by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
As election day looms May 13, candidates in the runoff for the City Council At-large, Group 1 seat know the roughest stretch of the campaign trail still lies ahead. Democratic candidate Ronald Higginbotham made the runoff against Republican incumbent Faye Rustin.
“I know I have a lot of hard work ahead of me and I plan on burning a lot more midnight oil,” said Higginbotham, a retired electrician. “I don’t have a lot of money to spend on advertising, but that has never been the way that I wanted to [campaign].”
Higginbotham reportedly spent less than $200 to finance his campaign prior to the primary election in mid-April. Rustin raised upwards of $41,000.
“I’m running on the trust of the community,” he said. “I’ve done my best to get out and meet the working people of Jacksonville. That’s who I want to get me elected because that’s who I am. I’m not trying to buy anyone.”
According to Rustin, fund raising is a reccurring challenge for her campaign.
“It’s hard for the candidates running for the Council. The mayoral candidates get the most,” she said. “There were so many elections this time and the community has been hit so much. Plus, we just had the November election.”
Neither Higginbotham nor Rustin were surprised to see the election go to a runoff.
“The last time I ran it went into a runoff,” said Rustin. “I’m not surprised at all and we’ve planned for it the since the beginning. With three candidates [Republican Henry Mooneyhan took home 23.84 percent of the vote], we knew that we’d lose some votes to the other candidates. We’ll work as hard as we can until May 13.”
Rustin credited Higginbotham’s initial support at the polls to party loyalty. The candidates have never met or spoken to each other and, according to Higginbotham, he “wouldn’t know her if I saw her.”
“I’ll wait until after the election before I meet any of the other Council members,” said Higginbotham.
Both Higginbotham and Rustin said they will continue using the same strategies that put them in the runoff.
“We’re looking into doing more radio right now,” said Rustin. “Depending on how much money we raise, we may get something together for TV, too”
Rustin said a lot energy would also go towards new sign placement and direct mailing. She may also have a plane with her banner flying at the Opening of the Beaches festival this weekend.
Higginbotham said he would continue to target the working class as his core constituency.
“I feel confident,” he said. “I just want to be good to Jacksonville.”