St. Johns County Commissioner Race

[marcuscnelson]

This year is looking to be pretty interesting for politics in St. Johns County. For the first time in a long time a County Commission seat is up for grabs between a Democrat and a Republican, both newcomers.

Joe McAnarney (D):
http://electjoemack.com
https://www.facebook.com/JoeMcAnarney

Christian Whitehurst (R):
https://electwhitehurst.com
https://www.facebook.com/WhitehurstForStJohns

[jaxlongtimer]

Was surprised Jimmy Johns, the incumbent, lost the race and badly.  That is, until I looked at the financial reports for the candidates and saw that Whitehurst raised almost all his money (more than any other candidate) from developers, left and right, including Nocatee (multiple companies giving the maximum) and Sleiman, among the many, and numerous PAC's with the same out-of-town address.

If Whitehurst wins, which is likely given the (R) by his name, I would expect he will be beholden to the development community, big time.  Just like Curry is in Jax.  St. Johns citizens asleep at the wheel, just like in Duval, unfortunately.

[marcuscnelson]

Was surprised Jimmy Johns, the incumbent, lost the race and badly.  That is, until I looked at the financial reports for the candidates and saw that Whitehurst raised almost all his money (more than any other candidate) from developers, left and right, including Nocatee (multiple companies giving the maximum) and Sleiman, among the many, and numerous PAC's with the same out-of-town address.

Let me give you a brief rundown on recent politics in St. Johns County. Jimmy Johns lost for two reasons:

• He pissed off everyone by being openly beholden to the development community (after their contributions to his campaign), approving projects left and right faster than infrastructure could keep up.
• (the more important reason) He pissed off the Ponte Vedra-based business and political classes by rejecting proposals to rebuild their beaches and ignoring their infrastructure complaints as a result of traffic from Nocatee. As a result, they propped up Whitehurst, the former vice chair of the local GOP, and injected tens of thousands of dollars from developer networks and Tallahassee PACs (many of whom, as you said, are based at the same address) into his primary campaign to make him win.

If Whitehurst wins, which is likely given the (R) by his name, I would expect he will be beholden to the development community, big time.  Just like Curry is in Jax.  St. Johns citizens asleep at the wheel, just like in Duval, unfortunately.

The biggest problem for Whitehurst right now is that the Democrat's campaign is stronger than expected, mostly due to a relevant platform and some decent grassroots work. McAnarney has good messaging and can genuinely make a case against developers. His biggest problems are also two-fold:

• Money. Democrats don't have the entrenched powerful local (and not-local) donors that the Republicans do.
• Partisanship. I've been on the front lines in places like Nextdoor and Facebook, and people here literally start frothing at the mouth at the idea of a Democrat as County Commissioner. No Whitehurst supporters I've met can articulate a reason to vote against McAnarney, so they've resorted to just screaming about Portland, Chicago, New York, and the DC area. I've been straight-up told:

I mean that this is a republican county. That is the reason why it is such a nice place to live. Democrats ruin everything they touch. Just look around the country if you need proof. I fled NJ years ago to escape liberal tax tyranny.

Maybe he’s a nice guy but the democrat philosophy is flawed. It is now the party of riots, looting, and outright communism. They care more about illegal aliens then American citizens and freedom can’t afford more democrats in power.

Sorry, Joe might be a nice guy but I will never vote blue. Just look at the city of St Augustine. That’s A good example of liberal carnage on a local level. Removing history and muzzling their constituents. Wasting money on social justice, while their city floods. If the whole county turns blue, It’s lost and I’m gone.

The question for McAnarney is whether he can find enough people who don't cover their ears and start screaming to look at his platform and ponder Whitehurst's developer backing.

[marcuscnelson]

The question for McAnarney is whether he can find enough people who don't cover their ears and start screaming to look at his platform and ponder Whitehurst's developer backing.

The answer is not right now. It was a very good campaign, but especially in the shadow of the national race, he didn't do well. A lot of people simply stuck to party line and moved along. But, there are probably some lessons in there that local Dems can learn from, this being the first partisan countywide campaign in over a decade.