A.G. Gancarski
In 2011, the tide began to turn for Jacksonville mayoral candidate Alvin Brown in early voting, in which he was able to make up a lot of ground lost to Mike Hogan. Four years later, the incumbent and the local and state Democratic parties are looking to repeat the phenomenon.
As of 8 a.m. Tuesday morning, Democrats had benefited from a strong first day of early voting. The total, as of this writing: 16,061 votes cast by Republicans, 13,318 for Democrats, and 4,103 for NPA voters.
The split throughout the two-week vote by mail period before early voting began on Monday saw Republicans with just shy of 50 percent of the total raw vote. The current split has Republicans at just under 48 percent of the raw vote, suggesting that the Brown strategy of concentrating resources into the early voting period is in play again.
How will the Republicans counter? One strategy seems to be opening a new campaign office, as Lenny Curry is doing in Avondale on Thursday evening. The big draw at that event will be a meet-and-greet with former Mayor John Delaney, who very likely will offer insight into the campaign so far. Florida Politics will, of course, be covering the event.
