FORT PIERCE, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A special election for Fort Pierce City Commissioner is wrapping up as voters choose the replacement for former City Commissioner James Taylor. Taylor was officially fired by the city after his arrest in August on child exploitation charges. Three candidates are currently vying for the vacant District 2 seat, with supporters for each candidate showing strong enthusiasm today outside polling centers across Fort Pierce.<\/p>\n
All three candidates are competing for the City Commissioner seat after Taylor was arrested on 24 counts relating to sexual Snapchats with a 13-year-old in Illinois.<\/p>\n
One of the candidates is Donna Benton, a realtor and the wife of former Fort Pierce Mayor and Commissioner Robert Benton.<\/p>\n
Her son, Kadri Benton, told CBS12 News what his mother would bring to the role: \u201cShe needs to bring to the table more transparency, honesty talk with the citizens and just be out there for everybody, she\u2019s one of those where she\u2019s for the whole city.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another candidate is Jamiebeth Galinis, who currently serves as a Senior Director for a medical equipment manufacturer. Her supporters appreciate her business-focused approach. <\/p>\n
See also: Fort Pierce city leaders hold special election to fill vacant commissioner seat<\/a><\/p>\n John Jacobs, a Fort Pierce resident, stated, \u201cJamiebeth\u2019s business experience and her education, along with the way she handles her company and where she works at she\u2019s done budgets at a level that we need to be accountable for.\u201d<\/p>\n The third candidate, Chris Dzadovsky, previously served on the County Commission from 2008 until 2024 and is a 22-year resident of Fort Pierce. He has the support of Local Union 32. Roger Hudspeth, a representative for the union, said Dzadovsky gets his vote because he supports working people. <\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s always worked for working people in any way, shape, or form. At the same time, he\u2019s moderate enough to work with business folks to help make it equal so they can be prosperous, and he\u2019s always been there no matter what,\u201d Hudspeth explained.<\/p>\n The polls for the special election are open until 7 p.m. Tuesday. The results are expected to be released in the coming days.<\/p>\n Find more ways to stay up to date with your latest local news. Sign up for our newsletter <\/a>to get the day’s top headlines delivered right to your inbox. Subscribe to our YouTube channel <\/a>for the biggest stories and can’t miss video.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT PIERCE, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A special election for Fort Pierce City Commissioner is wrapping up as voters…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":{"0":"post-33361","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-port-st-lucie","8":"tag-port-st-lucie","9":"tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","10":"tag-port-st-lucie-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33361","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=33361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}