It’s Election Day in the Florida Keys. Here’s what’s on the ballot
Tuesday is Election Day in the Florida Keys. The primary election features a ballot that includes races for Key West mayor and commission. Here’s a summary of what’s on the ballot:
Key West mayor
In Key West, voters citywide will choose a mayor and two neighborhoods will go to the polls for city commission races.
The Key West races are all nonpartisan, so winners could emerge in all three races Aug. 18. To win, a candidate must take 50 percent plus one vote.
The mayoral candidates are former vacation rentals broker Rick Haskins, the incumbent Teri Johnston and former city commissioner and Duval Street bar owner Mark Rossi.
Johnston, who is in her first term, was a two-term city commissioner until 2015 and runs a contracting business.
Key West City Commission
Two incumbents on the City Commission have competition this year.
District 6 Commissioner Clayton Lopez, whose district includes the historically Black neighborhood of Bahama Village, faces two opponents: chiropractor Ryan Barnett and activist John Wilson Smith. Lopez recently retired from the Florida Department of Health in Monroe County, where his jobs included counselor.
Lopez has been on the commission since 2005
District 3 Commissioner Billy Warlow, the retired fire chief, faces political newcomer Kimball Ingram, who until recently owned part of the Aqua nightclub on Duval Street. Wardlow’s district includes part of both Stock Island and the city’s New Town neighborhood.
Wardlow has been on the commission for 11 years.
Countywide, the races include state representative and county commissioner.
State House
Jim Mooney, an Islamorada village councilman, Rhonda Redman Lopez, who helps run her family’s Doral-based electrical distributor business, and Alexandra Suarez, a Homestead attorney, each want the Republican nomination for the State House’s district 120 seat, held by the term-limited State Rep. Holly Raschein, of Key Largo. Raschein has endorsed Mooney.
Republicans Omar Blanco, president of Miami-Dade Firefighters and Paramedics Local 1403, and Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez are battling for the party’s nomination for the U.S. congressional district 26 office held by Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell.
Democrats State Rep. Javier Fernandez and Dan Horton-Diaz, who was district chief for Mucarsel-Powell, want the party’s nomination for State Senate district 39. Mucarsel-Powell has endorsed Fernandez.
State attorney
State Attorney Dennis Ward is being challenged for the Republican nomination for the Keys top prosecutor by former state attorney Mark Kohl.
County commission
Republican Mike Forster, mayor of the Village of Islamorada, faces Robby Majeska for the party’s nomination for the District 5 county commission seat left open by outgoing Commissioner Sylvia Murphy.
This story was originally published August 3, 2020 at 6:49 AM.
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