ELECTION 2022: Elections Beginning To Take Shape

In a matter of months, the residents of Volusia & Flagler Counties will head to the polls to participate in a round of elections for their cities, counties, and their state. General Election At the start of 2022, every spot on the Volusia County Council has at least one candidate registered for the general election in August. Already two councilmembers have announced that they will not seek reelection, those councilmembers being At-Large Representative and former County Sheriff Ben Johnson and District 2 Representative Billie Wheeler. Johnson broke the news that he was retiring from the council in a November interview with the Daytona Beach News-Journal. In the wake of that announcement, current District 4 Representative Heather Post in turn announced a run for the spot soon to be left vacant by Johnson. Her run, however, is not uncontested. Also running for the At-Large position is former Port Orange City Manager Jake Johansson, who resigned from the city in November 2020. At the time, Johansson said the reason for his departure was to concentrate on his family and health, and to explore new opportunities. As it turns out, the At-Large position may be one of those new opportunities. So far, Post has raised just $395 for her campaign, while Johansson’s campaign account remains empty, according to the Volusia Supervisor of Elections. Ironically, also running for a spot currently held by an outgoing councilmember is another Port Orange lawmaker. District 2 representative Chase Tramont announced his run for Wheeler’s county seat in April 2021 on the Marc Bernier Show. His announcement came just after Wheeler had announced she did not plan to seek reelection. Also seeking the District 2 seat for the county is Danny Fuqua, who ran against Wheeler in 2020 and lost. There’s also a third candidate in the mix, that candidate being Sons of the Beach President Paul Zimmerman. So far in that race, Tramont has raised $45,131, Fuqua $7,584.70, and Zimmerman $1,997.88. In August 2021, Tramont was also hospitalized with COVID-19. In the run for the District 1 seat, Barbara Girtman seeks reelection against two opponents, small business owner Wallace Bailey, and septic tank contractor Ronnie Mills. Of those candidates, only Girtman and Bailey have raised any funds for their campaigns—Girtman raised $6,510 so far and Bailey raised just $100. In posts on social media about his campaign, Bailey has stated an interest in addressing the issue of violence and bullying in schools, asking supporters their thoughts on a proposal that could bring cameras into classrooms. As of January 12, Incumbent Danny Robins remains the only candidate in the running for the District 3 representative spot. He has raised $56,880 so far, the most for any candidate currently running in Volusia County. In the seat soon to be left vacant by Post, both Ormond Beach Zone 4 Commissioner Rob Littleton and business owner Ken Smith, who previously ran for the Zone 2 city commissioner spot in Ormond Beach, have thrown their hats in the ring. Smith filed his candidacy the same day that Post filed for the At-Large position. In that race, Littleton has raised $3,611.92 and Smith has raised $470. Smith has also raised $979.72 in in-kind contributions. For District 5, two Deltona city commissioners have announced their run for the seat currently occupied by Fred Lowry; those commissioners being District 5’s Victor Ramos and District 6’s David Sosa. Lowry, however, is not seeking reelection for this spot. According to the county’s elections office, Lowry is instead seeking the District 5 School Board Member seat occupied by Ruben Colon. Ramos has raised $11,839 so far, and Sosa just $200. On the topic of school board races, three candidates are filed for the District 1 representative position, including the incumbent Jamie Haynes. Also filed for that seat is Georgann Carnicella, who serves on the Volusia County Children & Families Advisory Board, and Jaclyn Carrell, who is a member of the Mainstreet DeLand Association. Carrell so far has raised the most out of that trio of candidates with $5,050 in contributions. Haynes raised $1,600 so far and Carnicella $775. Two candidates are registered for the District 3 seat held by Linda Cuthbert, who doesn’t seem to be seeking reelection. Registered to run are Volusia County Council of PTAs Treasurer Kimberly Short and PTA President Jessie Thompson. Almost $5,000 has been raised by both candidates, with Short raising $3,145 and Thompson raising $1,720. As previously stated, current Volusia County Councilmember Fred Lowry is running for the District 5 seat currently held by Volusia County School Board Chairman Ruben Colon, who has filed for reelection. Similar to Tramont, Lowry was hospitalized in 2021 for COVID-19. Lowry was also a point of contention for some of Volusia’s black community leaders, who spoke out against Lowry in June 2021 for comments made during a sermon he held just weeks before. Norman Guida and Ronald Jungk also filed their candidacy for the