Cumber joined eight others who have filed to run for the mayor including Omega Allen, Daniel Davis, Donna Deegan, Al Ferraro, Audrey Gibson, Brian Griffin, Frankie Keasler Jr., Darcy Richardson and Theresa Richardson.
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“I’m honored to have this, ” Davis said. “I have shown the track record on the city council, when I was city council president.”
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Davis promises that if he’s elected, he’ll make police and safety one of his priorities. Cumber spoke along the same party lines.
“Every child in this city should live in a safe environment, community, and have control of their child’s education, we can make this city incredible and amazing for years to come, ” Cumber said.
UNF Political Science Professor Michael Binder expects Jacksonville voters to be inundated with political literature and television ads as early as this week.
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“It’s showtime, right?” he said. “Now the election is two months away, we’re going to be seeing and hearing a lot more from these candidates.”
And because the field is already crowded with 10 mayoral candidates, he doesn’t expect any one candidate to take more than 50% of the vote.
“I don’t anticipate one candidate getting more than 40% of the vote, ” Binder said. “You know, I don’t think that this is, with two very competitive well-funded Republicans, two Democrats, both with solid name recognition, one with you know, almost ubiquitous name recognition.”
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Binder says one of those Democrats, former TV anchor Donna Deegan will be the first candidate with name recognition to run for Jacksonville mayor.
“That’ll be something to keep an eye on because she did run for Congress a couple of years back and she put together a solid campaign, but she was running it in a district that was difficult for her, ” Binder said. “So she has some experience and you know that that’ll be, you know, can she pull moderate voters?”
He anticipates a hotly contested race on the Democratic side between Deegan and former Florida State Senator Audrey Gibson, saying ultimately the race will come down to voter turnout, and their vision for Jacksonville’s future.
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“The biggest issue for this mayor is what do you do about the stadium, ” Binder said. “There’s going to be a decision that needs to be made by the mayor and city council.”
The city election, which also includes city council races, will take place on March 21 with a runoff on May 16 if necessary.JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Duval voters are already casting ballots to decide the next Mayor of Jacksonville and a newly released poll from St. Pete Polls gives us our first glimpse into who they may be favoring.
Leading the pack of the seven candidates listed in the poll was Democrat Donna Deegan, who pulled nearly twice as much as any other candidate.
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Deegan had led in previous polls as well, but what is more surprising about the new findings is how the crowded Republican field is shaking out.
In an interview today she said, while the findings are certainly a welcome sign, she’s not taking a victory lap just yet.
“The most important polls to me are the polls that the voters that we talk to in the neighborhoods, walking, knocking doors, having community meetings, those are the voices that matter to me, ” said Deegan.
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The new poll shows 17.5 percent of voters support Davis, meanwhile, just 4.1 percent of voters said they’d vote for Cumber if the election were held today.
“We never needed the millions of dollars of special interest money my opponents received. It’s the voters who decide elections, not lobbyists, ” said Ferraro in a statement.
/arc-goldfish-cmg-thumbnails.s3.amazonaws.com/02-15-2023/t_38a25b07eafb4e50ac83247a23132c77_name_file_960x540_1200_v3_1_.jpg?strip=all "Donna Deegan Leads In Newly Released Jacksonville Mayor's Race Poll")
Only two candidates can advance to May, assuming no one candidate pulls more than 50 percent of the vote in the March Unitary Election.
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But UNF Political Science Professor Dr. Michael Binder noted with nearly 20% of voters still undecided, there’s plenty of time left for things to change.
“There’s a lot of ‘don’t knows’ in that field. There is a window for Al Ferraro, right? There’s a window for LeAnna Cumber to come back, ” said Binder.
Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live.The seven Jacksonville mayoral candidates plans to interview in the coming weeks. (Copyright 2023 by WJXT - All rights reserved.)
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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – In the coming weeks, is planning to sit down with all eight candidates who are running for Jacksonville mayor in the 2023 election.
This Week In Jacksonville host Kent Justice will have each of the candidates on his show starting this week for in-depth interviews.
Kent will start by speaking with three of the candidates on Thursday for his show that airs on Sunday morning on . His first group interview will feature two candidates that have already made headlines with their attack ads in recent weeks — Republicans LeAnna Cumber and Daniel Davis. Perennial candidate Omega Allen, who is not affiliated with any party, will also be on the show this week.
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Kent is known around for being prepared with a long list of relevant questions for everyone he interviews, but this time we need your help.
As part of our Your Voice Matters campaign, we want to hear the questions you have for the candidates and what issues matter most to you heading into the March election.
Fill out the form at the bottom of this story to ask your questions and we will pick some to ask the candidates. You can either ask a general question or ask a question of a specific candidate.
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The whole idea is that we want voters to tell us what is important to people living in Jacksonville, not the candidates.
Next week, Democrats Donna Deegan and Audrey Gibson will be joined by Republican Al Ferraro. The week after that, the final two qualified candidates will be interviewed: Republican Frank Keasler and write-in candidate Brian Griffin.
We plan to write stories about each of the candidates and their responses so you know where they stand on important issues, so look out for that starting next week.
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Digital reporter who has lived in Jacksonville for more than 25 years and focuses on important local issues like education and the environment.