Islamorada voters elected three male incumbents and two female newcomers to the village council on Election Night. The new dais will take their seats during a Dec. 8 meeting at Founders Park Community Center.
A village election season that saw plenty of attack mailers, negative TV ads and investigations by the state attorney came to an end on Nov. 8 with a little over 3,000 village residents voting.
Unofficial results show incumbents Buddy Pinder, Mark Gregg and Henry Rosenthal as the winners. Pinder secured 54.70% of the vote in the race for Seat 1 against longtime resident Sue Miller. She secured 45.30% of the village votes.
“I worked very hard the whole time. I’m glad the people of Islamorada supported me. I knew it was going to be close with everything that was going on,” Pinder said.
In the race for Seat 2, Gregg edged out Mary Barley with 51.98% of the vote. Barley, longtime board member of The Everglades Foundation, secured 48.02% of the vote. Gregg, a semi-retired lawyer, said he’s humbled to be on the winning side.
“There was a lot of negative campaigning and a lot of dark money spent in this election,” he said. “This victory shows tonight that if you want a seat on the village council, you have to earn it.”
A five-person race for Seat 4 saw Rosenthal squeaking a win by six votes over former councilwoman Deb Gillis. Rosenthal secured a total of 1,145 votes, followed by Gillis, who garnered 1,139 votes. Angel Borden received 385 votes, followed by John Timura, 363, and Casey Watkins, 303.
A longtime resident and business owner, Rosenthal is in line to take the mayor’s seat after serving the last year as vice mayor.
“I got nothing to say but a win is a win,” Rosenthal told the Keys Weekly.
Islamorada Captain Elizabeth Jolin was victorious in the race for Seat 3 against Mayor Pete Bacheler. Jolin secured 51.64% of the vote while Bacheler had 48.36% of the vote. Jolin is seeking to streamline village code, create a strategic plan to direct the villages’ future and bring more environmental advocacy to the local, state and federal levels.
“I am looking forward to serving the community,” Jolin said via text following her victory.
Local business owner Sharon Mahoney secured Seat 5 after beating newcomer Tom Raffanello and incumbent David Webb. Mahoney retrieved 43.75% of the vote, followed by Raffanello, 31.26% and Webb, 24.99%.
“(I’m) so very proud and so very happy I have a chance to make a difference to the town I love and grew up in,” Mahoney said via text following her win.
The village canvassing board will certify the vote totals provided by the Monroe County Supervisor of Elections after the county canvassing board finishes certifying all ballots. The last group of ballots to be certified is the military and overseas ballots on Nov. 18 at 4 p.m. The village canvassing board is scheduled to meet on Nov. 21 at 3:30 p.m. to certify the county vote totals and release the final election results.
With that, the new council will be sworn in at the Dec. 8 meeting, which begins at 5:30 p.m. From there, issues surrounding building permits, the Fills, infrastructure and other matters await the dais.
