Jax District 8 race is one between two connected Dems

For those who follow Jacksonville’s City Council (both masochists and those who are interested in public policy outcomes), outgoing District 8 Councilwoman Denise Lee has done as much as anyone to make those events “Must See TV.” The most iconoclastic Democrat on Council, she was one of two Dems to vote against the latest iteration of the city’s Police and Fire Pension deal, and has been outspoken on numerous occasions about Corrine Brown attempting to sway local elections through her Quick Picks.

Lee has told voters in her district “not to let a slip of paper tell you how to vote.” But her words have lacked resonance, if the First Election is any indication. The Quick Pick, Katrina Brown, finished first in a crowded field with 30% of the vote, despite lagging behind well-established candidates in fundraising.

Part of the reason for her success might rest in a combination of name recognition and city generosity. Brown’s father, Jerome Brown, owns Jerome Brown BBQ, a fixture in Northwest Jax, which is now distributing its BBQ sauces nationally. The company got a $640,000 package of loans and grants from Jacksonville’s City Council in 2011 during the waning days of the John Peyton administration, and despite a rough start in terms of getting its sauce manufacturing and distribution going, has expanded operations in the last couple of years, presenting a success story in the minefield of city investment in NW Jacksonville businesses. This week finds the sauce being launched at 100 Winn-Dixie stores this week, Brown told us.

Jerome Brown BBQ has its political connections in Democratic circles also. The company contributed a whopping $10,600 to Friends of Corrine Brown between November 2011 and November 2012, and Jerome and his wife (as well as KJB Specialties, another family business) have both contributed to Alvin Brown campaigns in the past. The money, like the sauce, flows both ways: over the years, Jerome Brown BBQ has made over $11,200 catering Democratic Party events.

Did these arrangements ensure that Katrina was Corrine’s Quick Pick? As the candidate relates, the explanation is somewhat more quotidian than influence peddling, even as she tells us that “I don’t understand why people bring up that endorsement. The Northeast Florida Builders Association endorsed me,” she says, and no one finds that endorsement controversial.

“Basically, when I went to Corrine about running in District 8, she told me that” she doesn’t endorse novice candidates without training, and so she “suggested a political boot camp” put on by the Congressional Black Caucus.

This boot camp cost $3000; the CBC gave her a $1000 scholarship, defraying some costs. She learned how to “do a resume” and how to “answer questions” in this “10 day training” where “you actually run a campaign.”

“You raise money. They show you how to win a campaign.”

Katrina Brown is not new to the game, she relates. “Prior to running,” she worked “behind the scenes” on various campaigns, including the catering events.

“We have always [had] a big base in the African-American community,” Brown relates. “We do good business. We’ve been in the community for a long time.”

One matter that political adversaries might think is noteworthy: a $4706 tax lien from the Florida Department of Revenue dating back to October 2014. Brown claims that this lien was a “mishap” that “has been resolved.”

“I don’t have anything on me,” Brown tells us.

Regarding her runoff opponent, Pat Lockett-Felder, Brown tells us that “I don’t look at her as competition.” Brown sees the campaign not as a binary battle, but as a dialogue with District 8 voters.

Felder herself is an interesting story, perhaps best known for constructing an obelisk during a previous term memorializing herself as “still working for the people,” an obelisk which found its way onto a mailpiece used by an opponent in at least one failed subsequent campaign.

Felder has been an interesting presence throughout this campaign. My favorite memory was at a Northside forum, when I sat with Denise Lee, who was dissing the hapless Felder the whole time as she kept talking through a smile about “continuing the work Denise Lee” has started. At one point, Lee said flat out that the candidate was lying, and suggested that if she was up there, she would call the candidate out.

This was just minutes before Lee ascended the stage and decried Corrine Brown’s Quick Picks.

I attempted to interview Felder, but with no success. Calls to her home were unreturned. Emails went unaddressed. A Facebook message was responded to at first; however, when I told her I was interviewing her for an article, she told me to hold on a minute. That was 18 hours ago and counting.