A.G. Gancarski's columns were a staple in Folio Weekly for nearly two decades, and he has been the Northeast Florida correspondent for Florida Politics since 2014. He writes about the intersection of state and local politics and policy.
Jacksonville City Councilman Matt Carlucci surprised some people last week when he abandoned his bid for Jacksonville Mayor. Carlucci launched his campaign at the beginning of 2021, with strong fundraising and seeming momentum. But the optimism of spring and summer gave way to the harsher reality of fall and a cold, cold winter ahead. Early in his term, Carlucci said
We will have a few live August contests in this region next summer. While top-of-the-ticket stuff leaves some intrigue for the November general election, the down-ballot stuff is often of greatest interest in these primaries. For those who need it, here’s a cheat sheet breaking down the partisan dynamics in play and the potential outcomes. The biggest-stakes competitive primary is
In 2018, Gov. Ron DeSantis didn’t win Duval County in the general election race against Andrew Gillum. It was a bad year for a few statewide GOP candidates in Duval, including another who won the state but lost the county: Rick Scott also failed to carry the county against Bill Nelson. And local Republican Party leadership at the time took
Fundraising isn’t everything. That is what every underfinanced candidate has said since the beginning of time. And that is also the message of Donna Deegan, the first Democrat to run for Jacksonville Mayor in close to a decade. Deegan launched her campaign the day before the fundraising filing deadline for October, which was Tuesday, and before filing new numbers. A
The wisdom of the Jacksonville City Council has always been a matter of debate. This is the same group that once saw a former councilman (Reggie Brown) argue for the better part of two months about whether people had the right to back their cars into their driveways. His theory was if they did so, they could use their trunks
Former Congresswoman Corrine Brown, who long represented part of the Jacksonville area until 2017, is set to stand trial for the second time in the courthouse she has often said she built. And that is a gross injustice. Brown has a status of counsel meeting slated for Nov. 10. This in theory is a prelude to a sequel trial in
Time was when a candidate could run for mayor or whatever they wanted in Duval County, armed with nothing more than a vat of Brylcreem, one of those old-style Jacksonville twangy accents that have all but disappeared, and an endorsement from the big Baptist church Downtown. Times have changed. The good ol’ boy system has begun its long goodbye. Politics
Problems are plaguing the city of Jacksonville’s recycling drop sites, and Mayor Lenny Curry’s Chief Administrative Officer Brian Hughes got an earful about it at the last City Council meeting. In response to the grilling from Council members, Hughes pointed out that the mayor’s office did not foresee people taking trash to the recycling drop sites. He also told them
For those who wondered about how their City Council districts were drawn, the ongoing redistricting process shows that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Politics in 2029 in Duval County will, at least on the City Council level, look like they did in 2019 or 2009. You’re going to see Republican domination. That’s despite Democrats’ holding