Candidates' final push for votes underway
With just one week until Election Day, voters hear closing arguments from candidates
March 11, 2024
By Beth Kassab
With just seven days until election day, candidates are making a final push for votes this week and the latest financial reports reveal who leads in campaign spending and fundraising.
Jason Johnson and Craig Russell, both running for Seat 2 on the City Commission, released dueling closing argument emails over the weekend.
“The results of this race could come down to just a handful of votes,” read an email to voters from Russell’s campaign manager.
The coach and teacher at Winter Park High School is running “to promote transparency, accountability and representation for all our residents,” the email stated.
Russell is bringing the biggest money to the race with his campaign spending $42,000 so far — more than the other two candidates in his race as well the two candidates in the mayor’s race.
The difference is even more stark when coupled with the money raised by the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce’s political action committee known as Winter PAC, which raised $21,000 and spent more than $10,000 on Russell’s behalf, according to the reports filed with the city clerk. Russell is the only candidate endorsed by the chamber.
Contributions to the PAC include $7,500 from developer Allan Keen and his wife and one of his business entities, Development Opportunities Holding. Another $1,000 is from Automotive Services Network, a company controlled by the Holler family, which has also been a big contributor to Russell’s campaign account.
The Hollers, which own car dealerships as well as high-visibility Winter Park real estate along Fairbanks, Orange and Park avenues, contributed $8,000 to Russell from their associated businesses. Another $3,000 came from Holler family attorney Frank Hamner and his businesses.
Hamner told the Voice recently that the contributions from himself and the Holler family are unrelated to the family’s development interests in the city and that they know and support Russell as a community and nonprofit leader who serves underprivileged families.
The City Commission balked in January at a request from city staff to include some changes in the comprehensive plan that could potentially make it easier for the Hollers to develop a lot along the busy intersection of Fairbanks Avenue and Denning Drive, where the city is also trying to obtain more land for turn lanes to ease traffic congestion.
At a candidate forum last week at Westminster Winter Park, a senior living community, Russell appeared to indirectly address the money supporting his campaign.
“I’m nobody’s puppet as some of my opponents might believe,” he said, according to a video posted on YouTube of the event. “I speak for the residents and myself and that alone,” noting that he believed in mindful growth “not like Maitland,” in response to a question from the moderator about how Winter Park should balance neighborhood stability with business growth.
Russell also called out what he sees as “an elitist mindset” among current leaders that he says is “creating stagnation in this city that will inhibit its ability to grow.”
Johnson, who has raised $43,000 and spent $32,000, responded by saying the question sounded like “it was drafted by somebody at the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce, whose sole goal is to advance the interests of developers.”
“My job here is to preserve our residential communities,” he said. “We don’t need to pave over this city for commercial development.”
In Johnson’s email to voters over the weekend he attempted to further draw a distinction from his opponent, noting that he was not endorsed by the Chamber.
“I personally consider this a badge of honor,” he wrote. “I oppose the excessive high-rise and high-density developments that the Chamber supports. I support attractive and in-scale development that enhances the charm of Winter Park.”
Stockton Reeves, who has raised $69,000 and spent $42,000, emphasized his long family history in Winter Park and said he believes there is already enough affordable and workforce housing in the city. Most of his campaign funds have come in the form of a loan — worth $53,000 — from himself.
If one of the three candidates does not capture more than 50% of the vote on March 19, then the top two vote getters will head into a runoff to be decided on April 16.
In the mayor’s race, Sheila DeCiccio, the current vice mayor, has raised more than $40,000 and spent $30,000 so far. In recent days she has sent out an email thanking supporters and inviting them to an election night party.
DeCiccio also appeared at a forum at Westminster and, as has become a pattern in her race, she was the only candidate to show up.
Michael Cameron, her opponent, has not appeared at any of the public forums or at either private forum held for seniors at the Westminster and Mayflower communities.
He has raised $5,700 and spent nearly all of that on a political consulting firm.
WinterParkVoiceEditor@gmail.com
-
By: Beth Kassab
No biography available at this time
-
For those of you who—like me—thought to write off Jason Johnson because Alan Grayson (the worst politician in Florida history) contributed to his campaign, please do as I did and ask Mr. Johnson about it. I was satisfied with his answer and voted for him.
Never in my life did I think I would vote for anyone who Alan Grayson supported, but I did. I really hope Mr. Johnson doesn’t let us down and keeps Winter Park like Winter Park. There was a certain short lived commissioner a few years back who caved to developers and let me down…..
I voted, but not for him. What was his answer that cleared up your decision?
We’re almost there. I am confident that Sheila will win with at least 90% of the votes as I haven’t heard anything about her opponent. I am not so sure about the commissioners, but I am favoring Jason by a small margin. I think Craig will have a strong following from those who would like to see Winter Park expand (the Chamber-Development Crew) and he will also attract the young vote (the 18-24 demographic), that is, if they vote. Jason will have the support of a majority who want to keep Winter Park similar to what it is now and these 40+ year olds tend to vote in most of the elections. Stockton will have a traditional following of his wide network and that might pull some votes from Jason. A runoff could occur as well. But if we use the history of the previous election, and the differentiation of city ideologies, Jason and Sheila have it.
I 100% believe in property rights. However, certain developers and certain big property owners constantly push for variances that will maximize their profit and result in crowding, diminishing our quality of life (that we are paying the big Winter Park bucks for). You can develop to your heart’s content, but do it WITHIN EXISTING CODE.
No matter how kind, friendly and community-oriented your shiny red herring of a candidate is….we’ve all picked up on your fishiness.
I find it interesting and bewildering that the Sentinel would endorse a candidate that they did not even talk to. Jason Johnson was the only candidate who accepted the invitation for an interview with the Sentinel for seat 2 on the Winter Park Commission.
Wrong. Craig Russell was interviewed by the Sentinel and they posted a video of their interview with Craig to their YouTube page.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKGEX7EuJlHb1wZkOQey0ZMOYHvM3lom8
They also a posted a video of their interview with Shelia DeCiccio. To be fair, they may have interviewed the other candidates, but decided to post the interviews of the candidates the Orlando Sentinel endorsed: Shelia DeCiccio for Mayor and Craig Russell for Seat 2.
This is not wholly accurate.
All candidates for Seat 2 were invited to attend a joint interview at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 7. The interview was recorded, and at the beginning of the interview the Editorial Board promised that the recorded interview would be uploaded to the Sentinel’s website.
If they interviewed Mr. Russell, they did so despite the fact that:
(a) he failed to show up for the pre-scheduled interview all candidates were asked to attend, and for which the Sentinel Opinions Editor stated at the beginning of the interview that while the third candidate would not be participating, Mr. Russell had confirmed his participation (I even insisted that we wait approximately 10 minutes to begin the interview, to give Mr. Russell a chance to appear—and the Opinions Editor called Mr. Russell, who did not answer his phone); and
(b) the Opinions Editor confirmed after the conclusion of the interview that they would not be rescheduling the interview for anyone who failed to attend.
I am not sure why the Sentinel’s Editorial Board chose to break their promises to publish the recorded, pre-scheduled interview and to not reschedule the interview for someone who failed to appear, but the endorsement itself probably explains their rationale.
It appears that someone at the Sentinel read or learned about my comment above, as they finally decided to post the originally-scheduled joint interview to their YouTube page.
I welcome all undecided voters to review both interviews before casting their votes.
https://youtu.be/prnSxCfIo_4?si=CHO7Mnk23KU9cKoB
LOL at Stockton “We already have enough affordable housing” Reeves