Melissa Ross
Term limits mean nine Jacksonville City Council seats are up for grabs in the city’s unitary election March 24. A powerful group of local women is working to make sure women win as many of those elections as possible.
The movement is called “9 in 15,” referencing the number of open seats in play this year. Organized by First Coast heavy hitters such as philanthropist Pam Paul and others, the grassroots effort has helped to get 18 women in the various races, contesting for six of the nine open seats.
“There’s a wealth of data, nationally and internationally, showing that when women’s voices are at the table in key decisions, better results occur,” Audrey Moran said. She’s a Baptist Health executive, JAX Chamber chair, one of the movement’s leaders and a former candidate for Jacksonville mayor. Moran’s mayoral campaign drew bipartisan appeal but she did not make the runoff in 2011.
This work for me is inspiring,” she said. “It shows that there are people from all across this community that do truly care deeply about our local elections. While my personal journey wasn’t successful, perhaps we learned some lessons and laid the groundwork for other women to be successful -and that makes me happy.”
Women held 10 of the 19 seats on the Jacksonville City Council in 1999 but occupy only three today. As Moran points out, more than half of Duval County’s voters are women.
And while 9 in 15 is not formally endorsing any candidate, “We have encouraged our close to 200 members to support the candidate of their choice, whether it’s writing a check, hosting an event, going door to door, or working phone banks,” Moran said.
One of many candidates benefiting from the 9 in 15 momentum is Anna Brosche, who is looking to unseat incumbent Kimberly Daniels, whose tenure has raised eyebrows on a number of fronts.
There are also several races with two or even three female candidates running that fall under the 9 in 15 umbrella, Republican and Democrat.
“People are recognizing we can’t allow candidates to be defined by party, especially on the local level,” Moran said. “And they understand we’ve got to have the voices of women at the table making decisions.”
