The Palm Coast City Council’s two non-mayoral races have each been thinned to two candidates for November’s general election. The District 1 race initially drew four qualified candidates, while the District 3 race drew three.
Four total seats on the Council will be turning over this year; a new mayor and two new Council members will be elected in November while another new Council member will presumably be appointed to fill the seat of a resigned Cathy Heighter. This leaves Theresa Carli Pontieri as the senior-most member of the dais, wrapping up her second full year in office.
District 1 Election
Four candidates qualified for the primary ballot in Palm Coast’s District 1 City Council election. Kathy Austrino, Shara Brodsky, Ty Miller, and Jeffery Seib all vied for a top-two finishing spot in the vote, allowing them to continue their campaign. Miller nearly accumulated the majority total he’d have needed to win the election outright on Tuesday, falling less than six percent short. Austrino and Seib closely dueled for the critical second place finish, trading places as more and more votes were reported. Seib ultimately secured the spot, with Brodsky trailing in fourth.
The seat became open when Councilman Ed Danko opted to run for County Commission instead of seeking re-election. Among the four candidates only Austrino had run for public for office before. She was one of six candidates who ran in the 2021 Palm Coast special mayoral election, placing fifth in the final results.
- Ty Miller – 44.59% – 8,586 (advanced)
- Jeffery Seib – 21.52% – 4,143 (advanced)
- Kathy Austrino – 19.19% – 3,694
- Shara Brodsky – 14.70% – 2,831
District 3 Election
Three candidates qualified for the ballot in the Palm Coast City Council’s District 3 race: Dana ‘Mark’ Stancel, Ray Stevens, and Andrew Werner. All three campaigned relatively calmly, with none of the three establishing themselves as an obvious favorite or non-factor before Election Day. The results were fittingly close, with no one taking any large lead as results tricked in. It did become clear soon that Werner would place first, although not by much.
When the votes were all counted, Stevens came out just two votes ahead of Stancel for second, the last spot in the November runoff. This triggered a recount by the Supervisor of Elections Office on Friday and into Saturday, ultimately concluding that Stevens’ two-vote win was correct.
- Andrew Werner – 34.38% – 6,483 (advanced)
- Ray Stevens – 32.82% – 6,188 (advanced)
- Dana ‘Mark’ Stancel – 32.80% – 6,186
