Brevard races are on: Qualifying closes
Florida Rep. Ritch Workman and two Canaveral Port Authority commissioners — Jerry Allender and Tom Weinberg — won re-election at noon Friday, when no one qualified to run against them.
In addition, two incumbent Brevard School Board members — Michael Krupp in District 1 and Barbara Murray in District 2 — will not be serving after this year, as they did not file paperwork to run for re-election.
But there will be lots of other candidates on the ballot for the Aug. 26 primary and the Nov. 4 general election.
Three incumbent Republican state legislators from Brevard County will face Republican challengers in primaries — Sen. Thad Altman, Rep. Tom Goodson and Rep. John Tobia. In Altman and Goodson's cases, there are no Democratic challengers, so the primary will, in effect, decide the election, although the primary winner in Altman's district will have a write-in opponent in November.
The largest number of candidates in Brevard County elections this year are in the County Commission races, where incumbent Republicans Chuck Nelson in District 2 and Mary Bolin Lewis in District 4 cannot seek re-election because of term limits.
In County Commission District 4, there will be seven candidates in a Republican primary, with the winner facing Democratic and Libertarian candidates in the general election. In addition, five other candidates at one time announced they were interested in seeking that office, but they later withdrew.
In County Commission District 2, there will be four candidates in a Republican primary, with the winner facing a Libertarian candidate and a candidate running without party affiliation in the general election.
Brevard County Supervisor of Elections Lori Scott said "open seats tend to draw more candidates because you're not challenging an incumbent. The slate is even for everybody at this point."
She added, though, that having this many candidates in a local election is unusual.
The non-partisan school board elections, which take place in August, will be packed as well. There are two candidates in District 1; three candidates in District 2; and four candidates in District 5, including incumbent Andy Ziegler. If no candidate gets a majority of the votes, the top two vote-getters square off in the November election.
Only one of the three incumbent Canaveral Port Authority members up for re-election this year — Frank Sullivan — has a challenger in the Republican primary. The winner of that primary will face a write-in candidate in the general election.
Candidates for Congress and judgeships had qualifying periods that ended last month.
Brevard voters also will see Democratic and Republican primaries for governor on the Aug. 26 ballot. Gov. Rick Scott is the favorite in the GOP primary, while former Gov. Charlie Crist and former state legislator Nan Rich are the most well-known candidates in the Democratic primary.
The other Florida cabinet members — Attorney General Pam Bondi, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater and Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam — also qualified to run for re-election this year. They have no primary challengers.
Contact Berman at 321-242-3649 or dberman@floridatoday.com. Follow him on Twitter @ByDaveBerman
Brevard candidates
Congress, District 8
Republican: Bill Posey (i)
Democrat: Gabriel Rothblatt
Write-in: Christopher L. Duncan Jr.
State Senate, District 16
Republican: Thad Altman (i); Monique Miller
Write-in: Lloyd Stanton French
State House, District 50
Republican: George Collins; Tom Goodson (i)
State House, District 51
Republican: Steve Crisafulli (i)
Democrat: Joe Murray
State House, District 53
Republican: Tim Street, John Tobia (i)
Democrat: Santa Isabel Wright
No Party Afilliation: David A. Kearns
Write-in: Kourtney Ann Waldron
County Commission, District 2
Republican: Jim Barfield, Michael Hartman, Chuck Sheridan, Ron Taylor
Libertatian: John Jude McCurry
No Party Afilliation: Jack Felix Smink
County Commission, District 4
Republican: David W. Armstrong, Richard Charbonneau, Gregory K. Jones, Bill Klein, Richard Lacey, Curtis L. Smith, Frank Zilaitis
Democrat: Mike W. McCarty
Libertarian: George Lebovitz
Canaveral Port Authority, District 3
Republican: Wayne Edward Justice, Frank Sullivan (i)
Write-In: Mark Anthony Rieman
School Board, District 1
Misty L. Bedford, Paul A. Chinaris
School Board, District 2
John W. Craig, Robert A. Mentillo, Keith Yarbrough
School Board, District 5
Denise Coyle, Dale D. Davis, Dean Paterakis, Andy Ziegler (i)
Circuit Court/Group 13
Samuel Bookhardt III, George T. Paulk, Christina Sanchez
Circuit Court/Group 14
Brooke Deratany Goldfarb, Robin Lemonidis
Circuit Court/Group 19
Donna M. Goerner, Mitch Krause, Susan Stacy
Circuit Court/Group 23
Maurice Arcadier, Nancy Maloney, John Moser
County Court/Group 3
Michelle Vitt Baker (i), Minerva Simpson
County Court/Group 8
Benjamin Garagozlo (i), Oscar Hotusing
(i) denotes incumbent