A.G. Gancarski
The House District 11 GOP primary will come down to one of three candidates: Cord Byrd, Donnie Horner, or Sheri Treadwell.
HD 11 includes Nassau County, as well as the Jacksonville Beaches. Its current representative, Janet Adkins, is from Nassau.
However, at least one pol from the Beaches communities wants to ensure that the seat becomes a “beaches” seat, not a Nassau County seat.
Tom Taylor, who had been a candidate in HD 11 but failed to get traction, endorsed Byrd upon getting out of the race.
Now, on the eve of Election Day, Taylor has doubled down, taking to Facebook with an impassioned plea for Byrd.
“In the Florida House District 11 race, Tallahassee (Treadwell) and Jacksonville (Horner) have bought and paid for these two candidates. In the last 30 days you have seen TV ads and plenty of literature telling you why they are the chosen ones,” Taylor wrote Monday.
“Both of these two candidates moved into District 11 in order to run for this seat and have no vested interest whatsoever in what actually happens here. These candidates have not worked, served or been involved in any community dynamic that I have witnessed in my 54 years of being a resident here,” Taylor added.
Taylor adds that Beaches residents should “take a stand and prove the insiders wrong. They have already declared one of these two the winner.”
Byrd “and his family have lived in our community since the early 1900s, not just the last 12 months,” Taylor writes.
Of course, the Beaches aren’t a monolith.
Jacksonville City Councilman Bill Gulliford wrote an editorial in the Beaches Leader newspaper last week arguing for Treadwell as the exponent of Beaches values.
“The other candidates may say conservative,” Gulliford said, “But I have seen Sheri stand up and be a reliable conservative during the years I’ve known her at the beaches.”
Who’s more conservative? Who’s more Beaches? Will appeals to localism make the difference in the HD 11 primary?
The answers will be revealed Tuesday evening.
