Last Updated: 8:23 p.m.
Jill Woolbright and Cheryl Massaro, both with seemingly insurmountable leads, were poised to win seats on the Flagler County School Board, and Colleen Conklin, at 20 years the longest serving elected official in the county, was on the verge of winning another term without a runoff, as almost all votes were counted in today’s primary.
And after many, many attempts to win a seat by appointment, Alicia Washington, the Bunnell attorney, has won election to Circuit Court in the Seventh Judicioal Circuit with a big win over Judge Bryan Rendzio, who was appointed in 2019.
In a stunning upset, Massaro would be unseating first-term School Board member Maria Barbosa. Woolbright, a retired teacher who beat attorney Vincent, will take the place of Andy Dance, the long-time board member who is resigning, and running for a county commission seat. Dance was unopposed in his commission primary.
Conklin was facing two opponents, Carol (Mother Elizabeth) Bacha and the heavily self-financed Paul Mucciolo, a physician. Always one of the county’s leading vote-getters, Conklin was polling 53 percent with early votes and most mail-in ballots counted, with Mucciolo well behind, at 33 percent, and Bacha at 13 percent. By the time most votes were counted, Conklin still held a commanding 52 percent lead, making a runoff unnecessary and winning her the seat outright–again.
“I’m grateful and humbled to continue to serve the Flagler County community, and advocate for our students, teachers and staff,” Conklin said this evening. She had not been able to campaign: her mother has been ailing, her father-in-law, Flagler Beach’s poet laureate, died last week. “Literally with everything that’s going on, I haven’t really done anything,” she said of her campaign, including not raising money. But few local officials have commanded the sort of loyalty she has over the years even as the school board itself has been buffeted by change and, in the last two years, some controversy. “I’m so grateful for the residents that came out to support our campaign, and grateful for the opportunity to serve another four years,” Conklin said.
The closest race of the evening was between incumbent County Commissioner Dave Sullivan and Kim Carney, the former Flagler Beach city commissioner. They were trading leads, with Carney initially ahead of Sullivan by two points, 51-49 and just 300 votes out of 15,300 counted, but then Sullivan took a slight lead with 18,200 or 25,000 ballots counted–and extending his lead by almost 500 votes by the time most ballots were counted. That sealed it.
“It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t easy. I ran a hard race,” Sullivan said this evening. “I survived an incredible set of circumstances against me, to be honest,” he said, including–among those circumstances–the local Democratic Party’s odd endorsement of Carney, a hard-right Republican.
That race decides the winner for that seat: though both are Republicans, no Democrat is running, making this election the deciding one. Four years ago, Sullivan had defeated Barbara Revels, the last effective Democrat to serve on the commission.
Republican incumbent County Commissioner Donald O’Brien defeated Bob Jones handily in the District 5 Republican primary, taking 67 percent of the vote. Jones had not seriously campaigned.
The other high-profile races of the evening are for Palm Coast City Council.
Incumbent Mayor Milissa Holland was well short of the 50-percent threshold she cleared easily four years ago, but was leading her five-way race with 31 percent of the vote, ahead of Alan Lowe’s 27 percent, with John Brady in third, at 18 percent, and Donald Greene and Michael Schottey well behind. The evening’s final result means that over the next few weeks the runoff for mayor will be among the hardest-fought races locally, and may make Holland’s decision not to campaign untenable–if she intends to keep her seat. She had decided not to campaign in the primary, focusing on city issues and the covid epidemic, she said.
In District 1, the seat vacated by Bob Cuff, Ed Danko and Sims Jones are headed for a runoff, with Danko polling at 45 percent of the vote to Jones’s 39 percent–and in-person votes yet to be counted: in-person votes were overwhelmingly Republican. Once counted, those votes may give Danko a chance to clear the 50 percent threshold and win the seat outright. Lou Salvagio was a distant third in that race.
In District 3, Incumbent Nick Klufas was holding off Cornelia Manfre, the Realtor, with 40 percent of the vote to Manfre’s 33 percent, suggesting that race is headed for a runoff. Zack Shapiro, another contended who had not campaigned seriously, was pulling in 27 percent of the vote.
