JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Monday was the first day candidates for this year’s Jacksonville mayoral race could qualify.
Now, the field stands at nine with Republican LeAnna Cumber filling her paperwork Monday morning.
Cumber joined eight others who have filed to run for the mayor including Omega Allen, Daniel Davis, Donna Deegan, Al Ferraro, Audrey Gibson, Brian Griffin, Frankie Keasler Jr., Darcy Richardson and Theresa Richardson.
Political experts said it’s already a crowded field.
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The Fraternal Order of Police announced Monday it’s backing Republican Davis as its pick for the office of mayor.
FOP president Randy Reeves announced that former Florida House Representative Davis has earned the police organization’s endorsement.
“I’m honored to have this,” Davis said. “I have shown the track record on the city council, when I was city council president.”
Davis promises that if he’s elected, he’ll make police and safety one of his priorities. Cumber spoke along the same party lines.
“Every child in this city should live in a safe environment, community, and have control of their child’s education, we can make this city incredible and amazing for years to come,” Cumber said.
UNF Political Science Professor Michael Binder expects Jacksonville voters to be inundated with political literature and television ads as early as this week.
“It’s showtime, right?” he said. “Now the election is two months away, we’re going to be seeing and hearing a lot more from these candidates.”
And because the field is already crowded with 10 mayoral candidates, he doesn’t expect any one candidate to take more than 50% of the vote.
“I don’t anticipate one candidate getting more than 40% of the vote,” Binder said. “You know, I don’t think that this is, with two very competitive well-funded Republicans, two Democrats, both with solid name recognition, one with you know, almost ubiquitous name recognition.”
Binder says one of those Democrats, former TV anchor Donna Deegan will be the first candidate with name recognition to run for Jacksonville mayor.
“That’ll be something to keep an eye on because she did run for Congress a couple of years back and she put together a solid campaign, but she was running it in a district that was difficult for her,” Binder said. “So she has some experience and you know that that’ll be, you know, can she pull moderate voters?”
He anticipates a hotly contested race on the Democratic side between Deegan and former Florida State Senator Audrey Gibson, saying ultimately the race will come down to voter turnout, and their vision for Jacksonville’s future.
“The biggest issue for this mayor is what do you do about the stadium,” Binder said. “There’s going to be a decision that needs to be made by the mayor and city council.”
The city election, which also includes city council races, will take place on March 21 with a runoff on May 16 if necessary.