Gabrielle Russon
Incumbent Jim Gray outraised challenger Tom Keen by more than 5-to-1 during the second quarter for Orlando’s District 1 race.
Gray raised about $54,000 from April 1 to June 30 compared to Keen’s $10,000, according to the new second-quarter campaign finance reports.
Gray spent about $10,000, leaving him with a war chest of about $44,000. After Keen’s $19,000 in expenses, his campaign is left with about $3,000, some of which he raised during the first quarter.
The third candidate in the race, Sunshine Linda-Marie Grund, is not actively fundraising and did not report any money for the period.
Gray was first elected to the nonpartisan seat in 2012. He works as the Orlando Managing Director for CBRE, a commercial real estate services and investment firm.
Keen, meanwhile, flipped House District 35 in a highly-watched Special Election last year only to lose his re-election bid to Republican Erika Booth in November. Keen served 21 years in the U.S. Navy.
Grund placed second in the race for Orange County Supervisor of Elections last year. She is a Realtor managing Sweet Dreams Realty.
Gray and Keen previously ran against each other for the City Council in 2017, when Gray won with 53% of the vote in what was also a three-way race.
District 1 is home to Lake Nona, which is the fastest-growing part of Orlando where many institutions are located, including the University of Central Florida’s College of Medicine, the Orlando VA Medical Center and the United States Tennis Association’s National Campus.
July 10 was the campaign finance report deadline for the second quarter. The reports were posted online late this week.
In addition, Orlando City’s District 3 and District 5 have contested races on the Nov. 4 ballot.
The deadline to register to vote for the nonpartisan city races race is Oct. 6. The deadline to request a vote-by-mail ballot is Oct. 23.
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and several other longtime City Commissioners are not seeking re-election, clearing the way for new leaders to run as city government is reshaped.
