Thoughts on the Primary Part II: Who Were the Candidates?

A picture of an Andy Marlette Cartoon similar to this one (above) hangs currently outside the office of the District 2 Escambia County Commissioner.  My version is much better though!

Now that the race for the District 1 Commissioner is over, and I have prevailed, there have been some lingering questions put to me by some friends and also some online haters about this race.  Because I won in the primary and there is no General Election opponent of a different party--I will (if the Good Lord wills it and I don't die) serve the next 4 years and 3 months as the D1 commissioner.  But there are curious questions out there from some.....

So I'm going to go through some of the salient aspects of the race over the next week in a series of blog posts and then this one will officially be in the history books and my rear-view mirror forever as I serve the next nearly 51 months as commissioner, as the 2020 victor in this race.

After my General Election victory in November of 2016 by a 69%-31% Margin--- I knew I was going to run for re-election for my D1 commission seat in 2020--as there were/are a ton of issues in the works for which I wanted to see to completion. So I pre-filed early, in October of 2018.  I subsequently mapped out a fundraising strategy that included two (2) major fundraisers in 2019 (March and October) which were smashing successes and which allowed me the war-chest necessary to conduct a proper and successful campaign.

On April 2nd of 2019 (my birthday), Jesse Casey pre-filed to run against me.  This would be his third run at the office--after having been defeated in both the 2012 and 2016 primary elections.  Full disclosure-I think highly of Jesse;  I even hired him to do some concrete work at my house in early 2018.  And he did great work on a concrete slab at my house.  At the completion of that project he and I were talking, and I asked if he was going to run again, against me, and he was honest and forthright saying "Yes, I'm probably going to run again."  And he did.

In January of 2020 District 2 Commissioner Doug Underhill's office aide had received an attorney's opinion that he could keep his job with D2 at the county while also running in a partisan election against me for the D1 seat.  So Jonathan Owens, office aide to Doug Underhill,  pre-filed to run in early January of this year to run against me as well.

(The PNJ took interest in this race early, and asked my opinion about it.  I correctly predicted the outcome in this PNJ article from January 10th when I stated there would be no change to whom it was that occupied this seat after the primary.  I was right.)

Early in the spring of 2020, the fourth candidate, Jimmie Trotter, pre-filed.

So we had a four-man Republican primary race, and upon the final date for candidate filing when no NPA or DEM candidate filed--I knew it would be an election settled in the primary.

I also knew it would be an election that would not have a runoff, as in Florida---partisan primary runoff elections have been discontinued for years.  

It would be an election where the candidate with the most votes on primary election day, August 18th, would be the victor.