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St. Johns County Commission incumbents have a mix of joy, loss Tuesday
By TIMOTHY J. GIBBONS, The Times-Union
Aug 27, 2008
Incumbents had a mixed showing in Tuesday's St. Johns County Commission races, with Cyndi Stevenson taking a commanding lead to win the Republican nomination and Ben Rich narrowly losing his seat, with all precincts reporting.
Ken Bryan, meanwhile, won the three-way race for the seat being vacated by James Bryant.
"The electorate felt very positive, but you can never tell what people think," Stevenson said of her lopsided victory over Albert Abbatiello.
Stevenson will go on to face Merrill Paul Roland in the November general election.
All of the races revolved around the perennial issues in St. Johns County of growth versus quality of life.
Abbatiello said his take of those issues clearly wasn't what voters wanted.
"My message wasn't what people wanted to hear," he said. "Some people felt I was doing a negative campaign. What I was doing was putting out her voting record, voting in the direction of big money."
The losing candidate said he plans to continue being "the activist I've been in this county."
"I want to make these county commissioners listen to the will of the people. Hopefully, we've sent a message."
Gary McMahon, meanwhile, came in third in the race against Randy Brunson and said this is the last try for him, having lost two previous races for the commission.
Bryan, though, was looking forward to joining the board, building upon the decades of experience he's had in other public roles.
"I think it's very positive," Bryan said. "They're looking forward to me sharing my experience and working for the people."
timothy.gibbons@jacksonville.com,
(904) 359-4103
Copyright 2008
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