by Bobby Mermer
Election night was a rough one for progressives and Democrats on the national level. We worked hard here in Alachua County and should be proud of our historic 85% turnout. We were one of only five blue counties in Florida, despite facing national headwinds like inflation.
Here in our solidly blue island in north central Florida there is a lot to celebrate. Our values are clearly on display as we easily re-elected Supervisor of Elections Kim Barton over an election denier propped up by the local Republican Party. We renewed the One Mill for schools, showing we value well-funded schools to offset continued cuts and privatization attempts from Tallahassee.
In Gainesville, voters spoke loud and clear: we demanded home rule for GRU by passing the Local Public Utilities (LPU) referendum by a whopping 73% super majority. Governance of a utility is not easy, but we voted for it to remain in the hands of locally elected, locally accountable city commissioners.
At this writing there is a lawsuit pending, filed by the GRU Authority board. The judge is expected to issue his final ruling in January or February, as both the City and the Authority requested summary judgement. We are hopeful he will respect the will of the voters and allow the DeSantis-appointed Authority board to be dissolved and governance of GRU will return to local voters.
Countywide, there is much to celebrate. We handily re-elected county commissioners Anna Prizzia and Mary Alford by 55% and 64%, respectively. Their re-elections are only part of the victory. With an overwhelming 72% majority, we voted to return to At-Large Districts (ALD) for county commissioners. Every single one of the 63 precincts in the county voted a landslide victory in favor of ALDs. The icing on the cake is that percentage tells us a large portion of registered Republicans voted for this as well!
Feeling that sting are Tim Marden, Chair of the local GOP, dark money-funded local MAGA fixer Stafford Jones, and Rep. Chuck Clemons who put single member districts to the voters last election on the ballot.
We all know karma is a beautiful thing: Not only did both their candidates lose, and lose bigly, but voters from their own party were part of the tsunami of support for ALDs. Ouch! A bi-partisan wave of voters chose unity over division and integrity over deception. We made it clear we want to restore our full representation on the Alachua County Commission.
However, that fight is not over. Sensing a big loss coming on election day, Senator Keith Perry filed a lawsuit in October asking a judge to prevent the implementation of the ALD referendum, which was granted. There will be an appellate hearing on the original ruling soon. We are confident the judge will not ignore the merits of the bi-partisan, supermajority support for a return to ALD.
These local victories show that when we organize, when we donate our time and treasure, when we show up and vote, we can effect change. We can protect what is important to us and make improvements where needed. As the saying goes, “All politics is local!”
Both the ALD and Local Public Utilitiescampaigns had the support and backing of so many organizations, elected officials and community leaders, so many thanks are in order.
For the LPU referendum this victory is owed to a grassroots movement of thousands of ratepayers from every corner of Gainesville as well as The League of Women Voters, Alachua County Labor Coalition, NAACP, AFL-CIO, Sierra Club, IBEW, Community Weatherization Coalition, Gainesville Residents United. We want to extend a special thank you to: Susan Bottcher, Nancy Deren, Maryvonne Devensky, Tyler Foerst, Evelyn Foxx, Jason Fults, Janice Garry, Roberta Gastmeyer, David Hastings, State Rep. Yvonne Hayes Hinson, former County Commissioner Hutch Hutchinson, Jyoti Parmar, Jay Rosenbek, Jeff Shapiro, and Wes Wheeler.
Victory for the ALD referendum was thanks to a diverse coalition of concerned citizens, the League of Women Voters of Alachua County, local NAACP, Alachua County Labor Coalition, AFL-CIO, and Gainesville Residents United. We want to extend a special thank you to: Susan Bottcher, School Board Member Tina Certain, Nancy Deren, Tyler Foerst, Evelyn Foxx, Janice Garry, Roberta Gastmeyer, State Rep. Yvonne Hayes Hinson, former County Commissioner Hutch Hutchinson, former Newberry Commissioner Alena Lawson Bennet, Former Archer Mayor Roberta Lopez, Jay Maggio, School Board Member Leanetta McNealy, Shayna Rich, Jeff Shapiro, Wes Wheeler, and Micanopy Mayor Jiana Williams.
Bobby Mermer, PhD, is the Chairperson and Campaign Manager for Let the Voters Decide, and Campaign Manager for One Alachua County.