Rice ousts DiGennaro in Republican primary

Voters Tuesday night assured that the make-up of the Board of County Commissioners will change come November as they ousted District Four incumbent Mario DiGennaro in the Republican primary.

DiGennaro was actually running his first campaign, having won the seat unopposed four years ago when his opponents dropped out of the race

He faced off against David Rice, the man he replaced when Rice resigned the seat to run for state representative against Ron Saunders.

Voters went for Rice overwhelmingly, with the former commissioner winning the Republican nomination with 65 percent of the vote.

“The people have spoken and I accept the fact that I have lost,” said DiGennaro. “I wish my opponent the best.”

DiGennaro said he will have time to do some more fishing and diving after his final BOCC meeting in October.

“I started off a little rough, stepped on a lot of toes. I’ve always been a businessman, not a politician and wanted to do things like a businessman,” said DiGennaro.

Rice now goes on to face Marathon’s Don Vasil, a former city councilman there, and former Islamorada councilman Mike Forster, both running as non-affiliated candidates, in the November general election.

“Over the last month or so, I got the feeling this (primary) would be a close race,” said Vasil. “Maybe this is indicative of the anti-incumbent movement that still seems to be gripping the country.”

Movement or not, anti-incumbent sentiments didn’t extend far enough to oust three-term District Two Commissioner George Neugent who won his primary race against Big Pine businessman Danny Coll by a handy margin.

Neugent garnered 3,571 votes in the closed Republican primary to Coll’s 2,937.

Neugent, from Marathon, will now go on to face non-affiliated candidate Sloan Bashinsky of Little Torch Key.

This will be the second time Neugent and Bashinsky have run against each other, with Neugent winning the first battle with more than 60 percent of the vote.

Bashinsky said Tuesday night that he intends to focus his campaign on three primary issues. He wants the county to put the Federal Emergency management Agency in federal court to halt its “devastating actions” in regard to downstairs enclosures. He wants the BOCC to get a tighter reign on code enforcement to stop what he terms “Gestapo-style” actions. And he wants the BOCC to get a tighter reign on its growth management division. He said he feels the growth management staff gives in to developers too easily, instead of just saying projects don’t meet the code and should be denied.

Neugent has said his biggest priority is to finish wastewater upgrades in the Lower Keys at an equitable cost to property owners there, and has also said that should he win a fourth term it will be his last.

County Mayor Sylvia Murphy said she wasn’t really surprised by the outcome of Tuesday’s vote.

“David Rice is an excellent politician and he was an excellent commissioner. And I believe our voters have a longer memory than we give them credit for,” said Murphy.

DiGennaro had been labeled part of the “Gang of Three” during his first two years in office, spearheading the sinking of the Vandenberg to the tune of $2 million county dollars and agreeing to the purchase of the Hickory House for $3 million county dollars. Both moves were exceedingly unpopular with local residents.

Voters also decided that former Key West Mayor Morgan McPherson should be the Republican nominee for District 120 State Representative over political newcomer Matt Gardi. McPherson will face incumbent Ron Saunders in November.

McPherson has been the recipient of large amounts of money poured into his campaign by the Republican Party of Florida, as the state group lines up to defeat Saunders who will be the minority party leader during the next legislative session should he win.

“This race has more to do with state politics than what’s best for the people of Monroe County,” said Saunders. “People feel the state Republican party hand-picked McPherson when they poured all that money into his campaign, and I think the voters should choose a candidate before the state party rings in.”

Despite being outspent nearly 10 to one, Gardi still managed to garner just over 46 percent of the total vote.

That total vote, however, represented just 26 percent of the registered voters in Monroe County, a poor showing at the polls. Monroe County did overwhelmingly better in voter turnout than its big neighbors to the north, however, as only 15 percent of registered voters turned out in Miami-Dade County and 10 percent in Broward County.

There was no clear cut winner in the two school board races Tuesday night, forcing a run off in November in both districts one and five.

Three candidates sought to replace incumbent Steve Pribramsky in district one after he decided not to run for reelection. Voters decided that Robin Smith-Martin and Barbara Bowers were their favorites for the seat, but neither polled a majority to win the seat outright.

Smith-Martin was the leading vote-getter with 46 percent of the vote, and Bowers finished with 40 percent. Judith Wild was a distant third with 15 percent.

Smith-Martin and Bowers will face off in November.

In the District Five school board race, none of the four candidates polled high enough to win the seat outright, and incumbent Debra Walker finished a distant second to leading vote-getter Ron Martin.

Martin polled 45 percent to Walker’s 30 percent. Bruce Swango was a distant third with 13 percent and Richard Bradley was last with 11 percent.

In two hotly contested races for Mosquito Control District commissioners, incumbent Dick Rudell held off challenger Howard Hubbard to win the Republican nomination in District Two, outpolling Hubbard 56 to 44 percent.

Boys and Girls Club executive director Dan Dombroski coasted to a win in the Democratic District Two mosquito control primary, garnering 57 percent of the vote to challenger Jay Marzella’s 43 percent. Marzella is the owner of Parmer’s resort on Little Torch Key.

That will pit incumbent Rudell against newcomer Dombroski in November.

“I guess people liked my issues,” said Rudell. “I’m happy for Dan. It will be a pleasure to campaign against him for November.”

Dombroski said he was surprised by the margin of victory considering he took no contributions and spent just over $500 on the race.

“I guess this just proves it can be all about knowing the issues and sticking to those issues,” said Dombroski. “I look forward to running against Rudell in the general election.”

Regardless of the November outcome, Rudell said there will definitely be a shifting of the guard on the mosquito control board.

He said he and Dombroski, as well as candidates in the District Five race, are all reform candidates who believe that the status quo must change in mosquito control.

“There’s going to be a new sheriff in town. We don’t know who will be wearing the badge yet, but things will change,” said Rudell.

Rudell and Bill Shaw have both been highly critical of current Mosquito Control director Ed Fussell for his $184,000 per year salary and other budgetary concerns Rudell believes are forcing tax rates for property owners higher than they need to be.

Republican voters in the District Five Mosquito Control race must have bought that same argument as they picked reform candidate Jack Bridges to be their standard bearer in November against Jose Piexoto and Bob Thomas, both non-affiliated candidates.

“The voters have spoken loudly for reform of financial affairs in mosquito control,” said Bridges. “The good news for Monroe County taxpayers from this race is that we will bring accountability to the board no matter who wins in November.”

Bridges was second only to Rice in vote totals for Republican candidates, winning his race by a 62 to 38 percent margin over Tony Gibbons.

In the night’s final local action, voters overwhelmingly approved the return of Judge Regan Ptomey to the bench against challenger Demetrious Efstratiou. Ptomey received just over 8,700 votes in the non-partisan race to his challengers 4,700.

“I am humbled by this victory,” said Ptomey. “I made a lot of new friends, but more importantly I think this was an approval of the way we run our courtroom in Plantation Key. We can always improve, but the voters feel we’re doing a good job.”

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