![\"Chris](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/tos-l-oc-mayor-lwv0625.jpg\")
Chris Messina speaks during an Orange County Mayoral forum by the League of Women Voters of Orange County, Wednesday, September 9, 2026. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda\/ Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\nDespite the clear contrasts between them, the top two contenders for Orange County Mayor found a few areas of agreement Monday.<\/p>\n
Both Tiffany Moore Russell and Chris Messina said they supported banning license plate readers, backed a moratorium on large-scale data centers, and opposed using hotel taxes to fund another expansion of the Orange County Convention Center.<\/p>\n
But the sold-out League of Women Voters\u2019 candidate forum Wednesday also showcased their contrasting views on how to remodel the Lynx bus service, how to maintain the county\u2019s relationship with state government and how to approach future hotel tax spending.<\/p>\n
Chris Messina speaks during an Orange County Mayoral forum by the League of Women Voters of Orange County, Wednesday, September 9, 2026. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda\/ Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n
The office is officially nonpartisan, though both candidates have made sure voters know their party affiliation.<\/p>\n
Messina, a Republican, favors drastic changes to Lynx, shifting the fleet from large buses that travel fixed routes to small vehicles with point-to-point service.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to implement that program as quickly as possible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Moore Russell, a Democrat, favors a model called the STAR Plan created by the grassroots Sunrise Movement, creating rapid routes along some of the county\u2019s busiest roads to connect neighborhoods to work centers. She also called for SunRail to operate on nights and weekends.<\/p>\n
On hotel tax usage \u2013 which state law restricts to spending on tourism marketing or on venues that create more tourism \u2013 Moore Russell said she supports pushing the state to make modest tweaks to allow for spending on transportation to move visitors and workers to and from attractions, and on workforce housing in areas around International Drive and theme parks.<\/p>\n
But, she said, her priority is ensuring Orange County maintains control over the spending.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m open to expanding the legislation, but I\u2019m concerned that Tallahassee will take over the control of how we use our TDT dollars,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Messina said he\u2019d be open to pursuing changes to allow spending hotel tax to transport people from the airport to their hotel, or to the theme parks. But he said he thought allotting money collected from the six-percent levy on hotel room nights to affordable housing would be \u201ca step too far.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Linda](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/tos-l-oc-mayor-lwv0894.jpg\")
Linda Chapin moderates a forum between<\/p>\n
Orange County Mayoral candidates Tiffany Moore Russell and Chris Messina for the League of Women Voters of Orange County, Wednesday, September 9, 2026. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda\/ Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n
Moore Russell received the most votes in the August primary, tallying 8,500 more than Messina, the runner-up. But turnout was low in that contest \u2013 about 22.5%. In the 2022 general election, about 47% of eligible voters cast ballots, suggesting turnout will be much higher in the 2026 general election as well.<\/p>\n
Election Day is Nov. 3.<\/p>\n
Moore Russell was elected to the Board of County Commissioners as its youngest-ever representative in 2006, later serving 12 years as the Clerk of the Courts.<\/p>\n
She had to file her resignation as clerk to run for mayor and left office on Aug. 31.<\/p>\n
Messina is an entrepreneur who has spent his career developing medical tech companies and trade associations, he said.<\/p>\n
Moderator Linda Chapin, Orange County\u2019s first mayor, noted that she was the president of the nonpartisan League of Women Voters 50 years ago as America celebrated its 200th birthday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m still here and we\u2019re still here,\u201d she remarked.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite the clear contrasts between them, the top two contenders for Orange County Mayor found a few areas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2811,28,114,266,115,1335,139,141,140,99,109],"class_list":["post-395143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-election","tag-florida","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-politics","tag-social"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395143","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=395143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}