Marciano wins second term, Musleh wins a fourth (Updated to include candidate comments.)

UPDATED POST:

Incumbent Ocala Mayor Benjamin Marciano Jr. and City Council District 3 incumbent Jay A. Musleh secured re-election in Tuesday’s special general election. Only 3,849 of the 33,301 registered city voters cast ballots, which resulted in an 11.56% turnout for the nonpartisan election that resolved a disrupted qualifying process from earlier this summer.

The election followed a July “reset” when no candidates qualified during the initial July 7-11 window due to errors such as incorrect check types, missing treasurer signatures and incomplete memo lines. On July 15, city council approved the special election and reopened qualifying from July 16-18, which drew seven candidates.

Marion County’s voter demographics as of Sept. 16 include 257,368 registered voters: 65,236 Democrats, 133,288 Republicans, 49,648 No Party Affiliation and 9,196 Other.

Ocala’s council-manager government assigns the mayor oversight of the Ocala Police Department, leadership of council meetings and ceremonial duties, with a $550 monthly salary for a two-year term. The five-member city council sets policies, approves budgets and supervises officials like the city manager, attorney, clerk and auditor, with members earning $200 monthly ($250 for the council president) over four-year terms.

In the mayor’s race, Marciano, a gym owner, first elected in 2023, defeated 20-year-old challenger Zackary “Arbor” Feliciano, 3,204 votes to 609. Feliciano’s platform focused on affordable housing and small businesses. Marciano raised $19,250, while Feliciano raised $250 (plus $51.24 in-kind).

Marciano expressed his gratitude to the community for their support.

“I feel extremely grateful for the support from the community. I ran for office because I love serving and I love Ocala. I feel like we’ve accomplished a lot in the last two years and I’m excited to get to work on the next two years. I am blessed to have an amazing wife, family and staff so that I can do this job. It is a huge commitment, and I could not do it without them,” Marciano said.

In District 3, Musleh, a commercial real estate broker and retired banker with 46 years in the industry, won re-election. He has served as a council member since 2012. Initially hesitant, Musleh ran again, emphasizing his support for public safety, infrastructure and projects like the Mary Sue Rich Community Center at Reed Place. Musleh raised $25,675, outpacing Mark W. Clark ($500 raised, plus $4 in-kind), a retired Air Force veteran whose campaign emphasized transparency and TamBoura Jenkins ($1,843 raised), a business owner whose platform focused on affordable housing.

Musleh won with 1,992 votes, while Clark came in with 1,006 and Jenkins received 780.

Jenkins said that even though he did not win, he is proud of what he has accomplished.

“I want to thank all of those that supported me during my bid for the city council seat. Even though I was not the elected candidate, I am proud of what I accomplished. I am still committed to the advancement of this beautiful city. Let us therefore keep the faith as we continue on with our endeavors. Congratulations to Mr. Musleh and I look forward to working with him during his tenure,” Jenkins said.

Reflecting upon what he could have done differently, Jenkins said he looks forward to running again in the future.

“I just wish more could have been done on my part. I’m going to join some committees. I’m going to help out everywhere I possibly can, and I do look forward to a run in the future,” he stated.

Clark called the experience of running in the race enlightening, fun and frustrating.

“All the volunteer crew that I had working with me was absolutely fabulous. Unfortunately, we didn’t have professional help, so we were doing it basically by the seat of our pants and trying to create a grassroots effort, which we thought was going to be a little bit better than what had occurred, but we were still happy that, you know, we got people to show up,” Clark said.

“We think we were instrumental in making sure we got people to get out to vote. I had quite a few neighbors and others that really wanted to get engaged, and they were proud to hear what we were trying to say. The frustrating part was, it’s very hard to get the message out when there’s no real forums, because the forums that we did have were somewhat very limited in time and scope, and they had to answer specific questions. So, unless people actually searched out to find out more about what the platform was, they didn’t get that opportunity,” he continued.

