2 City Council seats up for grabs in Boca Raton election

Four candidates are vying for two seats on the City Council of Boca Raton, Palm Beach County’s second-most populous municipality with some 97,500 residents.

For Seat C, incumbent Council member Yvette Drucker is in a rematch with former cop and teacher Bernard Korn, who ran against her in March 2021 and placed last among four candidates.

For Seat D, former Council member Andy Thomson and real estate executive Brian Stenberg are squaring off to replace outgoing Deputy Mayor Monica Mayotte, who is leaving office due to term limits.

Seat C

Drucker, 48, first joined the Boca Raton Council in October 2020, when the four-seat panel appointed her to complete the term of ex-Council member Jeremy Rodgers after his military deployment overseas.

She won the seat outright in the city’s General Election five months later with 51% of the vote.

If re-elected, Drucker vows to refocus her efforts on improving transportation and making housing more affordable while boosting the local economy and job market, public safety and government responsibility.

Through March 14, the last date for which campaign finance information is available, Drucker raised roughly $61,500 and spent about half that sum.

Korn, 69, hopes to score more than 10 times the share of votes he received three years ago, when he took just 5% of the vote in his first time running against Drucker. He also mounted unsuccessful bids for Mayor in 2018 and 2020.

If elected, Korn plans to make city government more transparent and answerable to residents. He’s also interested in imposing stricter term limits for Boca Raton officials and tightening political finance strictures to reduce the influence of special interest groups, lobbyists and political action committees.

And he’s putting his money where his mouth is by running a wholly self-finance campaign. But of the $5,550 Korn transferred from his bank account into his campaign coffers, he spent just $334 by mid-March. All of it went toward covering the city’s qualifying fee.

Seat D

A lawyer and adjunct professor in private life, Thomson, 41, served from 2018-2022 in Seat A of the City Council. He has also served on many local government and advisory boards.

His priorities include improving neighborhood policing, building sustainable transportation and overseeing responsible, well-managed city growth.

By last week, he’d raised $134,000 and spent about $108,500.

Stenberg, a commercial real estate executive, has similarly dedicated time to community-based and government organizations, including the Boca Raton Housing Authority and Palm Beach County Planning Commission.

The 55-year-old said he’s disinterested in making politics a career and would, if elected, focus on improving government-resident relations, supporting development considerate of the existing character of neighborhoods and improving residents’ quality of life.

He raised close to $17,000 and spent $12,000.

While the election is technically nonpartisan, party politics have influenced the race. Drucker and Thomson are among several candidates the Florida Democratic Party is supporting through its “Take Back Local” program, which donated to Thomson.