able to answer that question or perhaps before then on the ability to raise funds. But the ability to run a campaign is something you’re not going to know until you get more into that campaign.
Q: Is there a wild card candidate out there?
A: I don’t believe that there is. People keep talking about that. When that occurred with our current mayor, circumstances were totally different than today — totally different. I can’t imagine a scenario where that would occur again.
Q: How comfortable are you with the media?
A: I guess the thing for me is, I’m a people person and I tend to trust people completely and when I get around the media, I think, ‘I can’t trust these guys.’ [laughs]. I don’t mean that in a really bad sense. What I mean by that is I worry that I understand clearly what I’m saying but are you going to understand what I’m saying?
Q: You’re not that visible in your campaign right now. What are you currently doing?
A: Primarily raising money, developing strategies, interviewing professionals that you would use, putting budgets together, working on grass roots. All that. You have to pace yourself in an 18-month campaign. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.