Runoff Elections for Jacksonville Sheriff May 19th 2015

[Cheshire Cat]

One week ago today we learned which two individuals of the seven candidates would be the men in the runoff for the Office of Sheriff.  Most political watchers knew that Ken Jefferson, one of two Dem's on the ticket, would be in the runoff because of his name recognition in Jacksonville largely due to this his time with News4Jax.  The real question was which one of the other six would be in the race with him.  I had guessed it would be Williams or Holderfield and as it turns out it was Williams who pulled out in second place ahead of Holderfield by a scant 1.82%.

Of the two Dems on the ticket Jefferson got 36.42% of the vote, most assuredly a majority of Dems followed by Cummings who came away with 5.59%.

Of five Rep candidates on the ticket it was Williams at 22.27% and Holderfield at 20.45%  With the other three republicans making up the remaining 15.27 %. 

Taking all the numbers at face value it would appear that Williams has the edge in the upcoming contest but that is not assured.  It depends upon where the 15.27% of the republican vote goes.  I don't see Jefferson pulling much of that.  As it stand if Jefferson gets all of Cummings votes he will still by needing an additional 7.99% plus one vote to pull out a win.  A couple of things to keep in mind.  One is that of the voters who turned out to vote all races last week, 2,222 did not cast a vote for sheriff.  Clearly the candidates need to work on getting those votes on the ballots.  The second thing is that generally there is a slight uptick in voting turnout during the runoff for mayor and it's anyone's guess how much of a difference that will make in the final numbers.  At this stage Jefferson has some catching up to do but Williams cannot rest on his laurels at this point.  I expect a vigorous campaign to the finish. 

[tufsu1]

^ I voted for Jay Farhat in the first election as I liked him best among the Republicans.  I will be voting for Jefferson in May

[coredumped]

Can't wait for the attack ads to start.

Williams was the worst case scenario, he doesn't answer any questions and is clearly a puppet.

[Cheshire Cat]

Can't wait for the attack ads to start.

Williams was the worst case scenario, he doesn't answer any questions and is clearly a puppet.

I don't think we will see attack ads this time around.  There will be two distinctly different campaign styles and the votes will divide along racial and party lines for the most part with some wash over on both sides.  Both are qualified and have their own set of skills and appeal.

[Scarlettjax]

An interview from each of the candidates can be found here:

http://news.wjct.org/programs/first-coast-connect

Good information that may help people determine where they want be for the next four years.

[Cheshire Cat]

To keep things updated there are two recent developments in this race.  One being the endorsement of Holderfield for Jefferson.  Holderfield took 20.45% of the vote.  Jay Farhat has given his endorsement to Williams.  Farhat took 8.64% of the vote.  McDonald also endorsed Williams.  McDonald took 1.79% of the vote.  Of course candidates like the endorsements of others because they often come with a number of votes attached to them.  Some politico's are trying to read the tea leaves and the numbers and have gone so far as to predict the outcome of the race by using the endorsements as a measure.  While they can be an indicator they are not evidence of what people will actually do on May 19th.  Holderfield is a republican and Jefferson is a democrat.  Hard to measure how many of his "R" voters will vote for a democrat.  Cummings the only other democrat in the race has remained mum.  It is doubtful that he will support Jefferson as he looked to portray Jefferson as a criminal over a dust up with regard to political signs.  That leaves a single republican candidate, the one T.U. endorsed in the person of Schoonover.  He also has given no endorsement.  I think we can safely say that the majority of the voters who supported other republican candidates will line up behind Williams.  This is all going to be decided in my opinion by how many voters turn out to vote for mayor and how many of Holderfield's supporters will actually vote for Jefferson.  Inferences can be drawn but with six weeks until the May 19th election it is too soon to call this race.  Things can happen to and for both candidates between now and then.  The election will also be to my eye evidence of just how deep of a chasm really exists between the brass and the rank in file of the JSO. 

[Jax native]

While i agree with the thoughts on not knowing how specific an endorsement would assist the candidates, but as a Democrat who voted for Republican for mayor, I do not find it difficult to imagine Republicans voting for a Democrat Sheriff.  I think Holderfields endorsement is the biggest one so far, but yes we will have to wait to see how many people actually go out to vote in May.

[Jax native]

MJ (NOT MJ personally, computer) wouldn't allow me to edit, so I'm posting again my entire comment. 

