According to a newly released poll, Tom Carney leads Ryan Boylston and former Vice-Mayor Shirley Johnson for Mayor of Delray Beach. Juli Casale leads in her race against Nick Coppola and Anneze Barthelemy for Seat 3.
Seat 1 between Jim Chard, Tom Markert, and Tennille Decoste is basically a three-way tie at this stage.
The Florida Housing Innovations Council (FHIC) engaged American Pulse to conduct the poll, which has a 4.5% margin of error.
FHIC President, Dr. Kurt Jetta commented on the results, “The Mayor’s race is still wide open with such a high percentage of voters undecided. At this stage, though, Carney appears to have an advantage in Awareness over Boylston (69% vs. 65% among Likely Voters) and Favorability among those Aware (+13 Points Net Favorability vs. +9 Points for Boylston). The Favorability scores are typically what carries the day in municipal elections.”
From the FHIC Press release:
In the Mayor’s race, the survey – done among 304 Active Voters and 249 Likely Voters – showed former Mayor Tom Carney off to an early lead with 27% Preference among Likely Voters. Current Vice Mayor Ryan Boylston posted 20% Preference and former Vice Mayor Shirley Johnson had 13%. A sizable chunk of voters (40%) are still undecided.
In the two other Commission races Seat 1 is shaping up to be extremely tight with Jim Chard (15%), Tom Markert (15%) and Tennille Decoste (14%) all within one point of each other. 56% of Likely Voters are still undecided in that race. For Seat 3, former-Commissioner Juli Casale has jumped to early lead over her opponents Nick Coppola and Anneze Barthelemy (26%/17%/9%, respectively). 48% of Likely Voters are still undecided in that race.
When asked about affordable housing, an overwhelming majority of Likely Voters supported increasing affordable housing for low-income people in Delray Beach. 76% were in support with only 14% opposed, a margin of over 5:1.
Full Disclosure: I have personally endorsed and donated to Anneze Barthelemy.
It should be noted that FHIC is not a fan of Ryan Boylston and has run ads critical of Boylston for his double-dealing on affordable housing.
“Even with the misinformation being disseminated by some of the candidates, Delray Voters still see the advantage of MTHU’s, when given full information,” stated Jetta. “To offset that misinformation, we are seeing the impact of making voters aware of which candidates oppose affordable housing initiatives for low-income individuals
Delray Candidate Ryan Boylston Slammed by Florida Housing Innovations Council
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Florida Jolt is not a fan of Boylston’s either for a different but similar reason as FHIC. I do not personally support government involvement in creating affordable housing.* My reason for criticizing Boylston is that he can’t be trusted. He has a reputation in political circles for breaking his word and lying. I have had first-hand experience of it. Boylston did not cut taxes and lied about it. I don’t know, but I’m guessing Boylston had similar “truth issues” with Dr. Jetta of FHIC.
*Editor’s Note: For clarification, MTHUs are profitable and, therefore, do not require any government subsidies or tax breaks. The only government intervention required is to create the zoning that would permit their construction, and our proposal had severe density restrictions. ~Kurt Jetta, Ph.D.
I’ve worked on political campaigns in this county since 1992, and the FHIC poll looks good. It’s about where I expected the Mayoral and Seat 3 race to be. I didn’t have a feel for the Seat 1 race, and it looks like Delray voters feel the same as I do on that one. Read the full press release by FHIC and make up your own mind.
Full FHIC Press Release:
The Palm Beach Post endorsed Tom Carney for Mayor, as did the SunSentinel, and they both explained why. Both papers are “progressive” and are no fans of mine.
The world of full-time politics is a small one consisting of candidates, donors, lobbyists, journalists, business people, and political consultants. Word gets around when a politician doesn’t keep his word and can’t be trusted to tell the truth.
The Palm Beach Post, The SunSentinal, The Florida Housing Innovations Council, and Florida Jolt are not fans of Boylston.
Hmm, I wonder what that might mean.
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