Kelly Hayes
Pinellas County Commissioner Dave Eggers won re-election to his District 4 seat, setting him up to serve another four-year term. Fellow Commissioner Pat Gerard, on the other hand, is now set to face Republican Brian Scott in the upcoming November General Election.
Eggers, a Republican, took a whopping 68% of the vote, according to the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections Office. He faced only one challenger, fellow Republican Heather Aynne Vernillo, who collected 32% of the vote.
Because there was no Democrat in the race, all residents in the northern Pinellas district were eligible to vote regardless of party.
Eggers was first elected to the Pinellas County Commission in 2014, and has held the seat since then. Before his time on the Commission, he served as Mayor of Dunedin.
Eggers was the top fundraiser, amassing $76,143 for his campaign account and another $10,000 through his affiliated political committee, Friends of Dave Eggers. Vernillo, on the other hand, only raised $9,539 throughout her campaign.
The District 4 seat covers the northernmost parts of Pinellas County, including Palm Harbor, East Lake, Tarpon Springs, Dunedin and Safety Harbor.
Scott was the victor of District 2’s Republican Primary, collecting 66% of the vote to opponent Debbie Buschman’s 33%. Now, he’s off to the General Election against incumbent Democrat Gerard, who has held the District 2 seat since 2014. Prior to her service on the County Commission, she was the Mayor of Largo.
For years, the GOP has been looking to retake the district after Gerard flipped the seat blue upon her initial election, replacing former Commissioner Norm Roche. Roche lost the Republican Primary that year to now-Sen. Ed Hooper, who lost to Gerard in the General Election.
District 2 is an at-large seat covering northwest Pinellas County, but it is voted on countywide.
So far, the incumbent leads in fundraising, amassing $261,165 since launching her re-election campaign. Scott, who works as president of Escot Bus Lines, is the second-highest fundraiser, collecting $228,578 since announcing his run. Buschman, the Lunch Pal coordinator for Pinellas County Schools, raised $24,229.
One comment
Ron Ogden
August 25, 2022 at 3:47 am
Voting for Scott makes it nearly certain that term limits for the county commission will advance to a referendum again, nearly three decades after the voters of the county said they wanted term limits and the county commission used legal maneuvers to deny it. Voting for Scott will mean the Democratic party’s mournful dominance of the commission will finally cease, after decades of “progressive” public administration that has resulted in deteriorating public services, rising taxes and ballooning budgets.
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