A.G. Gancarski
When FloridaPolitics.com talked to former Duval County Sheriff John Rutherford Wednesday, he said he’d been “running with his hair on fire all day.”
That was metaphorical. What wasn’t metaphorical: his interest in running to succeed Ander Crenshaw in Congress.
Rutherford told us he’s taking a long, hard look at the race, having been strongly encouraged by supporters since news of Crenshaw’s decision not to run for a ninth term dropped late last night.
Rutherford is “still putting [his] team together” to explore a run, he said but his interest is very “strong.”
His decision, the former Sheriff added, would be made “long before the middle of June,” which is the filing deadline.
Rutherford, of course, had taken a look at running to succeed Ron DeSantis in Congressional District 6, but “redistricting made it impossible for family reasons.”
This time, he said, “the Lord’s opened the door” to a “tremendous opportunity,” creating an open seat in a “district I’d love to serve” with “citizens I know and love.”
“It would be an extreme honor and a privilege,” Rutherford said, to serve in Congress in the same seat that Crenshaw did, and that Tillie Fowler and Charles Bennett did before Crenshaw.
Rutherford, as so many have today, cited Crenshaw’s unimpeachable commitment to the military and veterans. And for Rutherford, that’s personal.
“My father was a Naval Chief,” Rutherford said, “and I moved here as a young boy in 1958.”
“My father loved this city,” Rutherford added, and after moving here the family “always stayed in Jacksonville.”
“What a privilege it would be,” Rutherford said about being a Congressman from the area he moved to as a child, and has called home since.
“Stay tuned,” the former Jacksonville Sheriff added.
If Rutherford should run, he can count on some heavy support, the Florida Times-Union reports. Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry, who benefited greatly from Rutherford’s staunch support in his mayoral campaign, would be in. As would Curry’s political operation’s chief financial backers, Michael Munz and Peter Rummell.
If the establishment lines up behind Rutherford, it will be difficult to stop him. He speaks the local language, and his Name ID is almost unrivaled among potential candidates.