seat, but both have since withdrawn their names from the running. Ruben has raised $22,450 for his campaign, while Lowry has yet to receive or report any contributions. Only one judge has filed for reelection at this point, that judge being Robert Sanders. He has raised $20,700 so far. Two seats on the Palm Coast City Council are up for election this year: the District 2 and District 4 seats. District 2 has attracted Sims Jones in his third bid for the post, newcomer Steffanie Ramsey, and two-time mayoral candidate Alan Lowe. Incumbent Victor Barbosa is seeking a County Commission seat District 4 has drawn campaign coordinator Fernando Melendez and realtor Stephen Swarner. Melendez is known to residents for his work in getting Mayor David Alfin elected in the special election back in June 2021. Incumbent Eddie Branquinho is currently not running for re-election. At the Flagler County level, five candidates have declared across two seats. Incumbent Greg Hansen is currently running for re-election in District 2 unopposed. In District 4, it’s a four-way race; incumbent Joe Mullins is challenged by activists Leann Pennington and Jane Gentile-Youd, along with Palm Coast Councilman Victor Barbosa. The Flagler School Board has three seats up for grabs. Incumbent Jill Woolbright is currently running unopposed in District 1 after winning the special election to replace the outgoing Andy Dance in 2020. Curriculum designer a former educator Courtney VandeBunte is the only declared candidate for District 2, but incumbent Janet McDonald is expected to run again. For District 4, incumbent Trevor Tucker is not expected to run again but is not ruled out. Garrett Decker and Vinson Xavier are currently filed for the seat. Andrea Totten is currently filed to run for County Court Judge, Group 2 after being appointed to the position by Governor Ron DeSantis in 2019. Municipal Elections A number of city seats are up for grabs in the 2022 municipal election, and some candidates are already working to secure their spots. In Daytona Beach, three candidates are registered to run for two seats on the city council. Of those three candidates are two incumbents, Zone 1 Commissioner Ruth Trager and Zone 3 Commissioner Quanita May. At the time of this report, Trager is the only candidate registered for her seat while May faces challenger Steven Miller. So far, Quanita has raised $8,650 and Trager $1,300. Similar to Trager, Ormond Beach Mayor Bill Partington is alone is his run for reelection. He has raised $350 so far. The only other incumbent seeking reelection at this point in Ormond Beach is Zone 3 Commissioner Susan Persis. Lori Tolland is the sole candidate in the race for Ormond’s Zone 1 spot currently held by Commissioner Dwight Selby, who has not filed for reelection. In the race for Zone 4—occupied by Rob Littleton who is seeking the District 4 county seat—both Harold Briley and Brian Nave have filed. There is only one candidate filed for a spot on the Port Orange City Council. That candidate is Cathleen “Kat” Atwood, who has filed their candidacy for District 2, the same district held by the outgoing Chase Tramont. The story is the same for New Smyrna Beach, as Joel Paige is the only candidate filed so far for a city seat. Paige is currently running for the Zone 2 spot held by Commissioner Jake Sachs. In Daytona Beach Shores, Mayor Nancy Miller has filed for reelection and currently runs unopposed. In West Volusia County, three people have filed for the DeLand Mayor and Seat 1 spot on the city commission. That trio of candidates is Seat 4 Commissioner Chris Cloudman, Local Realtor Buz Nesbit, and Pastor Reggie Williams. Currently in that race, Cloudman has $7,850 in contributions, Nesbit $3,000, and Williams $9,999.41. Seat 3 Commissioner Jessica Davis has filed for reelection and is running unopposed as of now. Only one Deltona candidacy has been filed and that’s for the District 1 spot currently held by Commissioner Loren King, who has not filed for reelection. The only candidate filed for that race is Thomas Burbank, owner of Burbank Consulting Services. King was another point of contention for some community members in October when members of the NAACP decried King for his ties to the Oath Keepers, an anti-government militia organization. The group also called for King’s resignation, to which King replied that he wasn’t going anywhere. In a report about King’s Oath Keepers membership, News Daytona Beach also discovered that King is a member of ACT! For America, an anti-Muslim advocate group based in Virginia Beach. The Bunnell City Commission currently has Robert Barnes, Tina Schultz, and Peter Young currently registered, with Catherine Robinson running for another term as Bunnell Mayor. James Howard and Donna Procida are running for Beverly Beach Town Commission. The Flagler Beach City Commission has incumbents Rick Belhumeur and Jane Mealy running for re-election, with James Sherman also vying for a seat. Sean Mooney contributed Volusia County’s election information, while Chris Gollon contributed Flagler County’s.