ELECTION PREVIEW: Incumbents carry advantage in local legislative races

About 18 months ago, St. Johns County's representation in Tallahassee completely changed due to a chain reaction caused by John Thrasher's selection as president of Florida State University and the ensuing special election.

After making it through some tightly contested special primaries and a general election in 2015, State Representatives Cyndi Stevenson and Paul Renner and State Senator Travis Hutson - all Republicans - are all poised to win full terms in the Nov. 8 election.

Standing in their way are candidates with significantly less name recognition and little campaign funding. They also carry the Democratic Party affiliation, which is a distinct disadvantage in St. Johns County and certainly no advantage in the rest of the respective districts.

Stevenson is guaranteed a new term because there has been no opposition from either party in District 17.

House District 24

In House District 24, Renner faces Democrat Adam Morley, the same opponent he defeated in the special general election of 2015 with 67 percent of the vote.

Renner, an attorney, said he wants to continue what he's done in the last year and half, helping people have more choices in health care and education. He said one of his main goals is to maintain the quality of life in District 24, which includes all of Flagler County, the southern portion of St. Johns County and a northern sliver of Volusia County.

"If I'm privileged to have the support of the district, I'm looking forward to moving us in a direction of greater liberty, opportunity for everyone and strengthening the rule of law," Renner said.

Because of Hurricane Matthew, Renner said his immediate priorities have shifted to recovery. His district is among those in Florida that sustained the most damage from the hurricane.

"For the moment right now, we need to focus on helping those who have suffered (losses from the storm)," Renner said. "Through this adversity, we've seen the character of our counties is strong."

Morley doesn't have the experience of serving in the House like Renner does. And he's at a huge disadvantage in fundraising.

Renner has raised more than $200,000 for the election and has received donations both big and small. Just this month he has received $1,000 donations from big corporations like Comcast, Nextera (through its PAC), Pfizer and Marathon Petroleum. In the same period, he also received $500 from such donors as USAA Insurance, Allstate Insurance and JPMorgan Chase.

By contrast, Morley has raised less than $9,000 from small donors.

"It's not really that I'm struggling so much fundraising. It's more that I'm not doing it as typical politicians would," Morley said. "I'm doing it on a much smaller scale and trying to be as effective as I can with the funds that I have."

Morley, a St. Augustine resident who can often be seen campaigning on U.S. 1 South near Moultrie Creek, said he's struggling to get to his name out to all the voters.

Only about 15,500 people voted in the special election of 2015, and Morley said he's afraid constituents won't make it to the polls in larger numbers because of the hurricane.

"I'm concerned that voting just might not be on their list of priorities by the time the election comes around," he said. "People are still tearing the drywall out of their homes and so many people are displaced and trying to recover. I just don't think it's on the mind of a lot of people in my district."

The one area where Morley does have the advantage is knowledge of the community. He's a longtime resident in his district and well known in the environmentalist community. Renner ran for House District 15 in Jacksonville in 2014 before changing his address to Palm Coast and running in the special election in 2015.

"There is no way you can come from Jacksonville down into my district and think that you have a handle on things and be able to represent your district very well because it's two different worlds," Morley said.

Senate District 7

The local Senate race features an incumbent with experience and political connections in Hutson and a small business owner and relative political newcomer in challenger Curtis Ceballos.

Hutson was a state representative before winning a Senate seat in the special election. Hutson is a native of St. Johns County who graduated from Pedro Menendez High School. Ceballos is a Flagler County resident who manages technology startup GabRy Inc.

Ceballos has never held political office before, but he did run for a Flagler County Commission seat in 2006, losing a close race.

He's an entrepreneur with the goal of turning the district, which includes all of St. Johns and Flagler counties and part of Volusia County, into a hub for technology companies. He wants to help create a "Silicon Beach" here.

"I'm interested in attracting companies to come to our district," he said. "I really believe we have everything to be able to attract those larger clean technology companies.

"The problem is we don't give the right incentives to these companies to attract them to come here."

That's probably a platform that interests people of all parties, but Ceballos is not nearly as well known as his opponent. He's spent about $2,000 on his campaign, with $1,500 coming from a loan to himself.

Hutson has spent more than $140,000 on the campaign and has received many large donations from various PACs and corporations.

He said his priorities as a senator have changed with the recent hurricane and hopes to help the area recover from the damage.

"Restoring and repairing the district is my top priority right now," he said. "We've got about $17 billion in the CAT (Florida Hurricane Catastrophe) Fund for those who are applying for storm damage relief. We need to make sure those that were affected … they get their damages looked at and reimbursed because that money is there for them."

He's also very concerned about beach renourishment because the beaches are vital to the economy of the district.

"It leads directly to tourism and job creation, so we need that taken care of," Hutson said.

Ceballos is also concerned about getting the area back to normal after the storm and protecting natural resources in the future.

"The No. 1 thing on my platform is the environment," he said. "I think our state legislature hasn't done everything it can do to protect our No. 1 most valuable asset in Florida and especially in for this district, which is our environment. I feel very strongly about that."