by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Fernandina Beach attorney John Cascone ran a good, clean campaign against Circuit Judge Gregg McCaulie, but Tuesday’s election confirmed that defeating an incumbent judge is one of the most difficult political feats to accomplish.
In another problem-marred election locally and statewide, McCaulie more than doubled Cascone’s votes. With 100 percent of the precincts in Duval County reporting, McCaulie garnered 77,224 votes, or 68.44 percent. Cascone earned 35,610 votes, or 31.56 percent.
In the other judicial race between David Gooding and Dan Wilensky, things were a little tighter — a near dead heat. With all of the precincts in Duval County reporting, Gooding is the apparent winner with 50.98 percent of the votes while Wilensky had 49.02 percent. Gooding amassed 59,499 votes while Wilensky tallied 57,215. The Gooding-Wilensky race may not be over, however. Last week, Wilensky filed suit against Gooding alleging defamation for a pamphlet Gooding sent out that claimed Wilensky broke campaigning laws.
McCaulie’s win earns him another six years on the bench of the 4th Judicial Circuit. It also assures that the local bench will remain virtually intact — barring any retirements, new appointments or any other unforeseen events — for at least the next four years. The last incumbent judge to lose an election was Hugh Fletcher, who lost to Tyrie Boyer in 2000.
Despite a major overhaul, many hours of training, millions of dollars and several test runs, the 2002 primary was marred by problems statewide, prompting Gov. Jeb Bush to order the polls stay open two extra hours. Problems ranged from touch screens not working in South Florida to optical scanning machines not working properly in Jacksonville. Also, voters had to deal with polls opening late, optical scanning machines not being turned on and poll workers who didn’t know how the machines worked.