In judicial races, what may have looked like an upset in the Group 6 race between incumbent Circuit Judge Michael Orfinger and Anna Handy was only an illusion: Handy was initially winning the Flagler vote by a thin margin, but only because Orfinger–one of the circuit’s most accomplished and intellectual powerful judges–is not as well known in Flagler as he is in Volusia, where he built a crushing lead over Handy: the judicial race includes votes from Volusia, St. Johns, Putnam and Flagler. Orfinger had a commanding lead in St. Johns as well, making his victory all but assured. (Orfinger served briefly on Flagler’s bench.)
The race between Bunnell attorney Alicia Washington and Bryan Rendzio was at one point closer, with Washington winning Flagler easily, but she was behind by 10 points in St. Johns and ahead by more than 10 points in Volusia, and the two were almost even in Putnam. But by evening’s end, Washington had built a nearly 10,000-vote lead in the four counties over Rendzio.
A jubilant Massaro was taking in her win at a Republican watch party this evening. “I wasn’t sure, but I planned it pretty well and I got a great team,” Massaro said. “Her husband told me I was going to lose by 10,000 votes,” she said of Barbosa’s husband. “The people listened to what I had to say and I really do think I was the best qualified candidate,” she said. “I’m ecstatic. I’m really happy, but now the work really begins.”
Turnout in this primary, was at 30.4 percent: though powered by a historic mail-in vote volume, it was falling short of the 2016 primary turnout of 31.28 percent, though some votes were yet to be counted. The in-person vote on Election Day was a historic low, proportionately, at barely 5,000, exceeded by early voting’s 5,546 ballots cast (also conducted in person at three locations).
[This is a developing story.]
Primary Election 2020 Results: Flagler County's Local Races and State Races
| Flagler School Board, District 1 | ||
| Vincent Lyon | 9869 | 40.66 |
| Jill Rena Woolbright | 14405 | 59.34 |
| Flagler School Board, District 3 | ||
| Carol "Mother Elizabeth" Bacha | 3287 | 13.16 |
| Paul Mucciolo | 8684 | 34.77 |
| Colleen Walsh-Conklin (incumbent) | 13001 | 52.06 |
| Flagler School Board, District 5 | ||
| Maria Pinto Barbosa (incumbent) | 10641 | 43.95 |
| Cheryl Massaro | 13568 | 56.05 |
| City of Palm Coast Mayor | ||
| John Brady | 3588 | 17.68 |
| Donald Alan Greene | 1923 | 9.47 |
| Milissa Holland (incumbent) | 6452 | 31.78 |
| Alan Lowe | 5380 | 26.50 |
| Michael Schottey | 2956 | 14.56 |
| Palm Coast City Council, District 1 | ||
| Ed Danko | 8662 | 44.72 |
| Sims E. Jones | 7476 | 38.60 |
| Lou Salvagio | 3232 | 16.69 |
| Palm Coast City Council, District 3 | ||
| Cornelia Downing Manfre | 6496 | 33.27 |
| Nicholas Klufas (incumbent) | 7920 | 40.56 |
| Zack Shapiro | 5109 | 26.17 |
| Flagler County Commission, District 3, Republican Primary | ||
| Kim Carney | 11700 | 48.99 |
| David Sullivan (incumbent) | 12182 | 51.01 |
| Flagler County Commission, District 5, Republican Primary | ||
| Bob Jones | 3766 | 31.98 |
| Donald O'Brien (incumbent) | 8011 | 68.02 |
| Circuit Judge, Group 6 | ||
| Anna Handy | 72834 (11939) | 45.46 (49.88) |
| Michael Orfinger | 87397 (11997) | 54.54 (50.12) |
| Circuit Judge, Group 14 | ||
| Joan Anthony | 54976 (9019) | 34.44 (37.46) |
| Dan Hilbert | 58154 (8257) | 36.43 (34.30) |
| MaryEllen Osterndorf | 46486 (6799) | 29.12 (28.24) |
| Circuit Judge, Group 27 | ||
| Bryan Robert Rendzio | 74642 (10373) | 47.32 (43.78) |
| Alicia Washington | 83103 (13323) | 52.68 (56.22) |
| Representative in Congress, District 6 | ||
| Clint Curtis | 5590 | 55.28 |
| Richard Thripp | 4523 | 44.72 |
| Public Defender, 7th Judicial Circuit | ||
| George Burden | 44781 (6764) | 28.63 (29.16) |
| Anne Marie Gennusa | 54123 (8042) | 34.61 (34.66) |
| Matt Metz | 57489 (8394) | 36.76 (36.18) |
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Kim Pandich-Gridley says
It was a wonderful night for the school board elections. Congratulations to all the victors, but especially Cheryl Massaro who beat Maria Barbosa and demonstrated that eventually truth wins out.
