A.G. Gancarski
Recent electoral setbacks weren’t last call for the peripatetic political career of Jacksonville’s Jack Daniels as he has again filed to run for the Jacksonville City Council.
Daniels, who shares his name with a consumer product, has taken many shots at electoral office. Yet, despite his efforts, the glass has come up empty time after time.
Still, he continues his efforts. And in 2019, he will get an electoral rematch against District 2 Republican Al Ferraro, the man who beat him three years ago.
Daniels last made a bid for office in 2016, when he ran in the House District 11 primary.
His gimmick in that race: not raising money.
“I had decided to accept political money and refuse to let it corrupt me. But when it was offered and I thought about what would happen if I didn’t let it corrupt me, I rejected it. For I just can’t be a political whore bought and paid for by the lobbyists, special interests, and the others,” Daniels asserted.
The reason he opted not to raise money in that unsuccessful State House campaign: he felt it corrupted the process in his previous Council bid.
Daniels, who raised less than $8,000 for his race, had good ROI: he received 27 percent of the vote.
“Since I hadn’t accepted any political money, my campaign for City Council consisted of almost nothing but a year of door-to-door visits. In contrast, since my opponent accepted it, his campaign consisted of paid advice from expert political consultants, continuous paid advertisement promoting his candidacy in the media, numerous paid campaigners for him who made thousands of door to door visits to frequent voters, a multitude of campaign signs, many mailings to frequent voters promoting his candidacy, etc,” Daniels contended.
Despite all of this drama, Daniels endorsed Ferraro — the “opponent.” Daniels told The Florida Times-Union that Ferraro is “a really hard worker, and I think he’d be a very good person to be a council person.”
Meanwhile, another defeated opponent, Democrat Lisa King, asserted that Daniels tried to cut a deal for him endorsing her ahead of the runoff. Daniels denied that.
Daniels begins the race with a considerable financial disadvantage to incumbent Ferraro, who has over $35,000 on hand after raising $7,105 in April.
Ferraro got donations from Lenny Curry‘s “Build Something That Lasts” political committee, as well as “Bold City Strategic Partners,” the shop of Curry operative Tim Baker.
The political committee of Gray Robinson chipped in, as did Summit Contracting and Padgett Properties