While Clark hoped to win, he emphasized that his biggest goal was to push for more transparency by engaging with the press and citizens before decisions are voted on.

“I was really looking forward, hopefully to win, obviously, and if I had, my biggest part of the platform, which I don’t think people heard, was I wanted to get more information out, and part of that was to engage with the press on issues before they become voted on,” he said.

Clark expressed frustration that some press reports reflect an attitude that seems to be ‘back to business as usual,’ but he said that’s not what people want.

“As it stands right now, what they’re all saying and what I read already in some of the other press reports was ‘this is great. It’s back to business as usual. And it’s like, maybe they should wake up and determine that that’s not what people want. It is business as usual, and we’ve been trying to tell them that, and it’s time to start doing some introspection and looking at how they’re doing things. It was frustrating from that aspect, because I think I had a lot to offer. I would have brought in a lot of better, new ideas,” Clark said.

On running again in the future, Clark is unsure.

Districts 1 and 5 were uncontested: Barry M. Mansfield, CEO of Cullison-Wright Construction and council member since 2021, retained his seat after raising $30,750. James P. Hilty Sr., also in office since 2021, reported raising about $600.

Polls closed at 7 p.m. after early voting Sept. 11-13, with results certified by Marion County Supervisor of Elections Wesley Wilcox.

Full results are available through the Marion County Supervisor of Elections’ website at votemarion.gov

ORIGINAL POST:

Incumbent Mayor Benjamin Marciano Jr. and City Council District 3 incumbent Jay A. Musleh secured re-election in Tuesday’s special general election. Only 3,849 of the registered voters 33,301 registered city voters cast ballots, resulting in a 11.56% turnout for the nonpartisan election, which resolved a disrupted qualifying process from earlier this summer.

The election followed a July “reset” when no candidates qualified during the initial July 7-11 window due to errors like incorrect check types, missing treasurer signatures and incomplete memo lines. On July 15, city council approved the special election, reopening qualifying from July 16-18, which drew seven candidates. Marion County’s voter demographics as of Sept. 16, include 257,368 registered voters: 65,236 Democrats, 133,288 Republicans, 49,648 No Party Affiliation and 9,196 Other.

Ocala’s council-manager government assigns the mayor oversight of the Ocala Police Department, leadership of council meetings and ceremonial duties, with a $550 monthly salary for a two-year term. The five-member city council sets policies, approves budgets and supervises officials like the city manager, attorney, clerk, and auditor, with members earning $200 monthly ($250 for the council president) over four-year terms.

In the mayor’s race, Marciano, a gym owner, first elected in 2023, defeated 20-year-old challenger Zackary “Arbor” Feliciano, 3,204 votes to 609. Feliciano’s platform focused on affordable housing and small businesses. Marciano raised $19,250, while Feliciano raised $250 (plus $51.24 in-kind).

In District 3, Musleh, 57, a commercial real estate broker and retired banker with 46 years in the industry, won re-election. He’s served as a council member since 2012. Initially hesitant, Musleh ran again, emphasizing his support for public safety, infrastructure, and projects like the Mary Sue Rich Community Center. Musleh raised $25,675, outpacing Mark W. Clark ($500 raised, plus $4 in-kind), a retired Air Force veteran whose campaign emphasized transparency and TamBoura Jenkins ($1,843 raised), a business owner whose platform focused on affordable housing.

Musleh won with 1,992 votes, while Clark came in with 1,006, and Jenkins received 780.

Districts 1 and 5 were uncontested: Barry M. Mansfield, CEO of Cullison-Wright Construction and council member since 2021, retained his seat after raising $30,750. James P. Hilty Sr., also in office since 2021, reported raising about $600.

Polls closed at 7 p.m. after early voting Sept. 11-13, with results certified by Marion County Supervisor of Elections Wesley Wilcox. Full results are available through the Marion County Supervisor of Elections’ website at votemarion.gov.