Coerper walks into mayoral seat unopposed
Candidates gathered at the fire station Tuesday as the total votes were tallied from the three precincts.
One race was clear.
Ben Boukari, Jr. won his first commission race handily, defeating Michael Canney for commission Seat 3.
Boukari won with 633 votes, or 71.85 percent, winning in all precincts. Canney finished with 248 votes, or 28.15 percent.
The Seat 2 commission race is headed for a runoff, as no candidate received at least 50 percent plus one vote, as is required. Robert Wilford picked up the most votes, 349, but that only garnered him 39.89 percent of the vote.
Wilford will face Duane Helle, who received the second most votes, 288, or 32.91 percent. Dollean Perkins finished third with 238 votes, or 27.2 percent. In the Seat 2 contest, each of the three precincts had a clear winner. Perkins dominated the fire station precinct with 73.65 percent of the votes. Wilford cleaned up in Turkey Creek with 69.25 percent of the voters. And Helle won the recreation precinct with 52.71 percent of the votes. Despite Perkins’ big victory at the fire station precinct, the turnout wasn’t large enough to overcome the other two precincts.
Overall turnout for the election was about 16 percent.
Both Helle and Wilford said they anticipated and were prepared for a runoff. Wilford joked with Helle as the absentee ballots were being counted that Alachua had switched to the High Springs model, where a plurality wins the vote, for just one night.
Wilford said he’s honored to be running against Helle.
“Mr. Helle and I served on the Charter Review Advisory Board together,” Wilford said. “I think he’s a great candidate.”
Wilford said his strategy for the runoff is to take a week off to go see his granddaughter’s baptism in Pensacola, and then he’ll be back in campaign mode going door-to-door, waving signs, running ads and sending out mass-mailers.
Helle said his plan is to get out and talk to more people.
“I’m in it for the whole thing, so we’ll do what we need to do,” Helle said.
For Boukari, victory means he’ll hit the ground running at the next commission meeting scheduled for April 26.
Boukari said his message to the citizens of Alachua is simple: “Watch me work. I’m going to be an advocate for everything I spoke about to the citizens of Alachua and make sure we get some good things done here.”
Boukari said he’s proud he didn’t take his votes for granted.
“I didn’t lay back. I went out and made sure I worked very hard to win. A lot of people supported me, and I appreciate their support,” Boukari said.
Canney said the defeat won’t deter him from continuing to fight for the issues he believes in.
“I intend to continue being an active public citizen concerned about the affairs of the community.”
He said he wouldn’t rule out another run for the commission, but he isn’t about to start firing the campaign up again.
“At this point, I think we need to give him [Boukari] time to show what type of commissioner he’s going to be.”
The one race that was never in doubt was the one for mayor. For Vice-Mayor Gib Coerper, Tuesday was a mere formality, as no candidate ran against him. Coerper now gives up his vice-mayor spot to move one seat over to the mayor’s chair.