A.G. Gancarski
Jacksonville City Councilman Tommy Hazouri called his re-election campaign a “last hurrah” in a recent interview, and indeed it is.
For Hazouri, a current at-large Councilman who has been a mayor, a state Representative, and a School Board member, politics is in his blood.
Republican opponent Greg Rachal notes that, after 45 years, that blood may be due for transfusion.
Regrettably for Rachal, Hazouri has advantages that few other politicians in the city (and no other Democrats) can boast.
One such advantage: the strong support of Mayor Lenny Curry.
@CMTommyHazouri Happy Monday my man. pic.twitter.com/NH2fX9c6Uh
— Lenny Curry (@lennycurry) September 17, 2018
Hey @CMTommyHazouri Good morning. You are on TV 📺 in my house. pic.twitter.com/R1dnTh2hiv
— Lenny Curry (@lennycurry) February 1, 2019
That support was a double-edged sword in the 2019 First Election. While Hazouri got nearly 45 percent of the vote, a number bolstered by co-branding with Curry (a former head of the state Republican party), he also faced a Democratic challenger whose presence on the ballot served only as a spoiler.
The test of Tuesday’s election: will those disaffected Democrats come home to Hazouri? And will Republicans and NPAs vote for Hazouri in a binary battle against a Republican?
If campaign budgets are any indication, Rachal will have tough sledding. Hazouri brought in roughly $360,000 to Rachal’s $32,000.
Rachal’s Hail Mary: a mailer asserting that Hazouri “voted to let men in girl’s [sic] bathrooms.”
“Women and girls do not want to share a public bathroom or a locker room with a man dressed as a woman,” the argument goes.
Hazouri backed the expansion of the city’s Human Rights Ordinance to include public accommodations for the LGBTQI community, a move that has nettled Christian conservatives in the city.
Hazouri has built a coalition that would be the envy of most politicians: the business community backs him, as does Mayor Curry and his machine, as do groups ranging from public safety unions to Equality Florida.
Barring a complete collapse, that will carry him to four more years, and what looks to be a clean shot at the City Council Vice Presidency, then Presidency the following year.
