Tracye Polson and Nick Howland head to runoff election for Jacksonville City Council

Tracye Polson and Nick Howland are headed for a run-off election on Feb. 22 after they finished neck and neck Tuesday in the first round of voting for a City Council seat that had low turnout but high stakes for who will succeed the late Tommy Hazouri on council.

Neither Howland nor Polson could break the 50 percent threshold needed to win outright as two other candidates gained enough votes to keep the campaign going for another two months.

The special election came after long-time Jacksonville politician Hazouri died in September with nearly two years left in the term as an at-large group 3 council member.

The at-large seat meant candidates needed to turn out voters countywide, a daunting task when it was the only race on the ballot during the holiday season. None of the candidates previously held elective office, adding to the challenge of connecting with voters.

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In Jacksonville's jungle primary system, candidates appear together on the ballot, regardless of party affiliation.

For the special election, Polson and James "Coach" Jacobs ran as Democrats while Howland and Howland "Howdy" Russell campaigned as Republicans.

With 97 percent of ballots counted, Polson and Howland had clearly emerged as the top two vote-getters.

Polson had won 36.5% and Howland was at 36.08%. Jacobs and Russell were bunched close together with Russell at 13.79% and Jacobs at 13.63%. The unofficial results were with all the early voting and election day ballots counted, but mail-in ballots not yet completely counted.

Duval County Democratic Party Chairman Daniel Henry invoked Hazouri, a former mayor who won election twice to City Council as a Democrat, in expressing confidence Polson will win the run-off.

“Tracye is a dedicated community advocate and is committed to building on the legacy of the late Tommy Hazouri,” Henry said. “While he is no longer with us, we will honor his legacy by electing a Democratic successor that will fight to secure the positive change he long sought to see.”

Republican Party leaders linked Polson to a different well-known Democrat by connecting her to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“It's clear that Duval County isn't ready for a radical 'woke' Democrat and hypocrite who supports defunding JSO for regular people while she sits in her gated community mansion,” said Dean Black, chairman of the Republican Party of Duval County.

“The Republican Party is united and ready for the real contest,” he said. “On Feb. 22, we will elect our Republican nominee, Nick Howland, and ensure that Tracye ‘Pelosi’ never darkens the door of City Hall.”

Howland, 48, said during the campaign that Jacksonville is "at a pivotal point in its history" and he can put long-range strategic thinking into the city's future growth.

Howland is a Navy veteran serving as CEO of the Fire Watch Project, a nonprofit that started in Northeast Florida with a mission of preventing veteran suicides.

He said the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office needs to be expanded an additional 300 officers to "keep our streets safe."

He said the city needs more manufacturing and transportation logistics operations that create "middle-class jobs" in addition to the financial technology companies that have been expanding in Jacksonville.

He said he supports developing downtown and neighborhood infill projects "in a strategic manner."

Polson, 62, said Jacksonville needs ethical and respectful leaders who will ask tough questions and regain the trust of residents.

She said the city must put more attention on small business owners and should make it easier to compete for city contracts.

She said environmental justice and preparing for the impact of climate change also are vital to a city that is full of rivers and is on the ocean. She supports phasing out septic tanks to improve water quality in the St. Johns River.

She said federal money coming to Jacksonville for recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and money from a local gas tax must aid long-neglected neighborhoods and she would focus attention on ensuring that happens.

Jacobs was running a third time in three years for elective office. He challenged Hazouri in 2019 for the at-large council seat and then ran for the Duval County School Board in 2020.

Russell, a restaurant owner, was making his first run for office.

Polson previously ran for a state House seat in 2018 and Howland tried that same year to win election to the Duval County School Board.

Duval County Supervisor of Elections Mike Hogan said Monday that voter turnout would likely be in the range of 11.7 percent with the lion's share of voters being those who reliably go to the polls for every election.

Turnout clocked in at about 12.6 percent of the county's 645,247 voters. Democrats had the advantage after early voting ended Sunday but Republicans made up the roughly 6,000-vote difference on Tuesday.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville City Council election: Runoff between Polson and Howland