{"id":33045,"date":"2025-11-04T17:56:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T17:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/33045\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T17:56:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T17:56:08","slug":"voters-head-to-polls-to-choose-new-city-commissioner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/33045\/","title":{"rendered":"Voters head to polls to choose new city commissioner"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>FORT PIERCE, Fla. \u2014 Voters in Fort Pierce are heading to the polls today to choose a new city commissioner. <\/p>\n<p>Donna Benton, Chris Dzadovsky and Jaimebeth Galinis are all <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wptv.com\/news\/region-st-lucie-county\/fort-pierce\/3-candidates-qualify-for-fort-pierce-district-2-special-election\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">on the ballot<\/a> to fill a vacant District 2 seat left by former Commissioner James Taylor. <\/p>\n<p>WPTV is following the special election closely and pressing the three candidates on why they want your support. <\/p>\n<p>WATCH: Fort Pierce voters head to polls to choose new city commissioner <\/p>\n<p>Fort Pierce voters head to the polls for special election to choose new city commissioner<\/p>\n<p>Taylor, 38, was arrested in July in a <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wptv.com\/news\/region-st-lucie-county\/fort-pierce\/fort-pierce-city-commissioner-james-taylor-arrested-in-child-exploitation-case-faces-24-felony-counts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">child exploitation case<\/a>, and is facing 24 felony counts for allegedly sending a 12-year-old girl sexual messages. He later <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wptv.com\/news\/region-st-lucie-county\/fort-pierce\/fort-pierce-commissioner-james-taylor-submits-resignation-to-city-after-arrest-last-week\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">resigned his seat<\/a>, which forced the special election. <\/p>\n<p>City leaders <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wptv.com\/news\/region-st-lucie-county\/fort-pierce\/it-will-be-a-burden-on-taxpayers-why-fort-pierce-faces-60k-cost-to-fill-commissioner-seat\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">estimated<\/a> the special election to fill his seat would cost $60,000. <\/p>\n<p>Voting runs until 7 p.m. tonight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT PIERCE, Fla. \u2014 Voters in Fort Pierce are heading to the polls today to choose a new&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[22010,23218,171,173,172,6870],"class_list":{"0":"post-33045","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-port-st-lucie","8":"tag-city-commissioner","9":"tag-district-2","10":"tag-port-st-lucie","11":"tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","12":"tag-port-st-lucie-news","13":"tag-special-election"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}