It was a good night for Guy LaLonde Jr., who capped a nearly year-long campaign for the northwest district seat on Lakeland’s City Commission by winning 57.58% of the 7,247 votes cast in Tuesday’s runoff election against Samuel Simmons.
LaLonde, a 56-year-old U.S. Navy veteran and small business owner, was overcome with emotion when the final results came in. His wife, Tonya, pushed her way through the crowd to give him a congratulatory kiss as he held a drawing of an American flag his granddaughter, Ellie, had made during the last watch party in November.
His campaign manager, James Ring, read from 2 Timothy: “I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race…” And then LaLonde thanked about 100 of his supporters, who were packed into Union Hall to celebrate.
“First of all, I want to say thank you to Sam Simmons. He’s a great man, a great person,” LaLonde said, acknowledging his opponent. “He made me work very hard, and I’m very happy to know him. I’m gonna make a phone call to him after this.”
Turnout was light with 7,247 (11.5%) of the city’s 63,088 registered voters casting ballots — slightly less than the 9,309 (14.9%) who voted in the general municipal election last month. Mail-in votes outpaced Election Day polling with 4,822 (66.5%) of the ballots arriving in sealed, signed envelopes.
LaLonde promised to turn to experts in the community for input on topics with which he is unfamiliar.
“We can’t let the City Hall be just an echo chamber,” LaLonde said. “We have to reach out. We have to create real collaboration amongst the people. We’ve got to build bridges. We’ve got to break these gaps down. We’re going to have better communication.”
And he promised to accomplish the work that needs to be done. “We have to do the work in the neighborhoods, not just on the boards and not just on the City Commission. But we need to do the real work. We’ve got to get out there.”
LaaLonde said he was humbled and wished his late father could have been there.
Finally, he said he ran to serve the people of Lakeland: “I have no political motives. I pray that God will guide me every day in every decision that I make.”
Simmons, 66, who owns a housing and financial services consulting firm, gathered with supporters at New Life Outreach Ministry near Kathleen Road and Fifth Street.
Simmons left after the count of same-day votes showed him significantly behind his challenger. Others followed and there were fewer than a dozen left by the time the mail-in votes were released shortly before 8 p.m.
Supporters expressed faith in God and showed no bitterness about the outcome, but they did reflect sadness that there will be no African-American member of the Lakeland City Commission for the first time in 55 years.
“We ran the campaign on faith. God is going to get the glory,” said Lynne Simpkins, Simmons’ campaign manager. “Sam ran a campaign of integrity.”
City commissioners are elected to set policy for Lakeland’s municipal government and its $747 million budget on a multitude of issues that include police and fire protection, growth and development, transportation, recreation, water and electric utilities.
Although four of the seven commission members represent specific quadrants of the city, all are elected citywide. That helped LaLonde, who performed better outside of the northwest district he will soon represent.
A long journey
Simmons and LaLonde were among eight people who applied in September 2022 to represent the northwest district on an interim basis after three-term Commissioner Phillip Walker resigned the seat to run for the Florida House of Representatives.
The commission ultimately selected Simmons for the interim position, effective Nov. 7, 2022. But LaLonde never stopped campaigning; he just shifted his focus forward a year, studying all of the policy issues that came before the commission and networking across the city in preparation for this election cycle.
LaLonde’s candidacy was somewhat controversial because the northwest district seat has been held by a Black commissioner for nearly five decades. With LaLonde’s win, the commission will be all-white for the first time since 1968.
However, observers pointed out that LaLonde was a tireless campaigner. Terry Coney, president of the Lakeland branch of the NAACP, acknowledged: “There wasn’t an event that was going on in the city — or in the outskirts of the city — that he hasn’t been to over the last six months.”
In the month following the general election, he was especially visible in the northwest district, with almost daily posts on social media showing him waving signs, knocking on doors and participating in community clean-ups, Veterans Day events, Thanksgiving food distributions, a middle school teach-in, a community health clinic and even ringing a bell for the Salvation Army.
Campaign finance
LaLonde vastly out-fundraised Simmons, reporting $53,645 in contributions as of Dec. 1, compared with $7,923.
LaLonde was endorsed by the Lakeland Realtors, Business Voice of Greater Lakeland, the Lakeland Professional Firefighters and the Lakeland Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police. However, his biggest financial supporter was Gregory Fancelli, a historic preservationist and grandson of Publix founder George Jenkins.
In the weeks leading up to the runoff election, LaLonde received 13 contributions of $1,000 each from limited liability corporations or organizations associated with Fancelli. The LLCs were all registered at 2000 E. Edgewood Drive, Suite 102, and many were named for superheroes or classic characters including Tony Stark, LLC (Iron Man); Peter Venkman, LLC (“Ghostbusters”); Kirk Lazarus, LLC, Jeff Portnoy, LLC and Lester Grossman, LLC (“Tropic Thunder”); Esther Luna, LLC (Final Fantasy); Jack Bauer, LLC (“24”); Dino Velvet, LLC (“8MM”).
In his answers during forums and debates, LaLonde established himself as solidly pro-business. He said he does not believe the city should impose a moratorium on growth or try to slow down development. Instead: “We need to reengage ourselves and take a good hard look at our growth management plan to ensure that we are bringing enough roads and doing the widening and construction that we need to do.”
Threat against pollworker draws strong rebuke
The campaign took a nasty turn when an elderly poll worker, who is not working this election following the recent death of her husband, received a threatening text message after posting to Facebook a LaLonde video. One of her two Facebook pages lists her as a poll worker.
“You stupid piece of dog s—. Dont post s— about god on your fb and treat people like dirt u dumb f— dying whore,” the first of two texts read. The second text became sinister. “Ill make sure I find out what poll you are at”
LaLonde took to social media to condemn the text.
“Voter intimidation cannot be tolerated. One of our supporters, who is also a poll worker, recently received this disturbing text message. The message has been reported to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. If you receive a similar message, [please notify law enforcement immediately.”
PCSO spokesman Scott Wilder confirmed that they had received a report of a threat.
“The telephone number was a fake, spoofed number,” he said, referring to the capability to use a cellphone app to appear to call from a number other than your own. “We are investigating. There are no other threats we are working (or have been reported) that are campaign-related.”
Supervisor of Elections Lori Edwards said no one else, either election workers or her permanent staff, had reported any threats.
She said poll workers are trained to stay neutral on Election Day.
“During training, we explain to all poll workers that, on Election Day, they must behave in a non-partisan manner and must not speak of political parties or candidates, even among themselves,” Edwards told LkldNow. “They also are not allowed to wear any clothing or accessories with political names, words or symbols.”
She added: “There are no laws to prohibit them from political speech or activity in advance of Election Day. On Election Day and during Early Voting all polling locations have workers of differing party affiliations.”
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