Wife of Parkland shooting victim joins school board, plus other Broward election results
Broward’s school board will now have a second member who lost a loved one in 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.
Debra Hixon, whose husband Chris was killed, held a solid lead Tuesday night over opponent Jeff Holness. She will now join Lori Alhadeff, who lost her daughter Alyssa in the shooting, on the nine-member board.
The school board race was one of several key posts up for election Tuesday in Broward.
Voter turnout
With so many people voting early or by mail, Broward saw it’s highest turnout in recent years with about 76%.
With all of Broward County’s 577 precincts reporting Tuesday and most of the early votes and mail-in ballots counted, some municipal races looked as if they were going to a recount Tuesday night.
Florida law requires an automatic recount in races that are separated by less than 0.5%.
“We’re going to have a few recounts and it’s going to be snapped,” Broward County Supervisor of Elections Peter Antonacci said. “Because we know exactly where the ballots are, we’re going to know where to locate them and we’re going to know how to get them out and whether it’s going to be a machine recount or hand recount. Things are going to go very quickly because we know where everything is.”
Antonacci said the reason for this is due to Broward spending a lot of time making sure absentee and the early voting were all cataloged.
He did not provide specifics on how many recounts were expected but rather that there would be a couple in municipal races.
Key races in Broward
Two critical criminal justice positions were open because of retirements. Mike Satz, 77, retired after more than four decades as the state attorney, and Howard Finkelstein, 67, retired after 33 years with the public defender’s office, the last 16 as public defender.
Democrat Harold Fernandez Pryor, who worked as a prosecutor before leaving for private practice, appeared to have won the state attorney seat as of Tuesday night over Republican challenger Gregg Rossman, who was a Broward prosecutor for 20 years. Pryor had previously defeated seven challengers in the August Democratic primary.
“I asked myself is the world getting any better and it wasn’t,” Pryor told Miami Herald news partner CBS4 before the election. “My goal is to work with law enforcement to make them better law enforcement officers. But also work with them to weed out the bad apples.”
Gordon Weekes was a shoo-in for the public defender’s seat, only facing a write-in candidate in Tuesday’s election.
Weekes, the executive chief assistant public defender, won the Democratic primary against Ruby Lenora Green and Tom Lynch.
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In the Supervisor of Elections race, Democrat Joe Scott, who stressed his tech industry experience during his campaign, held a substantial lead over Republican Catherine McBreen Tuesday night.
Scott will fill the role that has been held by Pete Antonacci, who was appointed after former supervisor of elections Brenda Snipes resigned because of problems during the 2018 elections.
The two Broward county commission seats were easy wins for the incumbents, who faced write-in candidates. That means incumbent Dale Holness won the District 9 race, which includes Lauderdale Lakes and parts of Fort Lauderdale, Sunrise and several other areas. Holness currently serves as the mayor of Broward County.
In the District 7 race, which includes Dania Beach, Wilton Manors and parts of Fort Lauderdale, Tim Ryan easily was reelected.
Voters countywide also were faced with two charter amendments — one that deals with how county finances are managed and the second addressing where transportation corridors and facilities are built.
As of Tuesday night, both questions appeared to have been passed by voters.
And voters also overwhelmingly decided that Sheriff Gregory Tony would keep his job.
Hallandale Beach
In the Hallandale Beach mayor’s race, incumbent Joy Cooper appeared to be in the lead over Carmen Gimenez and Joy D. Adams.
Cooper, who was acquitted of felony corruption charges in 2019, was first elected to the commission in 1999.
Incumbent Anabelle Lima-Taub held a very narrow lead Tuesday night with all precincts counted over Cynthia Cabrera for City Commission Seat 3. The other candidates were: Ann Shires-Henigson, Javonta McCoy and Maggie Ivanovski.
Incumbent Michele Lazarow seemed to be reelected Tuesday night for Seat 4. Her challengers were: Dmitriy Yakubovich, Ruel Miles, William “Bill” Julian and Matthew “Matt” Lorenzo.
Hollywood
In Hollywood, Linda Hill Anderson, who retired from the Broward County School System after serving as trainer and staff developer for more than 40 years, appeared to have unseated incumbent Peter D. Hernandez.
As of Tuesday night, with all precincts counted, Anderson held a slight lead over Hernandez. Two other candidates, Stephanie Anderson and Mitch Anton lagged behind.
Political newcomer Adam David Gruber seemed poised to unseat incumbent Richard Blattner for the District 4 seat as of Tuesday night.
Gruber, who according to his website is the executive director at Radius Resource Group, LLC, a security company, focused on “real solutions for the safety and security of the people of Hollywood and to ensure that the integrity of our neighborhood is protected.”
Guy C. Silla trailed behind Gruber and Blattner.
Incumbent Linda Sherwood appeared to have won the District 6 seat over challenger Jack Anthony Izzo.
Fort Lauderdale
In Fort Lauderdale, Mayor Dean Trantalis appeared to have held on to his seat Tuesday. Trantalis, who touted his work on improving the city’s infrastructure and addressing the city’s crime rate, bested Kenneth Cooper, an attorney.
“I am committed to public safety,” Trantalis said in a video posted on YouTube in September. “When pipes broke because of years of neglect we took action.”
Trantalis was elected mayor in 2018 after serving as vice mayor and commissioner.
For the City Commissioner District 2 incumbent Steven Glassman appeared to easily reclaim the seat over challenger Kyle Gibson.
Davie
Davie voters were tasked with deciding whether to make 11 changes to the charter.
Most noteworthy, voters agreed to require the fire chief to report to the town administrator, change the procedure for candidate qualification requiring a candidate to live in the town for a year before qualifying to run and remove archaic language from the charter.
Measures to add general neutral references in the charter and revise the salary for council members and mayor failed, though.
Results reflect all precincts being counted.
Weston
In Weston, Margaret “Peggy” Brown, who was elected to the commission in 2016, held a narrow lead for the mayor’s seat as of Tuesday night with all precincts counted.
Former State Rep. Richard “Rick” Stark was in second place and James D. “Jim” Norton trailed.
For Commission Seat 1, Chris Eddy held a lead over Rafael “Papa” Pons and Jason Zauder.
And for Commission Seat 2, Henry Mead held a narrow lead over candidates Dalia Quinones-Zayas and Kim Schnitzius.
Miami Herald staff writer Jacqueline Charles contributed to this report.
This story was originally published November 3, 2020 at 9:49 PM.
