A.G. Gancarski
Two new Republican members of the Jacksonville City Council will join the body in July without facing an opponent.
Rory Diamond will take over for Bill Gulliford in Beaches District 13. And LeAnna Cumber will likewise take the handoff from Lori Boyer in San Marco’s District 5.
Just as Boyer and Gulliford have been instrumental on the Council for the last eight years, with both having been president at one point, it is expected that Diamond and Cumber will quickly take central roles.
Diamond, currently on the Neptune Beach Council, is ready to roll, once he returns campaign contributions to donors, he told us Tuesday. He raised north of $100,000 but didn’t need it.
He has already been meeting with Gulliford for the last year; the incumbent has, per Diamond, “been very generous with his time.”
Diamond has also met with mayors of the Beaches Communities and the vast majority of those he expects to be elected in March or May to serve with him on the Council.
Though his election is a wrap, Diamond will be “aggressively campaigning” to help other candidates, including At Large hopefuls Terrance Freeman, Matt Carlucci, and Sam Newby.
Cumber, who raised nearly $200,000 and staved off any competition as a seeming result, is one half of the best connected couples in the city; husband Husein Cumber was on the JEA Board until recently, having resigned to avoid a conflict of interest after his wife won elected office.
LeAnna Cumber has been meeting with incumbent Boyer weekly, a process that will continue until the formal change of power. As those who know Boyer know the incumbent has an encyclopedic knowledge of not just district but city needs, and is clearly passing that on.
Both Diamond and Cumber are positioned, clearly, to be in the leadership mixes in their first terms on Council. What’s clear in both cases is that they are already laying the groundwork for effective service, learning from those who came before them.
