By D. L. Norris
Happy New Year Okaloosa County! With the new year 2020, comes an election and Districts 1, 3, and 5 county commissioner seats are up for re-election. The incumbent commissioner in District 3 is running for re-election, Nathan Boyles. The incumbent commissioners for Districts 1 and 5, Graham Fountain and Kelley Windes, respectively, have declared they are not running again so those two seats are open for anyone’s taking.
As this blog and it’s postings have pointed out, the current Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) is governing as a liberal progressive body even though the county is overwhelmingly conservative. This year, conservatives in Okaloosa County have an opportunity to elect three new commissioners with strong conservative values who can move the BOCC back to the right of center as a legislative body.
Currently there is one challenger for the District 3 commissioner seat, Brad Robert Roehrig (REP). Three candidates are running to fill the open District 1 seat: James F. Walker (REP), Paul Mixon (REP), and Wayne Richard Harris (REP). Four candidates are running to fill the open District 5 seat: Wes Fell (NPA), Dewey “Parker” Destin (REP), Richard Scott Johnson (REP), and Mel Ponder (REP).
Local county elections are no different than national elections when it comes to the strategy and tactics of winning the political battle. Historically, whoever has the most money usually wins the election but, if a candidate doesn’t employ smart tactics in spending the money, they could still lose to a candidate with less financial backing but with smarter tactics on messaging.
A cursory look at the financial reports of all the candidates currently running shows a wide range of funding from under $1,000 dollars to just over $120,000 dollars. The candidates have 8 months to convince us why we should vote for them over their opponents and it will be interesting to watch what strategies and tactics they use to win their political battle. The one constant for all the candidates will be the political battlefield they must fight in and that battlefield is defined by what type of district the county has decided to define itself as.
Okaloosa County is a non-charter county and has opted for the default at-large district residency system. From the Florida County Government Guide, “The county is divided into five equally populated, geographically defined districts. A candidate runs to represent the district he or she lives in, but all voters in the county get to vote on who shall represent that district. The advantage of the at-large district residency system is that it spreads out commissioners geographically through the county, ensuring all areas have representation but allow all residents to vote for all commissioners. Theoretically this keeps commissioners focusing on the good of the whole county rather than the concerns of one area. The disadvantage of this system is it can make it more difficult for minority residents to elect a minority commission.”
For Okaloosa County, the disadvantage of the at-large district residency system may come into play this election cycle in the form of the very wealthy Districts 5, 4 and 2, dominating the outcome of the election via campaign contributions. The incumbent for the less wealthy District 3 is being flooded with money from Districts 5, 4, 2 and outside the state, while the challenger in District 3 is not. If the incumbent from District 3 wins the election without a majority of votes from their own district, whose interests will they really be representing? In addition, two of the three candidates for District 1 are also being flooded with money from Districts 5, 4, 2 and outside the state. If either of these candidates wins the election without a majority of votes from their own district, whose interests will they really be representing? We’ll have to wait until August 18, 2020 to see what the outcome ends up being.
As an aid to voters in determining who they should vote for in the August 18, 2020 primary, data pulls from the Okaloosa County Supervisor of Elections website have been placed in Excel Workbook files and attached to this article for easy access. Two data graphs have been created within the Excel Workbook files for easier viewing of the data for candidates with large campaign war chests.
In the mean time, it might not hurt to start a conversation about exploring the other district type options allowed under Chapter 124 of the Florida Statues and whether one of those might be a better fit than the current at-large district residency type Okaloosa County has chosen.
Florida Statutes do allow counties to change from the default at-large district residency system to either the five single-member district or the seven-member mixed system by placing a proposition to do so before the voters by resolution of the commission or by a petition signed by at least 10% of the county’s registered voters.
From the Florida County Government Guide, “The single-member district plan calls for each commissioner to be nominated and elected only by qualified electors who reside in the same county commission district as the commissioner. One of the big advantages of five-single member districts is that they allow for greater diversity and representation on the commission. Single member districts can also lead each commissioner to have a narrow view of issues and lose sight of what is in the best interest of the county as a whole. For the mixed system, five members are elected from single member districts but the other two run at-large, meaning candidates from these two seats can live in any part of the county and all county electors are eligible to vote in those elections. Proponents of seven-member mixed systems promote them precisely because they allow some commissioners to bring a countywide perspective to matters before the board of county commissioners but allow other district-based commissioners to represent specific areas of the county. Manatee County is the only non-charter county currently using this system, but two charter counties, Leon and Volusia, do as well.”
As the election year unfolds, be thinking about these district type options. When the results of the election are announced on August 18th, only then will we know if it’s time to consider changing our county district type or if the current at-large district residency system is working as it should. Here’s to a New Year and here’s to hoping the county gets a new conservative BOCC!
Post Script: This post has been updated since it’s original post date in order to account for candidates joining in and dropping out of the ongoing political race.
You can contact the author at dlnorris@theparadisepatriot.com