chris conklin says
You silly boys. Cream always rises to the top.
Percy's mother says
I’m excited and extremely pleased for Cheryl Massaro.
She worked very hard in her campaign for school board district 5.
She brings legitimate academic credentials to the table as well as teaching and administrative experience as well as a lot of community service. She is also well-liked by many in the Palm Coast/Flagler County community.
I’m so very happy for her.
dennis c rathsam says
Happy Days are here again in Palm Coast. Our too tiered mayor who doesnt show up for debates, doesnt campain, thinks she’s untouchable. Thank God for Allen Lowe. We need leadership in our city…We need Lowe,now more than ever.
Mike Cocchiola says
Correction! The Flagler County Democratic Party does not “endorse” Republican candidates. We are prohibited from doing so by our Florida Democratic Party charter. We can as citizens favor and vote for who ever we please if there’s no Democrat in the race. I can honestly say that I think both Republican BOCC candidates for are “hard-right” but I am concerned that Dave Sullivan will vote to make Joe Mullins the next chair. That would be a moral and ethical disaster for Flagler County.
I congratulate Dave Sullivan for his hard-fought win. I’ve known him for 17 years as an honorable man who serves all citizens. I hope and trust he’ll make the right decision when he votes for the next BOCC chair.
For Kim Carney, she is equally honorable and would have made a fine BOCC member. We need both munti-cultural and multi-gender representation on the BOCC. I will fight for this.
mark101 says
Are voters really blind “Sullivan wins reelection”, give me a break.,
Celia Pugliese says
Congratulations to the new 3 school Board Members! Get your rollerblades sharp and ready for the rough ride ahead with this pandemic and be and keep all those students and staff safe please!
Celia Pugliese says
Celia Pugliese Now for November we have two choices, then who do we think will be better for our pending issues to be resolved?. I live in Palm Coast since 1991 and this is my reality; with the two former Mayors I was never ever able to achieve anything that I requested in writing or in person speaking my 3 minutes in several council meetings. So I opted to not ask for anything else and stopped attending council meetings. During Holland’s 4 years was different, I asked for “Deer Crossing” signs in Palm Coast Parkway by Linear Park and got them, I asked for a drainage in front of Holland Park as the public sidewalk flooded too often and even was a big expensive project, that french drain we see working well now, was granted, I asked to help erase the blight of FPD and there were the city crews improving trimming and weeding trees on sidewalk and empty lots, etc. We asked for the No Truck Road ordinance for FPD and we got it, the first city wide no truck ordinance. I asked for unsightly ditches out of Island walk off FPD and Matt boss of public’s work took care by laying a stripe of black top pavement on them and at the same time was done also on OKR North past the car wash on the north bound…I have asked in person on city council meetings many other quality of life preserving request from Holland and council like now the already made “minimum wake zone” signs in our salt water canals west of the marina that are waiting FWC location approval to be installed as Manager Morton emailed me. One more request granted. Also Holland took upon herself to protect us all in this pandemic regarding the use of masks and distancing in public places. The pay our city council and mayor receive is not like the FCBOC commissioners get, they all need to have the right to have a job and make a living while members city council and mayor as we do not pay enough to them. Sure at times attending meetings I felt the frustration when Milissa said all questions now to be answered only via Palm Coast Connect…I consider that a mistake that can still be undo as the dialog with the residents of the city should always be an open one as long as civility and observing of Robert Rules on meetings takes place. Even when what is requested from the residents is not possible to be granted the reasons should be given in a timely and caring manner..One last thought: as a woman and mother I can say that Holland showed us to be a caring one while her daughter went thru her delicate surgery ordeal and she was anyway attending city council meetings fulfilling her Mayoral duty. I will ask our city residents my first question above again; lets think in depth and maybe have a talk with our current Mayor.
