WOKV Hob Nob straw poll draws 900-plus to EverBank Field

As 5 p.m. rolled around on an unseasonably sultry March evening, those waiting to get into the Hob Nob straw poll hosted Thursday by conservative news station WOKV saw an interesting site sight: A couple of vans with the logo of the Rev. Kim Daniels, an incumbent At Large City Council member, rolled into the parking lot.

It was interesting because earlier in the day, Daniels seemed to be trying to stack the room. She posted a Facebook message earlier Thursday afternoon: “Hello, Jacksonville. Meet me at Lot Z of Everbank Field today at 3:30 PM. The pastor who brings the most people will win $1000 for their church. Second place will win $1000 worth of radio advertisement on WJNJ FM 103.7/AM 1320. See you there!”

I saw Daniels at the gate, and asked her if she was trying to boost her turnout. She denied it.

“I just wanted to bless people. I wasn’t trying to pay to play,” she said, adding that no one even wanted the cash prize (or the radio advertising). She drew 600 people, and said 150 of them followed her to the straw poll.

Not illegal, as those things go. And the 150 weren’t enough to win her the straw poll either. It was a Republican night; she lost to Anna Brosche, and by and large the only Democrats to win were in safe seats without any Republican opposition. (Full results, including numbers for each race, can be found here.)

Even at 5 p.m., hundreds of people flooded the “Bud Zone,” and without any air-conditioning on, the room became a sweatbox pretty quickly as the din of the crowd mounted.

Candidates abounded, such as City Council hopeful Melody Shacter, who billed the event as an “opportunity for me to get out and talk to different groups of people.”

Shacter, unlike Daniels, did not bus in supporters. She came in fourth in a four-person race, so maybe she should have.

All four mayoral campaigns had representation, and I had conversations with three of the four candidates. The most interesting one was with Omega Allen, the NPA candidate who bristled over being shut out of the televised debates, a move that she called a “travesty” and the fault of the “good ol’ boy network.”

Allen — who finished a distant fourth Thursday night behind Lenny Curry, Alvin Brown, and the third place finisher, Bill Bishop — had a blunt assessment of the University of North Florida poll released early Thursday. She discounted it, saying that “they didn’t ask anyone who knows me.” She likewise dismissed the WOKV straw poll even before results were rendered.

“Straw polls are so easily manipulated,” she said, pointing out that the count depends on a self-selecting population.

She’s right. Straw polls are a turnout game. The master of it this election cycle is Jimmy Holderfield, the straight-talking sheriff’s candidate who has distinguished himself at every forum and straw poll held. Holderfield won the sheriff’s straw poll handily (even though he came in third in the UNF poll).

I’ve written before that Holderfield might be the best retail politician in the city right now, and he demonstrated it in the minute or so we talked, greeting me with a soul handshake/fist bump combo. Many of the people running in these races seem to treat these public events as ordeals to be endured; Holderfield demonstrates a genuine exuberance every time out.

There were few surprises in the results. Lenny Curry and Mike Hogan won their races by strong margins, and — as a barometer of the crowd — Geoff Youngblood, running as a family-values conservative, beat former Mayor Tommy Hazouri in a result that likely won’t be replicated when the votes actually count. WOKV is your mainstream Republican news outlet, and mainstream Republicans carried the evening.