JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – With the mayoral race now in the runoffs, new campaign ads for the remaining candidates are now airing.
Democrat Donna Deegan’s campaign began airing her ad called “Unity” the day after the election last month while an ad paid for by the Republican Party of Duval County on behalf of Daniel Davis also started airing recently.
News4JAX’s political analyst said the ads are strategic and reflect the approach of both campaigns.
In the latest ad campaign from Deegan, she describes how she’s familiar with the city, what she’ll do for it and how she plans to get things done.
“For Donna Deegan her ad went up first,” political analyst Rick Mullaney said.
Mullaney said the ad Deegan did for herself is a sharp contrast from an ad paid for by the Republican Party on behalf of Davis.
In the ad supporting Davis, Deegan is seen saying she went to every Black Lives Matter protest in Jacksonville following the murder of George Floyd. That statement is followed by videos showing the downtown protest that turned violent in May 2020. The ad also includes a clip that shows Deegan calling for a “civilian review board that helps to hold our police officers accountable.”
“This reflects two different strategic approaches as we approach the runoff. On the Deegan side, she’s remaining positive and trying to define herself. On the Davis campaign, instead of defining himself, he’s trying to define Donna Deegan on an important issue of public safety,” Mullaney said.
Mullaney said the strategy of defining his opponent first is one that’s worked for him before and is favorable to his campaign. Mullaney said Davis did the same thing on his way to defeating Republican candidates Leanna Cumber and Al Ferraro.
With weeks left before the runoff, Mullaney said it’s not certain if future ads that come out will be more contentious but added when it comes down to the last week, expect something more favorable for each.
“Ideally you like to finish positively going into Election Day but that may be affected by what the internal polling shows at the time. If you see a lot of negative ads the week before from one side or another that can be an indicator that someone is trailing,” Mullaney said.
News4JAX reached out to the Deegan campaign for comment but we haven’t heard anything back yet.
News4JAX also reached out to the Davis campaign.
“Donna Deegan stands with defund the police radicals and thinks our police are the problem. She wants to hold police accountable. Daniel Davis wants to hold criminals accountable,” the Davis campaign wrote in a statement.