by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Between them, they have 16 years of experience on City Council. One has another eight years in politics in Neptune Beach.
Tuesday at the stroke of noon, King Holzendorf and Dick Brown qualified to run for City Council Dist. 10 and At-Large Group 2, respectively.
Holzendorf served on Council from 1995-2003 while Brown served from 1991-99. Brown was elected to the Neptune Beach City Council in 2000 and is currently the mayor. His term expires in November.
Holzendorf and Brown have different reasons for wanting to return to Council. Both qualified Monday due to extenuating circumstances — Mia Jones recently resigned her Dist. 10 seat to run for the State Legislature and the at-large seat is vacant thanks to the court’s ruling that Jay Jabour was ineligible to serve due to residency issues.
“I want to represent the people so I can finish the job I started,” said Holzendorf, who was accompanied by his wife Betty, a former State Senator. “The Council person leaving hasn’t completed the job. There are projects going on and projects that I started before that I want to complete.”
Brown, who retired from BellSouth after 33 years and does a little bit of consulting work, said he had no more political aspirations after November. However, when Jabour’s seat become open — and the courts ruled the election should be open for all who live in the district — he saw it as an opportunity to stay involved.
“The opportunity kind of popped up suddenly,” said Brown, adding if the seat hadn’t come open, there wasn’t anything “in the foreseeable future” that interested him enough to run.
No matter who qualifies to run, all of the candidates are battling the same thing: a very short period of time — the primary is Aug. 26 — to raise money and generate awareness. In the case of Brown and Holzendorf, they have the name recognition and experience. How much it will cost and how much can be raised in just over two months is the great unknown.
Brown said he will hit the speaking circuit in an attempt to raise money and get in front of as many voters as possible.
“In addition to some fundrasiers, this week I have some appointments with some of the business clubs in all parts of town whether I am the speaker or just being introduced,” said Brown. “I want to hear the needs of the residents of all parts of town since this is an at-large seat.”
Holzendorf, who qualified by petition with 147 signatures (he needed just 80) said he thinks his name recognition will help as much as anything. He’s running to represent the same area of town he represented for nearly a decade.
“I am going to run on my previous record,” he said. “My record speaks for itself. I have been chair of the Finance and Rules committees. I go into office and start working the same day I am elected.”
Campaigning aside, Brown is still facing the issue of whether he can run or not. While the state courts ruled the seat should be open for all who qualified, Bob Harms and Theresa Graham — both of whom originally qualified to run against Jabour — have filed an appeal to keep the race between the two of them. According to Brown, that final appeal is set for Monday.
According to the elections office, whoever wins the two races will serve the remaining three years of Jones’ and Jabour’s terms and be eligible to run for another two full terms.
Qualifying ends Friday at noon.
Who else is in?
According to the Supervisor of Elections Web site, as of 10 p.m. Monday the following candidates have qualified for the Aug. 26 primary:
State Representative
Dist. 13 — Jennifer Carroll (incumbent)
Dist. 14 — Pat Lockett-Felder
Dist. 15 — Audrey Gibson (incumbent)
Dist. 16 — Charles McBurney (incumbent)
Dist. 17 — Lake Ray and Mario Rubio
Dist. 18 — Elaine Brown, Jack Capra, Ronald Renaurt and Dave Smith
Dist. 19 — Larry Jones and Mike Weinstein
City Council
Dist. 10 — King Holzendorf
At-Large Group 2 — Dick Brown, Bob Harms and Jill Marie Smith