A.G. Gancarski
Duval, Clay, and Nassau Counties will see a new state attorney and a new public defender in January, as two polarizing incumbents were swept out of office, with resounding defeats in contentious primaries.
In the most expensive GOP primary race for state attorney ever in this region, challenger Melissa Nelson — with a war chest of over $1.1 million between her political committee and hard money — soundly defeated incumbent Angela Corey and challenger Wes White Tuesday.
Nelson had 64 percent of the vote. Corey, 27 percent. And White, just 9 percent.
Nelson surged in the polls to a 10-point lead within weeks after getting into the race, a spread that expanded to 32 points in the most recent public poll of the contest from the University of North Florida.
Corey, who had strong support from the police union and more nominal support from incumbents such as Mayor Lenny Curry (who endorsed Corey, but whose political team ran the campaign to knock her out of office), was on the defensive throughout the campaign.
Ultimately, the goal was to define Corey as a career politician: someone who had benefited from taxpayer largesse and sought to derive more such benefit.
It worked: despite a quarter-million dollars spent against Nelson by her opponents, Nelson kept her favorable numbers high, while Corey and White continued to plummet in the polls.
The hot-button cases — George Zimmerman, Michael Dunn, Cristian Fernandez, and Marissa Alexander — were narrative points in the campaign for third-party voters and the thousands who changed from Democrat to Republican to vote in the closed primary, but were not the framework by which it made its case.
The closed primary, likewise, was a talking point of the race, especially in light of Corey’s campaign manager closing the primary by filing the paperwork for Fleming Island divorce lawyer Kenny Leigh to run as a write-in candidate.
Corey defended the move, saying it was perfectly legal, but it helped to inform the narrative of voters who believed that when it came to years in office for Corey, “eight is enough.”
Nelson’s post-victory remarks were aspirational.
“I believed that we deserved more and that’s why I ran,” Nelson said, vowing to give a “voice to what the community expects from the justice system.”
Nelson thanked White and Corey: White for his “willingness to serve,” and Corey for her “long service as a prosecutor.”
However, this night was about the future.
Nelson addressed children growing up in rough homes, a “war on police,” and “segments of the community” that don’t trust the criminal justice system, by way of signaling her dedication to “meaningful reform.”
The public defender race likewise saw turnover, with scandal-plagued incumbent Matt Shirk losing 75 percent to 25 percent against former Duval County chief judge Charles Cofer.
Shirk, who a grand jury said should resign from office a couple of years back, was outspent ($28,000 to $154,000), as fundraising was difficult for the embattled incumbent.
Shirk’s bet was that Cofer’s inferior name identification in Clay and Nassau Counties would work to his advantage in the three-county judicial circuit.
However, Shirk refused all but one forum debate with Cofer; their tangling at Jacksonville’s Tiger Bay did not go especially well, and reduced to mailers and palm cards, there was simply not enough of a campaign.
