Direct mail roundup: ‘Jacksonville’s son’ makes mayoral pitch

Jacksonville Mayoral candidate Jimmy Hill [Photo: A.G. Gancarski]

Commonly seen as the “third Republican” in the Jacksonville mayoral race, Atlantic Beach’s Jimmy Hill struggles for traction.

In a filing last year, Hill cited specific grievance: the city “destroying” him, via canceling a boat show and forcing Hill and his wife to file for bankruptcy.

Hill has struggled for resources, with only $290 on hand as of Feb. 8 campaign finance activity. However, via a recently formed statewide political committee, Hill is messaging to Republican voters by mail.

Proclaiming himself “Jacksonville’s son,” Hill asserts his “Jacksonville values, for Jacksonville’s future.”

Hill, an Arlington native, rose to the presidency of his firefighters’ local union. However, his mailer describes his fall also, via a narrative about feeling the “sting of big government” after the “unreasonable decisions of city bureaucrats who preferred a rock concert” to Hill’s boat show.

Spurned, Hill refocused, to a fight against “closed-door decision-making.”

However, it’s uncertain if Jacksonville voters see Hill as the avatar of change.

A new poll from the University of North Florida’s Public Opinion Research Lab is showing Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry on his way to an outright win in March.

Released Wednesday morning, the survey found Curry’s the choice of 52 percent of participants, with Republican Anna Brosche at 15 percent. Independent Omega Allen is at six percent.

Hill is at three percent, complicating his path to a May runoff should Curry be held below 50 percent.

Momentum is with the mayor.

Between hard money and his political committee, the Curry campaign has nearly $2.5 million on hand.

Curry has benefited greatly from using the buying power of the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee in recent weeks, which has given the incumbent a disproportionate edge on television saturation.

In other words, even a mailpiece with seven paragraphs of small text may not make much of an impact.