Two of the vacated seats currently belong to Chair Charlotte Joyce and Vice Chair April Carney, both staunch conservatives who consistently vote in line with the board\u2019s current bloc who tend to favor policies pushed by the administration of Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.<\/p>\n
District 4 rep Darryl Willie \u2014 the board\u2019s sole registered Democrat\u2014 has held the third seat for eight years and is now term-limited.<\/p>\n
Westside money<\/p>\n
Most of the money in the District 6 race<\/a> is supporting two candidates: Lindsey Denmark and Clarence James. They\u2019ve raised about $90,000 and $100,000, respectively \u2014\u00a0in large part because they\u2019ve both given five-figure loans to their campaigns.\u00a0<\/p>\n Denmark, a real estate agent, has received numerous donations from people and businesses in the real estate industry. (James has the endorsement of the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors,<\/a> though.) She\u2019s received some support from political action committees, too.<\/p>\n James is a longtime law enforcement officer \u2014 now with the Duval Schools Police Department, and before that, for the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office. Many of his largest contributors are PACs related to police organizations.<\/p>\n As of Sunday afternoon, campaign finance reports<\/a> show Denmark has spent about $9,000 more than James; Denmark\u2019s expenditures total about $80,000, while James\u2019 sit at about $71,000.<\/p>\n The remaining three candidates in District 6 have raised a combined $17,400.<\/p>\n Robert Stafford has raised about $9,200, most of it from his own pocket. Michelle Petty\u2019s contributions total $5,700 and came from numerous small, individual donations. Supervisor of Elections records show Tammyette Thomas has raised just $2,500, but reported expenditures of almost $3,000. It\u2019s unclear why her ledgers are in the red. She\u2019s personally invested $1,250 in her campaign, and the rest is from a number of small, individual donations.<\/p>\n 4 for Four<\/p>\n Four candidates are competing for Willie\u2019s District 4 seat<\/a>. Three of them have raised about $45,000 in total. (The fourth, a write-in candidate, lists only two contributions from herself in her campaign finance reports.)<\/p>\n Rhodesia Butler has brought in about $20,000 and spent nearly all of it as of Sunday afternoon. She\u2019s personally loaned her campaign $2,000 and collected a small handful of $1,000 donations. She received more than 100 donations of $100 or less and reports no contributions from PACs. The Jacksonville National Organization for Women donated $500 to Butler\u2019s campaign and gave her their endorsement<\/a>.<\/p>\n Alfreda Denson Butler has raised almost $14,000 and spent about $12,000. She reports financial support and endorsements from organizations like the Duval Teachers United teachers\u2019 union, the Florida Education Association, and the local police and firefighters unions.<\/p>\n James \u201cCoach\u201d Jacobs has raised $11,000, but spent only $3,500, according to campaign finance reports Sunday afternoon. He paid a qualifying fee with a check from his campaign bank account in June \u2014\u00a0though that payment is not listed among his reported expenditures. <\/p>\n In 2023, Jacobs reported two donations from a donor named \u201cReginald Blunt\u201d \u2014\u00a0for $120 and $100, respectively \u2014 from addresses that match School Board District 5 rep Reginald Blount\u2019s voter registration information. Two other similar transactions total another $300. Blount, who was elected to the board in 2024, did not respond to Jacksonville Today\u2019s request to confirm the transactions.<\/p>\n By the Beaches<\/p>\n In District 2, 26-year-old Donovan Bradley has raised about $62,000, while his opponents have brought in about $15,000 and $2,700, respectively.<\/p>\n His largest contributions \u2014 and about 40% of his total \u2014 have come from a network of local- and state-level PACs<\/a> operated by Republican strategists, and from professionals and businesses in the real estate, construction and consulting sectors.<\/p>\n According to campaign finance records<\/a>, Bradley has 39 contributions of $1,000 \u2014\u00a0the maximum allowed \u2014 and 26 of less than $100. Current District 2 rep April Carney, who chose not to run for reelection and instead gave her endorsement to Bradley, also backed him financially with a donation of $1,000.<\/p>\n In contrast, one of Bradley\u2019s two opponents, science teacher Donna Westrich, has raised $15,000 with little support from PACs, none from businesses, and more than 50 donations of less than $100 from individuals.<\/p>\n Bradley is seemingly also receiving indirect support from PACs. Registered Republicans in the Beaches recently received a mailer, from a PAC called Leading for Our Future, disparaging Westrich as someone \u201cproudly endorsed by radical leftists\u201d who wouldn\u2019t \u201canswer [the] call\u201d of local parents. The reverse side of the mailer hailed Bradley as someone who would \u201cgive conservatives a seat at the table.\u201d<\/p>\n He did not respond to Jacksonville Today\u2019s request for comment for this story.<\/p>\n Bradley is a policy analyst for Restoration of America, a Ponte Vedra-based advocacy group whose website says \u201cour nation\u2019s most significant threats are twofold: internally \u2013 the elite, Marxist neo-liberals and, externally \u2013 Communist China.\u201d<\/p>\n Restoration of America operates nonprofit organizations and Super PACs \u2014 a special kind of political action committee<\/a> that can receive unlimited contributions for work that influences elections \u2014 and on its website<\/a> boasts that during the 2024 election cycle, it delivered \u201caccountability and results for its donors on a scale not previously seen.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/bradley-mailer.png\")
One of the mailers sent to Beaches voters by a PAC | submitted<\/p>\n