by Glenn Tschimpke
Staff Writer
Terry DiPerna Sr. is going to give it another try. After being beaten by more than 2-1 by Lake Ray in 1999 in his quest for a City Council seat, the police officer-turned bailiff is preparing for a rematch.
DiPerna’s loss came despite the fact that District 1, which encompasses the majority of Arlington, has a slight Democratic bent in terms of registered voters. Republican Ray ended up winning with 4,910 votes to DiPerna’s 2,115. A Democrat, DiPerna attributes his loss, in part, to his late campaign start.
“It was a learning process last time,” he said. “Although I gave it my whole heart, it was a learning process. It was a very arduous task and a very interesting trek that I took.”
With three years of reflection and the behest of his supporters, DiPerna filed his intent to run July 12 with the Supervisor of Elections Office.
“It’s a really, really hard struggle to beat an incumbent. I gave it a lot of thought,” he said. “I think I learned what campaigning is about and what timing is about. Timing is real important in a campaign. There are certain things that you have to do long before you reach to the people. You have to do the back scene campaigning. You have to go to your groups and your labor unions and gain their support. All this is done now because when it comes later down the road, they’re probably sewn up. You call anybody who has a string anywhere and you start politicking.”
Politicking starts now. DiPerna’s voice raises slightly when he speaks of issues that will affect Arlington in the near future, from Mill Cove in the St. Johns River to the construction of the Wonderwood Expressway, which will cleave the community in two.
“That’s going to be a project that is going to have to be very, very, very closely monitored,” he said of the latter. “The reason I say that is we don’t want it to end up like Monument Road, a never ending story out there. We want to make sure that this contractor goes in there, does his thing and gets out as quick as possible with the least disruption to the people, the neighborhoods and the traffic.”
DiPerna spent 27 years with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, retiring as a master patrolman. He currently works as a bailiff at the Duval County Courthouse, a job he will quit if elected. He promises to be a full-time Council member.
“I will devote my entire day to becoming a City Councilman for these people,” he said. “What that means is I will be out here not only at night and committee meetings when I’m supposed to be at them but I’ll be here during the daytime.”
He points to his police training as his problem solving proving ground.
“In my whole career, that’s all I did eight, 10 hours a day was answer complaints. So my whole life has been geared to listening to complaints and solving their problems. People are afraid to contact their neighbors in this day and time and they don’t want confrontation with their neighbors. So what they do is they contact some intermediary, which was in that case, me. I would handle the problem.”
If the money is available, DiPerna would like to establish a satellite Council office in the district, which would afford constituents easier access to their representative. But that’s getting ahead of the game. First, he has to raise campaign money to the tune of $50,000 or more. In 1999, he raised $13,000, which was $7,000 short of his target. DiPerna explains the big jump in campaign figures.
“That was my first campaign and I realized how expensive it really is,” he explained. “Mailings are very, very expensive. When you’re talking about thousands of mail-outs, it can run in the thousands of dollars real quick.”
Arlington residents can expect DiPerna walking door-to-door in the coming months generating support in the traditional grass roots way.
“What I plan on doing is taking one precinct a month and walk that precinct with some of the people in that neighborhood,” he said. “I want to take an hour or two out of my day and walk in there, and I don’t mean driving in an automobile. When you’re driving down the road, you’re watching for traffic, you’re watching for children, you’re trying to be a safe driver. You don’t see the broken sidewalks or the two telephone poles that are standing side by side and one of them has been there for a millennium because JEA had to replace the pole and the replacement crew forgot to take out the old one. You don’t see this kind of thing driving down the road. You don’t see the trash in the streets and the ditches that have to be cleaned out and the places that really don’t have sidewalks. You don’t notice these small things.”