St. Johns County Commission candidates speak at a forum hosted by the St. Johns County Chamber of Commerce in June. From left are District 4 candidates Sam Williams and James Galloway and District 2 candidates Martin Pyszczymuka, Will McMullan, Tim Burres and Heather Brofford. | Noah Hertz, Jacksonville Today
Published on July 27, 2026 at 12:11 pm
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Four candidates are vying for a seat on the St. Johns County Commission to represent the county’s southwest area, from Shearwater and Silverleaf down to Hastings.
Like the other race for St. Johns County Commission, this race will be decided in the August primary election. The person who wins the most votes, whether it’s by one vote or 1,000, will take the seat — no November runoff needed.
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The four candidates for the District 2 seat, all Republicans, are Heather Brofford, Tim Burres, Will McMullan and Martin Pyszczymuka (pronounced pish-chee-MOOK-uh). They are running for the seat currently occupied by Sarah Arnold, who has been criminally charged in connection with a fake voter guide scheme.
The County Commission makes decisions about how and where the county grows, and all of the candidates cite similar top priorities: reining in rampant growth, boosting St. Johns County’s commercial sector and maintaining a quality of life they have appreciated.
Where the candidates differ is their approaches to the challenges and just how long each candidate has lived in St. Johns County.
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Different kinds of experience
Whether they’ve lived in the county for just a handful of years or for decades, each District 2 candidate boasts experience of a different kind.
The candidate newest to the area is Pyszczymuka, a retired FBI white-collar crime investigator who moved to St. Johns County from Hawaii roughly four years ago.
Pyszczymuka has positioned himself as the slow-the-growth candidate in the District 2 race. In addition to an endorsement from County Commissioner Ann Taylor, his campaign is tied to County Commissioner Krista Joseph’s re-election campaign. They campaign together and share a campaign marketer.
If elected, Pyszczymuka and Joseph promise to have the number of votes needed to deny large-scale development projects.
Pyszczymuka says the fact that he is relatively new to the area is an asset — he isn’t tapped into what he calls the corruption of the “good old boy network.”
“I don’t have any of these connections with any of these insiders,” Pyszczymuka says. “The reason I’m running is I’m incorruptible. I don’t have friends in this area besides the people that I met here. But I’m beholden to nobody.”
He also says his experience as an FBI investigator is key given the recent criminal charges filed against two sitting St. Johns County commissioners.
“I don’t think there could be a more clear choice on what background is required at this time in the county,” Pyszczymuka says. “I think it’s almost divine intervention that it happened like this.”
Other candidates in the race cite experience of other kinds.
Brofford is the second-newest to the area. She moved to St. Johns County in 2011 for work. These days she works as a vice president for Citibank.
Having served on the board of the community development district in Six Mile Creek where she lives, Brofford says she already has a proven record of getting developers to fulfill their promises.
She also says she wants to “bring peace to the board” and see the County Commission work together.
“We have got to be better,” Brofford says. “St. Johns County deserves better.”
McMullan is another candidate with financial experience.
A native Floridian who grew up in Northeast Florida, McMullan left to work in investment banking on Wall Street before returning to St. Johns County.
“All that time abroad and all that traveling and experience living in New York and stuff just made me appreciate how special what we have in St. Johns County is and how we need to protect it,” McMullan says.
These days, McMullan works as a corporate account manager with companies like Unilever, Energizer and more.
A big focus for McMullan is economic development. In a county where more than 80% of property tax revenue comes from residential housing, McMullan says promoting job growth should be a priority.
Doing so, he says, would have the added benefit of keeping young people in St. Johns County.
“They should have good high-paying jobs right here at home,” he says. “I don’t think that families should have to break up. They say we have the best schools in the state, but as soon as we spend, you know, 18 years — our blood, sweat and tears raising these kids — we then send them away because they don’t have jobs.”
The final candidate in the race is retired St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Burres.
Burrest has lived in St. Johns County longer than some of the other candidates have been alive. He says he is uniquely positioned to understand the need to improve the area’s infrastructure.
“I’ve watched it go from the dirt roads and overpasses without on- and off-ramps, woodlands to subdivisions, and others can’t say that,” Burres says. “They can’t see how we’ve come from where we were to where we are today. A lot of them have had the luxury of moving into a county that was already built for them.”
Like Brofford and McMullan, Burres says making sure the Board of County Commissioners can work together instead of bickering is important to him. He says dysfunction among board members is clear evidence that the “good old boy network” Pyszczymuka has criticized is nonexistent.
Growth top of mind
Talks of unity among elected officials and the need to trim the county’s budget are frequent talking points among candidates, but the largest issue across the board is the area’s growth.
St. Johns County’s population has grown by more than 25% in the past six years, and the number of single-family homes has skyrocketed.
Although everyone in the race has expressed a desire to slow the growth or develop St. Johns County more thoughtfully, Pyszczymuka is the candidate with the hardest line.
At candidate forums around the county, Pyszczymuka has said that living in St. Johns County is a privilege. He has labeled affordable housing and workforce housing for nurses, law enforcement officers and teachers as “developer ploys.”
Other candidates, like McMullan, have taken a softer approach.
“Life’s never been more unaffordable, and I think that we need to do a lot more to help ease the burden and create more affordability here in St. Johns County,” he says.
Where candidates call home
Three of the four candidates running for the County Commission District 2 seat have called the area home for at least several years.
While no requirements exist to live in the district you represent, Brofford, Burres and McMullan all lived within the District 2 boundaries when they filed to run for office. Pyszczymuka did not, but when he spoke with Jacksonville Today this month he said he was in the process of moving out of his home in the Beachwalk community into one within the district he hopes to represent.
According to his financial disclosures, Pyszczymuka owns a second home in Beachwalk that he rents out.
Paying the bills
As of mid-July, the two candidates with the most well-funded campaigns were McMullan and Pyszczymuka, both of whom have pumped in some of their own cash.
For Pyszczymuka, $12,500 of the roughly $35,000 in his campaign coffers came from himself, while McMullan self-funded $27,000 of the $29,000 his campaign had raised.
McMullan says that is because, if elected, he does not want to be beholden to anyone.
Brofford and Burres have lower campaign finances, with Brofford touting $16,500 and Burres $14,000.
Many donations to all of the candidates come from individuals, but in addition to the $5,000 she gave herself, Brofford has received $3,000 from entities associated with casino bestbet and $1,000 from PACs affiliated with a shareholder from Rogers Towers law firm. Attorneys from Rogers Towers frequently represent companies and individuals looking to develop land in St. Johns County.
When asked about those donations, Brofford said she was unaware of any campaign funding from individuals with ties to developers.
The races for the St. Johns County Commission are universal primary contests — meaning you don’t have to be a registered Republican to cast your vote for Republican candidates. Early voting begins Aug. 8 and runs through Aug. 15. Click here for the full list of early voting locations in St. Johns County.
