PALM COAST – Victor Barbosa, a former member of the Palm Coast City Council, has withdrawn his candidacy from the District 5 Flagler County Commission race. There are now three active candidates in that race. It’s the third time in the last two election cycles that Barbosa has dropped out of a race he’d previously filed for.
Barbosa was initially elected to the City Council in 2020 to fill out the remainder of Jack Howell’s term after Howell resigned for health issues back in August of that year. Barbosa bested future Mayor David Alfin and fellow challengers Dennis McDonald and Bob Coffman, and served just over a year before also resigning in March 2022.
At different points in the 2022 election cycle Barbosa was filed to run for re-election on the City Council and for a promotion to County Commission; he’d ultimately end both campaigns early and not appear on the ballot in any race. All the while, he was briefly trespassed from a local Walmart for alleged shoplifting, and accused by investigators of being a fugitive criminal from Costa Rica.
Barbosa has been largely absent from the local political realm since his resignation – he claimed at the time that he feared for his life – but has remained active on his personal Facebook in that span. The Costa Rica accusations are still an open thread, with no follow-up to the shocking news that he was under investigation over two years ago.
Now, the field for the County Commission election in District 5 consists of Palm Coast Vice Mayor Ed Danko, realtor Pam Richardson, and small business owner Paul Anderson. Danko has one prior campaign, the one that got him elected to the City Council in 2020. Richardson ran for Supervisor of Election in 2012 and City Council in 2016, both unsuccessfully. Anderson has two Flagler School Board campaigns (2016, 2018) and one County Commission campaign (2020) under his belt, all three unsuccessful.
Barbosa has been contacted for elaboration on his decision to withdraw his candidacy, and any response he provides will be added to this article.
