A.G. Gancarski
By most metrics used to establish whether an election is competitive or not, the race for Duval County Clerk of Courts looks wrapped up.
Incumbent Ronnie Fussell, a local insider who had served previously on the city council, has raised over $95,000, and has over $52,000 of that on hand.
Democrat Paula Bartlett has had less robust fundraising.
She’s raised just over $13,000, and has under $2,000 on hand.
Despite this resource disparity, and despite incumbent Fussell being part of the inner circle of folks that routinely run things in Jacksonville politics, there are still reasons to watch this race.
Less than two years ago, Fussell made the decision to cease courthouse wedding ceremonies … a decision timed to ensure clerk of court employees weren’t performing same-sex ceremonies.
The furor has died down on this. But Bartlett hasn’t let go.
As Bartlett told Melissa Ross in June, she sees Fussell as “an elected official who is supposed to be a trustee of the people in this country who is refusing to perform a service because he doesn’t want to perform a service for a certain group of people.”
Bartlett added, “It’s beyond me why when the Supreme Court has just handed this county a brand new customer base. Why would you cut if off?”
For Fussell, it’s a matter of belief.
And if voting totals in the Aug. 30 primary are any indication, not every Republican shares his opinion.
For one thing, there was an undervote in the clerk of courts primary race compared to the race for Senate.
The primary race for state attorney saw 83,677 GOP votes; in the clerk of courts primary race, 74,836 voted.
And in that primary, underfunded challenger Mike Riley — whose platform included resumption of courthouse wedding ceremonies — got 32 percent of the vote.
Fussell had 50,957, or 68 percent of the vote.
To look at it another way, between the votes for the opposition and the undervotes, Fussell got 61 percent of the possible vote.
Is there a way for Bartlett to tap into that 39 percent of primary voters who didn’t vote for Fussell?
On a crowded ballot, will she get the support of the kind of outside groups that have mobilized in support of the expansion of Jacksonville’s Human Rights Ordinance?
Will Democrats be motivated to vote on the entire ballot?
That’s the question going forward in this race.
The Democratic registration advantage in Duval County still exists: 233,446 to 216,918.
Duval County will be regarded as a “battleground” this November, with both major parties and presidential campaigns pushing hard.
It’s going to be hard to gin people up for a down ballot race.
But will it be impossible?
