![\"Dave](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/6aaa0b33-2f33-4e53-8a26-5150f09b3f05_1734039656.jpg\")
<\/a>CAPE CORAL, Fla. \u2014<\/p>\nCape Coral Mayor John Gunter has been absent from public events and meetings following his loss in Tuesday’s mayoral primary, sparking questions and reactions from residents and council members. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s been two days now since Mayor John Gunter lost his race. He didn\u2019t show up for council Wednesday night, and his parking space was empty Thursday afternoon when he missed yet another public event.<\/p>\n
Residents have voiced strong opinions about Gunter\u2019s absence. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think it is terrible. I think it\u2019s disgusting. He should have taken his head out of the sand, face the music, and did the right thing,\u201d said Nancy White, a Cape Coral resident. <\/p>\n
\u201cPoor sportsmanship! There you go right there!\u201d said Ron, another resident. <\/p>\n
Political consultant and former local candidate Cindy Banyai shared her perspective on the situation. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese losses can feel very personal, but it\u2019s not, it\u2019s politics. It\u2019s how things go. It\u2019s how the voters feel,\u201d Banyai said. <\/p>\n
She also offered advice for handling defeat. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you are not serving the people and the people are upset, they\u2019re going to check you out. You got to put on your big girl panties and deal with it,\u201d Banyai said. <\/p>\n
Gunter was scheduled to attend a ribbon-cutting event for the St. Jude Dream Home, but council member Laurie Lehman said she was asked to fill in for him ahead of time. <\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018Say no more.\u2019 I planned on being there anyway,\u201d Lehman said. <\/p>\n
When asked about Gunter\u2019s whereabouts, Lehman said, \u201cI know he\u2019s away on vacation right now, taking a break, because he worked very hard at the polls.\u201d <\/p>\n
However, Gunter has not publicly confirmed his vacation plans. Councilman Joe Kilraine speculated about the mayor\u2019s absence. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think probably he just needed a little decompression time. I\u2019ve been on the losing end. It\u2019s not a real happy time,\u201d Kilraine said. <\/p>\n
The city\u2019s charter states that a council member forfeits their office if they fail to attend three consecutive regular meetings without being excused by the council. Gunter\u2019s absence on Wednesday was excused. <\/p>\n
Some voters shared their thoughts on the situation. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt would seem like it\u2019s sour grapes,\u201d said Marsha McCart, a Cape Coral resident. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a long time coming. He better stop and think about it again. He may want to do this again,\u201d said Larry McCart, another resident. <\/p>\n
Gulf Coast News reached out to Gunter for comment over the past two days but has not received a response.<\/p>\n
DOWNLOAD\u202fthe free\u202fGulf Coast News app<\/a>\u202ffor your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app<\/a> to stream news, entertainment, and original programming on your TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cape Coral mayor John Gunter skips meetings after re-election loss, drawing backlash from residents CAPE CORAL, Fla. \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-377187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377187","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=377187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}