JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Both candidates running to become Jacksonville’s next mayor were hot on the campaign trail Wednesday night.
Live on News4JAX, Democratic candidate Donna Deegan answered questions important to voters during a mayoral forum.
At the same time, Republican Daniel Davis, who declined an invitation to the mayoral forum hosted by local media organizations, was across town at the Fraternal Order of Police for a forum where he was speaking to voters.
Both candidates were busy getting out their message.
“My message to the voters is we can change this city for good. And we can be a city that brings all of us in and make this a city that doesn’t work for a handful of people but works for all of us,” Deegan said.
Speaking at the exact same, Davis spoke at the police union headquarters with other elected figures.
Davis’s event focused on issues with schools.
“Everybody’s talking about wanting safer streets and education is part of that. We have to make sure that our children have a first-class education and opportunity for a job,” Davis said.
News4JAX spoke to both candidates after their events and asked them about the issue of policing which has become central in the campaign with Davis framing Deegan as anti-police and Deegan saying he’s intentionally mischaracterizing her.
“He has been telling and creating lies about me this entire campaign. I was very grateful that [former] Sheriff Nat Glover came out in a commercial today and said stop the lying,” Deegan said. “It is time to bring this community together. And if someone is going to conduct themselves like that in a campaign. I think they will conduct themselves like that as mayor. So I would ask people to consider that.”
“Every one of the marketing pieces or commercials that you’ve seen have been my opponent’s own words and you have someone who is going to stand with the sheriff’s office and police to make sure have safe streets,” Davis said. “You either have someone who wants to hold the sheriff accountable or the criminals accountable. I’m going to hold the criminals accountable because I think they should be put in jail.”
The two are now in the home stretch going into election day which is less than two weeks away as they make their final pitch to voters.
“We talk to undecided voters every day. We’re in the neighborhoods every single day speaking to hundreds and hundreds of people. Personally close to 4,000 doors I’ve knocked on in this campaign and the issue is public safety,” Davis said.
“Well, I would just ask you to look around you and are you happy with the way city government is running. Are you happy with the fact that we have 4 times per capita the murder rate of New York City,” Deegan said.