Challengers continue to queue up to stop Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan’s re-election, with a third Democrat now entering the race.

Rhachel Toombs is best known for what most would consider right-of-center political involvement, including with Americans for Prosperity and the America’s Future Foundation.

And in another twist, Toombs works for the city’s Public Works Department. She said the city Ethics office cleared her to run, which is legal because she’s not an appointed official. She also believes she is the first active city employee to run for Mayor.

Toombs, a resident of the Woodstock area on Jacksonville’s Westside who believes she is the first Jewish woman to run for Mayor, has worked for the city for a year and a half by her estimate. That is longer than she’s been a Democrat. She joined the party last Fall.

Despite Deegan, who gained her fame as a local newscaster, being backed by the Democratic establishment, Toombs believes she will find a receptive audience in the party.

“I really feel that in the Democratic audience, you have so many people that really do embrace classic liberal values, and that we have a lot in common there, and we have a lot in common on our views on issues and desires on what we want to see happen in the country and in particular in Jacksonville,” Toombs said Monday, during a break from her day job.

“I have done work alongside liberals and even progressives in some cases, and there is overlap there. And I felt like it was just the right party to go with for this run and in Jacksonville in general.”

Deegan does not impress Toombs as a leader.

“I’m championing the voice of the exhausted majority, regardless of their demographic and partisan affiliation. Deegan has been largely ineffective. I think she’s maintained popularity because her handlers at least try to prevent her from getting into hot water over hot-button issues,” Toombs said.

“But she doesn’t deliver, she hasn’t delivered on her promises, with all due respect to her efforts. She just hasn’t delivered on her promises and her values don’t really translate into workable government, especially when it comes to housing and affordability. She’s done very little to make housing affordable and her capacity as mayor within the purview of the government.”

Describing the Mayor as “business as usual,” Toombs argues Deegan’s “partisanship and her progressive values really come through” at times, to her detriment.

“I think progressivism has really failed this country and it’s really failed the Democratic Party,” the Democratic candidate said.

Though the local and state Democratic Party has celebrated Deegan flipping a Mayor’s Office that has been controlled by Republicans for most of the last three decades, Toombs is betting that voters aren’t buying it.

“What’s going to determine this election is not going to be Democratic Party leadership or any party leadership. Maybe that’s a bit naïve, but it’s the people that vote. And I believe that even Democratic voters, Republican voters, they’re getting tired of the party leadership,” Toombs said.

“I’ve been to numerous Republican Party meetings here locally. I’ve been to a lot of Democratic Party meetings locally. And my feeling and experience is that voters of these parties, they don’t trust party leadership. I don’t know the head of the party here. But I don’t even know if I’d want them to endorse me. And I’m sure they’ve endorsed Deegan. I’m sure they have. I mean, that’s completely unsurprising to me and that’s not who I’m really concerned about.”

Though she just filed for re-election, Deegan has been fundraising. The aligned Duval for All political committee has raised more than $1.62 million and has spent less than $177,000.

Yet Toombs doesn’t worry about the Mayor’s money advantage.

“I don’t think it’s going to be money that wins this. We’ve seen national trends where, in some cases, the more money goes into campaigns, the less likely the candidate is to win. Now that’s not to discount the need to fundraise. I’m not afraid of fundraising. I’ve done it for organizations in the past, with my nonprofit political experience. I have very, very, very good voter contact,” she said.

Toombs expects issues, such as her willingness to shut down the “special interest slush fund” of economic incentives for businesses, to help her make the case.

She enters a field of candidates who have struggled to get traction. Of the nine challengers filed to Deegan, two have raised money, and the leading fundraiser among that group of challengers has roughly $6,000 cash on hand.

The big-name potential challengers have yet to formalize their plans.

The most likely serious Republican challenger at this point appears to be House Speaker Pro Tempore Wyman Duggan, who is wrapping up eight years in Tallahassee.

Duggan, though prohibited from fundraising for much of the quarter due to a ban on legislators doing so during Session, still managed to raise more than $90,000 to his Citizens For Building Florida’s Future committee between the start of the year and March 31, which pushed the account near $1.2 million cash on hand. The lobby corps is on board, and he could count on hard-won statewide help.

Republican City Councilmen Rory Diamond and Ron Salem have yet to formally rule out a run. Both are term-limited this year.