A.G. Gancarski
The race for Jacksonville Mayor in 2023 has lost another candidate.
Jacksonville Urban League President Richard Danford withdrew from the race, he confirmed Monday.
Danford launched a campaign as an independent candidate in October, with the stated goal of improving neighborhood access to City Hall.
Danford said he’d tell Florida Politics more about what led to the decision to exit the race at some point soon.
Danford is the second candidate to drop his mayoral bid this month. Republican City Council member Matt Carlucci abandoned his campaign last week after months of sluggish fundraising.
Four candidates remain in the race.
Republican Jacksonville City Council member Al Ferraro had a little less than $50,000 in hard money through the end of October. His political committee had roughly $117,000 as well. His fundraising has largely stalled, amid questions about his viability.
One Democrat has filed. Former newscaster Donna Deegan has raised roughly $190,000 to her Donna for Duval political committee through four months of activity. She filed last month and her first fundraising report is due Friday.
Independent candidates Omega Allen and Darcy Richardson have yet to report fundraising. Allen has run for Mayor before, finishing third place out of four candidates in 2019. Richardson has run for offices all around the country for decades.
The real money in the race appears to be with two Republicans who haven’t formally launched campaigns yet.
Jacksonville City Council member LeAnna Cumber’s JAX First Committee raised $1.2 million through October, while Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce CEO Daniel Davis‘ Building a Better Economy political committee had nearly $3 million on hand through October.
New filings are due from each committee this week.
More candidates could emerge, as there is more than a year to go before the real campaigning begins. Qualifying week runs Jan. 9-13, 2023.
The First Election, which pits all qualified candidates against each other, is March 21, 2023. Assuming no one in the field gets more than 50% of the vote, the General Election is May 16, 2023.
