St Johns County Supervisor of Elections announced to Historic City News this morning that the Canvassing Board accepted a request made by current District 4 County Commissioner Jeremiah Blocker that the ballots cast in his race need not be recounted. In a letter from Blocker last night, he accepted that his re-election campaign had “come up short”.
During a tough-fought campaign, awash in big-money contributions, state-level endorsements, and enough political controversy to keep two reporters buried for a week, the incumbent county commissioner representing affluent and influential voters in District 4 finds himself in a nail-biter against a political newcomer who appears to have him beaten by about 200 votes.
Helen Aguirre Ferré, Executive Director of the Republican Party of Florida, released a statement to local Historic City News reporters tonight following the announcement of results from today’s Democrat Gubernatorial Primary Election.
Vicky Oakes
St Johns County Supervisor of Elections
Good morning, St Johns County Voters. Election Day for the August 2022 Primary Election is today. Historic City News subscribers who have not already voted by mail-in ballot or during Early Voting, will vote today at your assigned precinct. Polls are open from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. The ballot includes Federal and State offices in addition to local races.
Michael Gold, Retired Editor
HISTORIC CITY NEWS
I worked as a volunteer in my first local political campaign in 1974. Against all odds, we got one of the small handful of St Johns County Republicans (that included me) elected to the St Augustine city commission. Since then, I have been hired to consult and campaign for candidates for municipal, county, regional, and state political offices. Although there is always plenty of fire brought by the candidates and their supporters, the flames almost always provide more heat than illumination.
With only 5 days remaining until the 2022 Primary Election in St Johns County, Historic City News visited several of the Early Voting locations accessible from 9:00 am until 6:00 pm through Saturday, August 20, 2022. Ballots may be cast by mail, or at any one of the supervised drop-off boxes, or voted in person at a designated Early Voting location of your choice, however, there will be no in-person voting Sunday or Monday.
Missi Davis
St Johns County, FL
When someone makes the choice to run for office, they are supposed to be the voice of their constituents. They are not supposed to be doing it for personal gain, favors, or backdoor deals. Each candidate is supposed to run their own race, on their own merit, not latch on to another candidate to drag them across the finish line.
At this moment in time, the retirement of Tracy Wilson Upchurch from his office as Mayor of the City of St Augustine creates opportunities we haven’t seen since long-incumbent mayor Joe Boles was ousted by political newcomer Nancy Shaver in November 2015. We called that election for Shaver and were the only media organization to give her their endorsement. The “political insiders”, including the St Augustine Record editorial board, said a relatively new resident “couldn’t get elected” against Boles.
