Apalachicola commission incumbents file for re-election
The two incumbent Apalachicola city commissioners jumped out of the gate early and filed for re-election Monday at the start of the qualifying week.
City Clerk Lee Mathes said both Despina George and Adriane Elliott paid the required $233.60 fee to run for another term in their non-partisan posts. The fee represents 4.5 percent of the job’s annual salary.
George, an Apalachicola accountant by profession, named herself as treasurer of her political committee, while Elliott has Judi Stokowski as her treasurer.
Both George and Elliott were elected four years ago in their first bids for public office.
Candidates can file at City Hall up through noon on Friday for the election on Tuesday, Sept. 5
Both George and Elliott are running for their respective seats. If more than two candidates file in their respective races, and no candidate secures a simple majority, then there will be a runoff.
New this year will be a shortening of these terms, which will run for three years, rather than four. This is because the city has moved to transition to even year elections.
What this means is that these two offices up for election this year, as well as the term of the mayor, will run through 2026. As of press time, Mayor Brenda Ash had not yet filed for re-election.
The other two commission seats, those of Donna Duncan and Anita Grove, are up for re-election in 2025, at which time they also will be shortened to three-year terms.
After that everyone will be on four-year, even year, cycles, with the county’s supervisor of elections, Heather Crum Riley, handling the administration of elections.
Meet the Editor
David Adlerstein, The Apalachicola Times’ digital editor, started with the news outlet in January 2002 as a reporter.
Prior to then, David Adlerstein began as a newspaperman with a small Boston weekly, after graduating magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He later edited the weekly Bellville Times, and as business reporter for the daily Marion Star, both not far from his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
In 1995, he moved to South Florida, and worked as a business reporter and editor of Medical Business newspaper. In Jan. 2002, he began with the Apalachicola Times, first as reporter and later as editor, and in Oct. 2020, also began editing the Port St. Joe Star.