jane Gentile-Youd says
To: Mike Cocchiolia… God forbid Mullins is our next Chair.
Perhaps, with a lot of e-mails to the Governor requesting he be removed from office, and with God watching over us maybe ..just maybe we have a chance that he won’t be on the Commission anymore this November.
Collecting $$$$$ 3 thousand Cares Act money in Florida, here in Flagler County for ” The Mullins Company” , after declaring his worth over $1million is beyond Chutzpa in addition to his vicious verbal and written attacks as Commissioner and putting in print that people who don’t “like” that Flagler is a Trump County should leave. Hopefully Dave Sullivan has the brains and conscience not to hand the gavel to this excuse of a commissioner.
Concerned Citizen says
Are we talking about the same people here?
Kim Carney used her position on the Flagler Beach BOCC to attempt to maliciously slander a rape victim. Hard to call that honorable. Not to mention she has supported other Flagler Beach Board members when they behaved less than ethically.
Dave Sullivan has been at the heart of many “questionable” deals with Real Estate and Special Interests in the area. Again hard to call that honorable. You are right to be concerned about appointing Mullins as chair. I have a bad feeling that’s going to happen.
I am glad that Carney did not make it to the county level on the BOCC. She can stay in Flagler Beach and keep on with her shenannigans there. I am also saddened that Sullivan got re-elected. It will be more of the same.
I have fought to get people to open up to change in this county. Yet there is a lot of resistance. People would rather rehash the same folks and let them sit in office. Doing the same thing for years on end. Rather than open up to the possibility of new faces. And commisioners who aren’t owing favors to developers and special interests.
snapperhead says
I’m not sure I would classify Massaro’s win as an upset. Barbosa was clearly in over her head and re-election would have been more of an upset. Hopefully the BOE district 2 and 2 FBOCC seats will change as well.
starryid says
I believe that any road signs or modifications have to be approved and paid for by DOT. Ms Holland simply conveyed a message then DOT made the determination of whether it was warranted and then bought the projects to fruition. Any signs that are installed in the canals must be requested and approved by the Army Corp of Engineers, so again they are conveying your request. I will not use Palm Coast Connect as I do not have time to talk to machines and wait for a call back. This program was designed to enrich the exposure of Ms. Holland’s other employer, Coastal Cloud. They originally stated that they gave this to the city for “free”, that only the Software Licensing Company, Sales Force profitted. However, since Jim Landon signed the Sales Force Contract for the city to lease Sales Force software at a cost of more than $100,000.00 per year Coastal Cloud has become a “Platinum Sales Force Consultant”. Most ‘consultants’ are compensated. Is Coastal Cloud now receiving any form of compensation? These and other issues relevant to conflicts of interest must be addressed before I cast my vote for Mayor.
tulip says
There never seemed to be any fliers, articles about him or anything. and I understand he didn’t want to answer the candidate questions on flagler live. Perhaps if he had done all those things, he might have won. A candidate just cant depend on a Trump or Republican base to cast enough votes, he has to go out and earn them. I think Milissa has learned that too.
Kim Carney didn’t answer Flagler Live questions either and I believe it cost her the election.
