Jax establishment money rallies behind Randy White re-election

Jacksonville City Councilman  Randy White won election in 2018 without needing a single vote.

The former Jacksonville Association of Firefighters head won the special because no opponents qualified. White had filed as the only candidate for the 2019 race before incumbent Doyle Carter (a friend of White’s) filed a resignation letter.

Local attorney David Taylor filed a legal challenge, contending the fix was in for White in the special election.

Unsuccessful in that venue, Taylor has put more than $100,000 of his own money into a challenge to White on the March ballot.

“No one in District 12 will vote for White after learning his involvement in this conspiracy to defraud the voters of a choice, which is exactly what they did. Equivalent to communism,” Taylor said last year.

While voters may or may not come through, the donor class is speaking.

In the most recent reporting period, 125 of White’s friends donated over $72,000 in the two weeks between Jan. 26 and Feb. 8.

White has now raised over $146,000, and retains over $137,000 of that: a big number for what is typically a low-wattage seat deep on Jacksonville’s Westside.

Among the donors of recent vintage:  JU President Tim Cost; Jax Chamber CEO Daniel Davis; developer Peter Rummell; the Fiorentino Group; Susie Wiles; Sen. Aaron Bean‘s political committee, Florida Conservative Alliance.

With the Mayor’s political machine, the business community, and the public sector unions behind him, White will be difficult to defeat.