by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Mayor John Peyton thanked supporters two hours after the polls closed. Sheriff John Rutherford easily beat former FBI agent Dale Carson and Jacksonville Sheriff’s Officer Reginald Davis. And, Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland won easily over City Council member Suzanne Jenkins.
“Sixty-forty is huge,” said local Republican Party Chair Mike Hightower on the margin of victory in all three races. In fact, Peyton and Holland both garnered over 70 percent of the vote while Rutherford hit the 60 percent mark on the number.
In an election where the voter turnout failed to top the 20 percent mark, the best races occurred in several City Council seats where there will be runsoffs in six seats — Dists. 4, 6, 7, 9 and 11 and at-large Group 2 — although only the at-large seat is a county-wide election.
In three Council races, one candidate dominated the fundraising, yet either lost or finds themselves in a run off.
In Dist. 1, Cheryl Donelan Grymes raised over twice as much as Clay Yarborough, yet was defeated 56 percent to 44 percent.
“Clay is on the executive committee of the Republican Party and that guy walked his district every day,” said Hightower. “He had a good group of volunteers and he worked at it every day. Talk about grassroots, that’s Clay Yarborough. Door-to-door outdid the money.”
Hightower believes Yarborough, who is in his mid-20s has a bright political future.
“No question,” he said.
In the at-large Group 2 race, Jay Jabour and Bob Harms will square off on the May 15 runoff despite Jabour raising almost $150,000 compared to Harm’s $8,600. Hightower said Jabour didn’t win outright Tuesday because the third candidate in the race — Theresa Graham — contributed to a split Republican vote. Harms is a Democrat and Hightower is confident Jabour will win the runoff due to a consolidated Republican vote.
In Dist. 9, Warren Jones and Fred Engess will face each other. Jones just missed winning outright Tuesday with 45 percent of the vote. If Engess — who raised just $5,125 — wins, it will mark a major coup for the Republican Party in a district that’s historically Democrat.
“It’s a huge opportunity for Fred to pull off an upset,” said Hightower.
In the race in the city’s biggest district, Republicans Jack Daniels and Ray Holt will square off May 15. Daniels raised over $180,000 compared to Holt’s just under $30,000. Regardless of who wins, the Republican Party will pick up another seat on Council. Current Dist. 11 representative Warren Alvarez is a Democrat.
If the Republicans win the runoffs, the GOP will hold a 16-3 advantage on the 19-member Council for the next four years.
Overall, the candidates raised a little over $4.22 million, a figure that’s about half of the money raised four years ago. Hightower said about six months after the 2003 elections, he gathered members of the local Republican Party and explained the money being thrown at elections was nearly out of control.
“We got together and agreed it was way too much. It was near the point of being obscene,” said Hightower. “We wanted to make sure we were reasonable and rational. We wanted quality candidates and we had discussions between donors and the candidates.”
One of the major implementations since that election was a system to almost immediately return unused campaign funds, especially from candidates without an opponent. This year, eight Republican incumbents didn’t have a qualified opponent and at-large Group 3 candidate Stephen Joost didn’t draw any opposition.
Hightower said the local party uses a formula that involves returning a pro rata share of donations to contributors. Those funds are returned after campaign accounts are closed, the bills are paid and the “thank you” parties are tossed. Hightower said he isn’t sure what the percentage will be after expenses this year.
By far Peyton has the most to return. He raised just over $1.2 million but only spent a little over $300,000.
“It creates good will when you give the money back and it helps when you want to run again,” said Hightower. “It’s the right way to do politics.”