A.G. Gancarski
“You think you know a lot of people until you run countywide.”
These words, from Anna Brosche, who last week unseated Group 1 At Large Councilwoman Kimberly Daniels in one of the more interesting contests on the ballot, demonstrate the crux of the problem Brosche faced. How to introduce one’s self to voters, and how to make the sale.
“Being new to the process, facing the realities of running against an incumbent, is a big challenge,” Brosche said.
As she has done throughout her life, Brosche met the challenge, by establishing a strategy early on, by building a team, and by sticking to the strategy.
“Building name identification was a challenge,” she said, and the First Election, in which she finished second to Daniels, helped with that.
The polls that she saw jibed with the eventual margin of victory, in the single digit to double digit ranges, which might explain why her campaign, despite having plenty of material with which they could have gone negative, chose to take the high road.
Entering a council with a lot of veteran presence, such as Republicans Lori Boyer, William Gulliford, and Greg Anderson, Brosche is “looking forward to learning from veterans and digging in. I’ll get my opportunity to put my skills to work right away when the budget drops,” she says, adding that the first six months in office will help her decide on “bigger initiatives.”
One that is close to her heart: making Jacksonville a healthier city, stressing walkability and increased access to mental health care for those who need it.
One of the positions that Brosche was noted for earlier in the campaign was her support for an expanded Human Rights Ordinance, which seemed pretty staunch early on but which seemed to evolve as time went on.
“The HRO was definitely a topic of interest in the race, one that more to do with Kim Daniels and how vocal she had been in the process in 2012,” Brosche said, adding that she wanted to make sure she is serving all of Jacksonville.
That commitment to service is nothing new for Brosche, who has been leading on the United Way Board and in many other capacities throughout Jacksonville. This allowed her to build the necessary coalitions to overcome the advantage of incumbency Daniels had.
And coalition building is a big part of the job, as Lori Boyer told Daniels.
“When you get onto City Council, it’s not partisan. I look forward to working with the other 18 members,” Brosche said.
The eyes of the entire country will be on Brosche for another reason. Her candidacy and subsequent election have garnered her attention from throughout the nation, as it has been historic.
“I knew that I was the first Filipino-American and Asian-American on council,” she said. She didn’t know, however, that she was the first Filipino-American female councilwoman in the United States.
This has gotten her attention, both from Asian-American journalists throughout the diaspora, as well as from “national level folks” from the Republican National Committee.
It won’t be a surprise to see Brosche, going forward, used in advisory roles for other candidates or for outreach to Asian-American politicians nationwide. Nor would it necessarily be a surprise to hear her name in the 2023 mayoral conversation.
