Jacksonville elections: Curry wins mayoral race, Williams wins sheriff's race

Lenny Curry, the energetic and relentlessly competitive Jacksonville businessman-turned chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, defeated Mayor Alvin Brown Tuesday, only the second time in recent history a sitting mayor has lost re-election.

With all 199 precincts reporting, Curry had 51 percent, or 103,256 votes, to Brown's 48 percent, or 97,971 votes.

"Just soak it in with me," Curry told raucous supporters at his election-night party at the downtown Hyatt. "The work starts now."

Outsiders will suggest the race - the most expensive in city history, largely run by outside operatives - has shades of the 2016 presidential election because both candidates have ties to national political figures.

But at home, the stakes were clear: Jacksonville is a cash-strapped city with a $1.62 billion debt to the Police and Fire Pension Fund. Violent crime dominates the headlines. Long-persistent divides of wealth, race and schooling define the differences among the sea of neighborhoods in the largest city by area in the continental United States. UF Health Jacksonville faces a potential - and imminent - funding crisis.

Curry's campaign, centered on rescuing the city from violent crime and using his accounting background to fix financial books he said were in disarray, resonated with voters.

"This will be a safe city again," he said. "For every family, every person, every kid, every neighborhood, will know that we care about them."

Brown, who never led as returns came in Tuesday, nonetheless struck an upbeat tone with his supporters at The Jacksonville Landing.

"We left a strong foundation to build on," Brown said. "I'm excited about it."

Sheriff

Former Jacksonville Sheriff's Office Director Mike Williams' law-and-order approach to violence and drugs and his mantra that supervisory experience is essential to run the agency spurred him to a win Tuesday over Ken Jefferson, who campaigned that violence could be cut by confronting its root causes.

Williams held a slight but steady lead throughout the night in a race that eerily reflected the close mayoral contest between Curry and Brown. Though the races are not supposed to be party-driven, both winners are Republicans. Jefferson and the incumbent mayor are Democrats.

Williams, 46, will replace his former boss and mentor, John Rutherford, on July 1.

Williams left the department in August to run for the job. At his victory speech, the sheriff-elect Williams thanked Rutherford and promised to lead what he has called a new generation of law enforcement officers.

Rutherford said wins by Williams and Curry are good for the city.

"Both of them together are going to make a great team for Jacksonville." Rutherford said.

At the Jefferson election night gathering at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Jacksonville, supporter and Northside kindergarten teacher Robin Tyler said she was drawn to Jefferson because of his pledge of a more one-on-one approach to policing and troubled youth.

Reflecting early on what she expected if her candidate did not win, she said she thought Williams may have at least taken some notes on Jefferson's approach to crime problems.

"It seems like Williams has taken some of Jefferson's ideas because we need to get in the community because things are wrong," she said. "I'm a teacher and things are wrong."

During his victory speech, Williams said he respected Jefferson's ideas.

"I want to tell you there is room for all views," he said. He said he hoped his former opponent would continue to work with young people.

Later, he said both men keyed on similar issues.

"Some of the things he said are just true," he said. "We said a lot of the same things."

Williams said he will begin working on a transition team and the budget, which faces a deadline in mid-July.

"It's just a matter of plugging in," he said.

Williams pledged the finances of the office will be transparent. "The work begins tomorrow," he said.

"To the all the men and women of JSO, I will work to make you proud every day," he pledged.

Tara Bowen, of Nassau County has known Williams for 25 years.

She said he is best suited to take on Jacksonville's violence.

"It's everyday another shooting," she said. "I hate it because it's everyday in the headlines. It's a tough job but somebody's got to do it. He's going to do it."

Rhetoric sharpened toward the end of the campaign, with both men questioning the other's handling of personal issues including a contempt of court finding ordering Jefferson to pay $22,000 in back child support from his first marriage and a foreclosure suit against Williams and his wife. Both men said they met their obligations.

When he spoke to supporters after conceding the race, Jefferson keyed on the attacks and comments by Williams.

"When a person has to resort to nasty, ugly rhetoric to get in office, people get what they get," he said.

He later said he "refused to step down and play in the mud."

Williams declined to comment on Jefferson's remarks.

Jefferson thanked his wife, Rhonda, and supporters and asked them to pray for Williams and his administration. "It's the people's will," he said of the result.

In the race that saw the two camps raise more than $900,000, with Williams heavily outpacing Jefferson, the battle hinged on the difference in two approaches to fighting crime that has seen gunfire claim the lives of six males aged 16 to 20 this year, including a police shooting.

Williams, whose career with the department was steeped in operations and included command of SWAT operations, said policing approach to drugs and gang activity would stem violence and said his supervisory experience was an essential element to run the department and its $400 million budget.

Williams often noted Jefferson never rose above the rank of patrol officer during a 24-year career with the Sheriff's Office. He said his opponent's most prominent role, as police spokesman, did not qualify him for office.

Jefferson said roles he performed in guiding programs involving youth and recruiting showed he has leadership skills more meaningful than passing promotional exams.

Jefferson argued he was able to best connect with the community and promised moves such as mentoring a troubled young person an hour a month and meeting with gangs to stop their role in the violence.

Both men said they would push rank and file officers deeper into communities in ways that will improve interactions between residents and beat cops.

Williams said in a move to improve transparency in the department he would pursue overturning a court order that closed the Sheriff's Office board hearings that review police shootings. Those were open until the police union won the decision in 2010.