Voters in Winter Park elected incumbent City Commissioner Sheila DeCiccio as its new mayor, while in Maitland, voters overwhelmingly decided to borrow money to build a new library.
Races were decided in eight Orange County municipalities, though turnout was a measly 18.6%, according to unofficial results posted Tuesday evening by interim Supervisor of Elections Glen Gilzean.
The low-turnout election still drew a relative deluge of Republican voters, likely motivated by the presence of former President Donald Trump atop their ballots. The state’s Democratic Party called off its primary, awarding the state to Joe Biden, which may have kept many of its voters – in one of the state’s liberal bastions – at home. In all, 79% of ballots counted Tuesday were cast by registered Republicans, records show.
But there were no immediate indications that the GOP skew swung any local races.
DeCiccio’s victory marked perhaps the highest profile win of the evening, as one of just two mayoral races on area ballots (the other was in much smaller Oakland). In Winter Park, day-to-day operations are handled by the city manager, though the mayor and fellow commissioners help set the agenda and drive priorities. She defeated Michael Cameron, who ran a low-profile campaign, for a three-year term, and ran on a platform of prioritizing infrastructure updates and improvements in the city.
In winning election, she said she was the first woman to be mayor of the city.
“I’m looking forward to making the city the best it can be for now and for future generations,” she said moments before giving a victory speech. “The residents want us to maintain the culture, want us to maintain the charm, want us to work on the infrastructure: I have a mandate and I’m going to do all that I said.”
The city will have to wait a few more weeks to determine who will be filling DeCiccio’s seat on the board. A three-way race for the post heads to a run-off between Craig Russell and Jason Johnson, the two highest vote-getters Tuesday. Russell received 42% of ballots, and Johnson 34%.
The run-off is scheduled for April 16.
In Maitland, city officials asked voters to support a $14 million bond to build a new library at Quinn Strong Park and fund improvements to its current library, built in 1907. Ultimately, the library effort prevailed with 62% of the vote.
The new library comes at a cost of more than $100 annually for the typical Maitland homeowner. The proposed building would be two stories, and 20,000 square feet. The current library is about 12,000 square feet, which officials say they’ve outgrown.
The library question also prompted opposition from a group called Maitland’s Folly, which appears to have violated state campaign laws by not disclosing its origins, and soon after distributing mailers, deleted its website.
In Apopka, Nick Nesta held onto his seat, winning 61% of ballots against Eric Mock. Newcomer Nadia Anderson won 55% of ballots over Darryl Richardson for Seat 3 on the city council. Anderson replaces Kyle Becker, who didn’t seek another term.
Ocoee voters narrowly elected George Oliver III to the city council to finish out the final year of a term he initially won three years ago. Oliver defeated Nate Robertson, an ordained minister and vice president of an anti-abortion group.
Oliver vacated the post to run for Mayor last year. Florida law required Oliver, the first Black candidate ever elected to office in Ocoee, to resign to run for mayor. He ultimately lost that race.
In Winter Garden, Chloe Johnson won 68% of the vote to win in District 3. She faced Karen McNeil.
And in District 2, Iliana Ramos Jones and Ron Mueller will head to a runoff next month, as neither candidate surpassed the 50%-plus-1-vote threshold needed to win outright.
Eatonville decided to put Tarus Mack back on the town council, at least for now closing the book on a saga between Mack and Marlin Daniels that saw both of them spend time on the board in the past four years.
Their race in 2020 was initially decided by one vote in Mack’s favor, but 19 months later he had to give up the seat to Daniels after a judge threw out two ballots that went for Mack.
In this year’s rendition Mack received about 56% of the vote, or a 45-vote margin.
Shane Taylor is the new mayor in the Town of Oakland, after winning 65% of ballots. He faced Sal Ramos.
While the races determined in local cities Tuesday were non-partisan, decisions by Florida’s Republicans and Democrats may have played a role in the vote tallies.
The electorates in three of the region’s most consequential contests feature slim margins between the two parties, and sizable numbers of voters affiliated with neither party. That means factors that boost one party’s turnout or diminish another’s — as the presidential primaries did — can be critical, especially in races where conservative voters and liberal voters might take different sides. Nevertheless, it was difficult to detect those effects in any individual races Tuesday night.
In Winter Park, Democrats make up 35.4% of registered voters, compared to Republicans at 38% – which amounts to a 600 voter edge for the GOP.
In Winter Garden, Democrats make up 33.3% of the electorate while Republicans account for 35.6%, about a 700-voter difference, in a city of more than 30,000 registered voters.
In Maitland, Democrats hold a narrow edge of about 150 voters: 36.2% of voters are Democrats, compared to 35% Republicans.
