If elected to Jacksonville City Council, Sunny Gettinger vows ‘independence’

The Jacksonville City Council District 14 race continues to be competitive, with two Democrats and two Republicans on the March ballot.

The leading Democratic fundraiser as of this moment: Sunny Gettinger, an alumna of Yale, Harvard’s Kennedy School, and (most crucially for one swath of locals) Riverside Avondale Preservation.

Gettinger, who has over $100,000 on hand for the home stretch, has been of the group of candidates looking for some deviation from the City Hall consensus.

The district is essentially a swing district, and to that end, there likely is one Democratic ticket to the runoff.

The other Democrat in the field, Jimmy Peluso, has less cash on hand (nearly $40,000), but is pushing, with unique events like Thursday evening’s drag-centric Pride with Peluso event.

We asked Gettinger if she thought Peluso was getting to the left of her; her answer was interesting.

“Sometimes he’s to the left of me. Sometimes he’s on my right. Depends on the issue,” Gettinger said.

“District 14 is really lucky,” Gettinger added. “It’s one place where we have a real conversation on the issues.”

For Gettinger, the issues include infrastructure (including resiliency for the riverfront areas) and a crime plan that isn’t “the same conversation we have every every four years.”

Of course, Gettinger has to deal with at least one serious Republican opponent, and the best fundraiser of the bunch is Randy DeFoor.

DeFoor, a Senior Vice President at Fidelity National Financial, is backed by Mayor Lenny Curry, U.S. Rep. John Rutherford, and other Republicans with whom she shares the political consultancy of Tim Baker.

With roughly $125,000 in hard money, and an additional $26,000 in the Safe and Prosperous Jacksonville political committee, DeFoor has the resources and the allies to stick around past the March election.

We asked Gettinger if she was worried about the machine she will have to clear to ascend to the rarified territory of the Council dais.

She didn’t seem to be.

“Government works best when you have independent chambers,” Gettinger said.

“Good ideas can come from anywhere: Democrats, Republicans, everybody can have a good idea. The fact that local politics has gotten so partisan is a detriment to Jacksonville,” Gettinger said. “We need to be working collectively on our challenges.”

“As a City Councilperson, I promise to ask hard questions. I think that’s what [they’re] supposed to do,” Gettinger emphasized.

“In terms of how [the Mayor’s operation] is going to affect the race,” Gettinger added, “I think it will play out based on whether people think that independence, having chambers with people that question and challenge and refine ideas, versus people who just accept what’s happening.”

“If we really thought that a strong leader with everybody around them saying yes all the time was a good idea,” Gettinger concluded, “we could have kept the monarchy.”