Unbelievable says
Let this be a lesson for ALL the commissioners. People are NOT happy with their performance and are looking for alternatives. They need to start listening to their constituents and not Adam Mengel, who recommends ANY idea presented, no matter how poorly planned and every developer who comes up with their money making ideas. The Commissioners coming up for re-election in two years, also better be paying attention, because the voters are paying attention. I am a registered Republican and I know many registered Republicans and they are thinking of voting for a Democrat, just because the Commissioners, we have now, don’t listen to THE PEOPLE. Hear this, Al Hadeed needs to go. He is not protecting The County, like he is paid to do, as is obvious by the failed real estate deals, shaky contracts, etc.
Joshua says
It’s funny how “Alan Lowe” wants to hold our current mayor to a high standard by reviewing her track record and making overt accusations with no facts. “Draw your own conclusion” is your answer, but he refuses to share ANY of his track record with people at all. “She didn’t show up for the debate” but you didn’t respond to the same FlaglerLive request sent to all candidates? She was bad for not responding but you were too afraid that your answers might be taken out of context!? So instead you decided you don’t have to answer to anyone, and only after we called you out is when you borrowed the questions to post on your website explaining how “they would edit my answers…”. Victim.
First, when you check him out online make sure to spell it correctly… “Alan Shepard Lowe” not Allen or any other variation, he’s counting on the fact that people are too lazy to investigate.
Second, demand proof of his statements and answers. “I am a proven leader”… of what specifically? How do you compare your ‘leadership’ skills to our current mayor? You were arrested in Dominica for fraud and theft after stealing from investors and the local workers. But when the FBI looked into our mayor and found nothing you tell us to “draw your own conclusions!?” YOU WERE ARRESTED AND FOUND GUILTY. Draw the conclusion that you stole money and equipment while firing all of the company employees to steal their payroll!
But we all know you have an explanation that includes how you were the ‘victim of other peoples actions’.
Alan are you sure you’re not a democrat? Because you’re 100% full of crap, you’ve been charged by the IRS with evasion, you’ll steal from anyone including the local SunTrust Bank, your own family, your customers and even your own son while patting them on the head and telling them you’re here to help them.
If anyone thinks Alan Lowe is going to represent their interests here in Palm Coast, they are sorely mistaken. He’s after the title of Mayor to feed his ego after that he’ll quietly feed off of the political favors to bank his retirement on our dime.
Don’t let Palm Coasts future be destroyed because you were poorly informed.
Alan Lowe is toxic.
Denise Calderwood says
I’m very excited about the changes on the school board but concerned that no changes occurred on the County Commission- especially since those in office now all voted for the major purchases that have put us in debt and even made our deputies sick and then undersold our assets more than once. And that one sitting Commissioner, failed to follow campaign rules and put Re-elect on his signs. Is this because he was trying to fool the citizens into thinking he was not in office now since all I heard leading up to the primary on this site was out with the old..get rid of those in office now…O Brien choose not to follow campaign rules and put Re-elect on his signs..and the current Mayor choose the 5th…how unfair is that…proof she doesn’t like to listen to anyone who doesn’t support her….this is just symptomatic and the saying where there is smoke there is fire holds true!
CB from PC says
What is this “fight for this”?
A qualified and eligible candidate is what is needed.
And if they are judged so by the voters, they will be elected.
C’mon man.
Celia Pugliese says
I am not a registered Democrat but I recognize an exemplary individual from any party that resided among us here in Fl on her active retirement and that was in public office her whole life. She was reelected over and over by the people’s vote because probably she lobbied and did all she could, to preserve their quality of life while in office and the realistic legend inscribed on her vault reads: “Unbought and Unbossed” in the Oakwood Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo, NY. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Chisholm
I do bring this on election times maybe for consideration to all those incumbents and their challengers that a political career can be rewarded only by us the voters, no by money from pac’s, no by developers that come build and go as most reside elsewhere, no by outside bankers, large corporations or entities, but instead by us all, the residents asking for the preservation of our quality of life, safety and the pursuit of happiness. We do not ask for costly millionaire requests and we are not anti growth but instead well planned growth without taking away what is precious to us existing residents first.
Any candidate for office that can reassure that to the voters, secures his/her seat. Like IBM everlasting slogan still reads THINK.