While I agree with the thoughts on not knowing how specific an endorsement would assist the candidates, but as a Democrat who voted for Republican for mayor, I do not find it difficult to imagine Republicans voting for a Democrat Sheriff.  I think Holderfields endorsement is the biggest one so far, but yes we will have to wait to see how many people actually go out to vote in May.

Also, I will add that before primary, I did speak with more than 4 candidates, I felt would represent me.  While not naming names. and I did not speak to Mike Williams, every single candidate was quietly speaking up for the idea of opposing Rutherfords office.  Many would  not speak publicly but the ones I  talked to, disagree w/ Sheriff Rutherford and his politics.  The backlash would be fast & brutal saying things out loud about current JSO, but I didn't find anyone who was pro status quo.  Only my opinion for anyone looking for a link. 

[mtraininjax]

While I agree with the thoughts on not knowing how specific an endorsement would assist the candidates, but as a Democrat who voted for Republican for mayor, I do not find it difficult to imagine Republicans voting for a Democrat Sheriff.  I think Holderfields endorsement is the biggest one so far, but yes we will have to wait to see how many people actually go out to vote in May.

Holderfield supporting Jefferson is a joke, and as Jefferson peels back the onion with Holderfield, my bet is he will not like what he sees. Holderfield was the Good Ol Boy network. Apparenly no one really gets that, so when you look at what Holderfield stood for (he was going to fire all the people who investigated Cuba as FOP president), there is a lot of dirty laundry there with Holderfield, so this may be the best thing for Williams, who has the administrations backing.

Jefferson does not bring anything new and exciting to the office worthy of Republicans to jump up and vote for him. I'm sure we will see a slew of articles that show people jumping off the Williams bandwagon though over the next few weeks. Can't wait for it!

[Cheshire Cat]

While I agree with the thoughts on not knowing how specific an endorsement would assist the candidates, but as a Democrat who voted for Republican for mayor, I do not find it difficult to imagine Republicans voting for a Democrat Sheriff.  I think Holderfields endorsement is the biggest one so far, but yes we will have to wait to see how many people actually go out to vote in May.

Holderfield supporting Jefferson is a joke, and as Jefferson peels back the onion with Holderfield, my bet is he will not like what he sees. Holderfield was the Good Ol Boy network. Apparenly no one really gets that, so when you look at what Holderfield stood for (he was going to fire all the people who investigated Cuba as FOP president), there is a lot of dirty laundry there with Holderfield, so this may be the best thing for Williams, who has the administrations backing.

Jefferson does not bring anything new and exciting to the office worthy of Republicans to jump up and vote for him. I'm sure we will see a slew of articles that show people jumping off the Williams bandwagon though over the next few weeks. Can't wait for it!

The thing about all of this is that the general public is completely unaware of these internal drama's and will not be choosing a candidate based upon what happened within the department, save those involved in the JSO.  This information would have been known by others but it would appear that most of the candidates for sheriff decided not to go negative save a few swiped made by Tony Cummings which did not amount too much. 

[mtraininjax]

The thing about all of this is that the general public is completely unaware of these internal drama's and will not be choosing a candidate based upon what happened within the department, save those involved in the JSO.  This information would have been known by others but it would appear that most of the candidates for sheriff decided not to go negative save a few swiped made by Tony Cummings which did not amount too much.

There are 2 very different races, the first to get you to a runoff, and what you will do to get elected.

No one knows ANYTHING about Jefferson, other than his time on Channel 4. Lumb is still pissed at Holderfield, my bet is the gloves come off toward the end of this month beginning of next. Jefferson has some skeletons in his closet we are beginning to get wind of.....not gonna speculate what comes out, but you do what you have to do to get elected.

[Cheshire Cat]

The thing about all of this is that the general public is completely unaware of these internal drama's and will not be choosing a candidate based upon what happened within the department, save those involved in the JSO.  This information would have been known by others but it would appear that most of the candidates for sheriff decided not to go negative save a few swiped made by Tony Cummings which did not amount too much.

There are 2 very different races, the first to get you to a runoff, and what you will do to get elected.

No one knows ANYTHING about Jefferson, other than his time on Channel 4. Lumb is still pissed at Holderfield, my bet is the gloves come off toward the end of this month beginning of next. Jefferson has some skeletons in his closet we are beginning to get wind of.....not gonna speculate what comes out, but you do what you have to do to get elected.

What skeletons are you referring to?  I know of some bumps when he worked for the JSO but don't know that they qualify as skeletons.