Unlucky Window Cleaner Don Misses Mayoral Position By 42 Votes

The two-term city commissioner has officially won the election over challenger Don Marsh by 42 votes. Craig Lowe waited to celebrate. Not until the Gainesville canvassing board signed off on the results and the chairman announced the election was done did Lowe unwind. His supporters cheered, and he smiled.

At the other end of the room, Don Marsh's team looked on. After a recount Friday at the Alachua County Elections Operations Center, the numbers in the mayoral runoff election were unchanged: 6,110 votes for Lowe, 6,068 votes for Marsh. Lowe, 52, a two-term city commissioner, said afterward he was glad the election was over. The campaign stretched on for four weeks after going to a runoff and quickly turned ugly after Election Day.

On April 1, Marsh wrote a blog post titled "Craig Lowe Plays Dirty," and on Tuesday, Lowe said Marsh ran the "dirtiest campaign in the history of Gainesville," each accusing the other of playing off Lowe's homosexuality. But after the recount, Richard Sheppard, Marsh's campaign manager, shook Lowe's hand and congratulated him, calling him "Mr. Mayor." Lowe said he had a good conversation with Sheppard and that it was time to move on.

"Now that the election's over, we'll all need to go home and be neighbors and work together to make Gainesville a better community," he said. Because Lowe's margin of victory Tuesday was less than 0.5 percent, there was a mandatory machine recount. The canvassing board, which oversees city elections, watched as poll workers ran more than 12,000 ballots back through the machines. If the margin had dipped below 0.25 percent, there would have been a hand recount. But that didn't happen. And now that the recount is complete, Marsh, who didn't observe the proceedings, has 10 days to file an appeal in state circuit court. It doesn't appear that will happen.

Marsh, who runs his own window-cleaning operation and has never held political office, said, "I'm moving on. I've got other things to do." While he said he didn't plan to call Lowe, Marsh said he would like to be seated next to Lowe at City Hall next year, when he plans to run for a spot on the City Commission. He said he is gunning for either Lauren Poe's District 2 seat or Thomas Hawkins' at-large seat. "I still believe these issues are still going to be the same next year," he said, referring to high utility rates and other issues he brought up in the campaign. "We had a message, and we had something that resonated."

Getting our lives back: Right now I am getting ready to get back to work and our normal lives. To my supporters, I say this: I am not giving up. The political process is a continuing story. As long as we have a high cost of living heaped upon us by our local government, it should be resisted. Our city commission may learn nothing from our campaign and keep raising our utility rates in the future, and increasing the size of government, and this must be addressed again in next year’s election. There are 3 seats to contest, and we must have like minded people challenging them.

As Zig Ziglar says, “Failure is an event, not a person”. We are not failures for having tried to hold an incumbent accountable. We will build on the support we have and make them listen to us next year. I thank you for having supported me in this effort, and I hope you will do so again. We came so close. Next time, I believe we will achieve a different result.

Don is famed for his window cleaning tips on You-Tube here.