by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
In less than a year, Republican Party Chairman Mike Hightower has helped raise over $1 million for Mayor John Peyton’s re-election campaign. With state elections and no viable opponent for Peyton, Hightower says it’s time to pay more attention to the other races.
“What I’m doing now is being more of a business manager and chairman of the party for the other folks,” said Hightower.
Peyton put another $40,409 in the coffers and ended the reporting quarter with $1,154,117 in the bank — and some big names on the contribution list. Among them are former Mayor John Delaney and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
“My goal was to get to $1 million and we are closer to a million-one,” said Hightower.
The plan now isn’t to get off the fundraising gas pedal but rather to divert some of the party’s energy to the other races, especially the county’s constitutional officers and 19 City Council races. Currently, Council is comprised of 14 Republicans and five Democrats. However, five of them — Lake Ray, Lynette Self, Suzanne Jenkins, Elaine Brown and Lad Daniels — can’t run again due to term limits. Republican Sharon Copeland isn’t seeking re-election, Democrat Reggie Fullwood has resigned to run for the state legislature and Democrats Pat Lockett-Felder, Gwen Yates and Warren Alvarez are all term limit victims. Translated: there are a lot of open seats on the Council and the possibility of a major overhaul of the Council is very real.
Hightower realizes all of this and intends to focus on several Council races. Incumbent Republicans Ronnie Fussell, Kevin Hyde, Richard Clark, Art Shad, Daniel Davis, Art Graham and Michael Corrigan have yet to draw an opponent and, until they do, Hightower says the fundraising efforts on their behalf will be minimal. He said the business community has really come through the past several months and he doesn’t see the need to keep hitting them up for contributions, especially to races and candidates that don’t have any opposition.
“We want to maximize our resources without costing money that these businesses need to make payroll,” explained Hightower.
The main focus now is on the open Council seats. While many have filed to run, Hightower said he and several key business leaders are working to identify the best candidate possible for each open district seat and three at-large seats (two are up for grabs due to term limits and incumbent Republican Glorious Johnson has drawn opposition from Republican and former Council member Gwen Chandler.
Hightower said he and folks like LandMar CEO Ed Burr and Dalton Agency Vice President Michael Munz are looking for candidates that have bought into Peyton’s pro-business, pro-early education philosophy.
“We are looking to identify those that are pro-business and pro-Jacksonville,” he said. “We want candidates that push for economic development opportunities, candidates that will assist the mayor in his work with the School Board, job development and early literacy. For the open seats, I am allowed to have discussions and meetings with fundraisers.
“We have an extensive base of Democratic, Independent and Republican fundraisers in this community. When all is said and done, we want a pro-Jacksonville group that will pull together for Jacksonville. The mayor’s race is the highlight, but the others are important, too.”
Hightower doesn’t expect to need or raise as much as was raised in 2003 when Peyton was a newcomer to the political arena and many of the county’s constitutional officer seats were on the ballot, including sheriff.
“Four years ago, we raised and spent about $8 million on the mayor’s race, City Council and the sheriff,” explained Hightower. “Let’s make sure we do not go back to the well if we don’t have to. We are not going to raise a lot of money if you don’t have a qualified, viable opponent and that won’t be known until February.”