Mayor Alvin Brown was the choice of the executive board of the Jacksonville Association of Fire Fighters.
But not enough members agreed, with Brown failing to win the needed two-thirds of the votes cast this week to gain the group’s official endorsement.
Randy Wyse, president of the union, said the mayor received a majority of the 158 votes cast. He said 1,300 members and retirees were eligible to vote, with the percentage actually voting this year about average.
Wyse believes it’s the first time since he joined the department in 1988 that the group did not endorse a mayoral candidate.
Endorsements from the police and fire unions typically are coveted by candidates. The unions provide a strong workforce, make and put up signs, knock on doors and can bring in votes.
Wyse said the 11-member board interviewed Brown and Lenny Curry for more than an hour each. It later recommended Brown receive the endorsement.
Members were voting only on whether the union should back Brown, Wyse said.
He said the question of endorsing Brown would not be voted on again. “The membership has spoken,” Wyse said.
It’s the second time Brown failed to receive the union’s endorsement, losing out to Mike Hogan in 2011.
Brown’s spokesman Fabien Levy said Friday morning the mayor was proud to receive the backing of the majority of those who voted.
The executive board did not talk with candidate and City Council member Bill Bishop, who has said he would not seek nor accept endorsements or contributions from public unions or their leadership.
Council has spent months debating Brown’s public safety pension-reform proposal, including changes in benefits and how to pay down the more than $1.6 billion unfunded liability.
Wyse would not disclose what specific topics were discussed in the interviews with Brown and Curry, saying only they had a “complex discussion” about “various issues.”
Steve Amos, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said the union plans to complete its interviews with the mayoral candidates by the end of the month.
He said all four candidates, including Omega Allen, would be invited.
The FOP endorsement is not decided by a vote among members, Amos said.
Instead, the candidates will be interviewed by a panel that includes representatives from other FOP lodges in the county and the district director. Amos said the panel will have as many as 10-12 people on it.
He said key issues to be discussed include pension, lack of raises since 2006 and the candidates’ plans for the quality of life in the city.
The panel then decides who, if anyone, the FOP will endorse. In 2011, the police union endorsed Hogan.
Amos said he can’t recall the union not endorsing a mayoral candidate in recent history.
Both he and Wyse said the endorsements of the unions are highly sought after by candidates.
“Some of the best citizens in the county are policemen and firemen. You’ve got the top of the heap right there,” Amos said.
Matthew Corrigan, chair of the University of North Florida’s Political Science and Public Administration Department, said the unions’ endorsements have been critical in previous elections.
He said the endorsements helped John Peyton make it through a crowded field into the second election in 2003. He defeated Nat Glover in that election to win his first term as mayor.
The endorsement doesn’t always bring a victory, Corrigan said, citing Hogan’s loss to Brown as an example.
Corrigan said it was interesting that Brown was “even under heavy consideration because he brought forth a pension proposal.”
But after the months of discussions, Corrigan said, it looks like Brown’s deal may be better than one the unions could get elsewhere.
“If you had told me at the beginning of the pension process that he (Brown) would get considered, it would have been surprising,” Corrigan said.
He said union endorsements used to be an unquestioned positive, but they can be more mixed these days, especially among some conservatives.
“At the end of the day, especially since this looks like a close (mayor’s) race, it’s a positive,” Corrigan said.
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