Johnston wins Key West mayor spot

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

Teri Johnston will be the new mayor of Key West, winning over Margaret Romero by almost the exact two-to-one margin the two candidates received in the August primary election.

Johnston, a former city commissioner and member of the Monroe County Planning Board, received 66.13 percent, 6,635 votes, of the total ballots cast. Romero received 33.87 percent, totaling 3,398 votes. In the Aug. 28 election, the vote margin between the two candidates was 48-21 percent.

In a show of unity, the two women entered the Harvey Government Center, where US1 Radio News Network was hosting election night coverage, together and sat in concert for their post-election interview. Johnston complimented Romero on the civility of the campaign and Romero promised to help Johnston in any way she can going forward.

“Whatever I can do to help to make this community better, I’m there to help,” Romero said.

The mayoral race attracted a plethora of candidates this year because five-term Mayor Craig Cates termed out, leaving the seat open to all comers. At one point, 12 candidates had declared they were running for the mayor spot. Johnston almost won in the August 28 primary but came up just short of the 50 percent plus one vote necessary to avoid the November run-off.

In Monroe County races, former county Commissioner George Neugent was edged out in his bid for one of the two open seats on the Marathon City Council. Neugent lost to incumbent Mark Senmartin by only 49 votes. The other seat was won by newcomer Luis Gonzales, who came out on top of the other three candidates with 31.8 percent, or 1,928 votes. In fourth place was John Kissick, who receive 967 votes, or 15,98 percent.

In the run-off election for Keys Utility Board Seat D, the newly established seat for Key West, Robert Barrios was the winner over Beth Ramsay-Vickrey. Barrios received just under 60 percent of the vote to Ramsay-Vickrey’s 40 percent. The vote totals in this race were 9,633 for Barrios and 6,558 for his opponent.

Holly Raschein was set to win her fourth and final term as state representative – due to term limits – with almost all of the precincts reporting as of press time. Raschein was holding a 57.13 percent margin over challenger Steve Friedman’s 42.87 percent.

Former Marathon Mayor Michelle Coldiron will continue her political career as the new Monroe County Commissioner in District 2, winning over Tommy Ryan by a 54 to 46 percent margin.

And in District 4, David Rice won the county commissioner seat over challenger Vicki Tashjian by a 60-40 percent vote margin.

In the race for Mosquito Control Board District 2 seat, incumbent and board chair Phil Goodman will return, beating back challenger Ralph De Palma by a 54-46 percent margin.

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