BEACON FILE PHOTO
DeLand City Hall, 120 S. Florida Ave.

Four of the five seats on the DeLand City Commission will be on the ballot this year, and beyond a three-way mayoral race that began months ago, more candidates have begun vying for a seat on the dais.

Two DeLandites have filed to run for City Commission Seat 4 — currently occupied by Chris Cloudman, who must vacate the seat to run for mayor.

Running for the seat are Troy Alan Bradley Sr., a DeLand native and pastor at Greater Union First Baptist Church, and DeLand businessman and owner of Cafe DaVinci Dan Reed.

As of May 5, Reed, who filed to run April 5, has lent $3,000 toward his campaign and received no other donations. Bradley, who filed to run all the way back in August 2021, has received donations totalling $775 — excluding a $20 donation he made to his own campaign — as of May 5.

City Commissioner Jessica Davis has received a challenge to her seat from DeLandite Deirdre Perry. Davis, who occupies Seat 3 on the City Commission, has served since she was first elected in 2014.

When elected, Davis made history as the first Black woman to serve on the City Commission. If Perry wins Davis’ seat in the upcoming election, she would be the second.

Perry filed to run April 28 and has — as of May 5 — raised no campaign funds. Davis, as of May 5, has $1,035 in her re-election coffers.

The two other seats up for grabs this year are City Commission Seat 5 and Seat 1.

Seat 5 is currently occupied by City Commissioner Kevin Reid, who has filed for re-election. As of May 5, no one has filed to run against him, and Reid has received no money toward his campaign.

Seat 1, now held by longtime DeLand Mayor Robert Apgar, remains a three-way race among City Commissioner Chris Cloudman, Planning Board Member Buz Nesbit and retired pastor and Volusia County staffer Reggie Williams.

Williams has raised the most money of the candidates, with his campaign fund containing $18,319. Cloudman is behind him with $13,925 in his campaign fund, while Nesbit has $4,350.

All of these figures are recorded as of May 5 and include donations candidates have made to their own funds. Williams, for instance, donated $500 to his campaign shortly after filing to run, and spent some $2,400 out-of-pocket for campaign signs.

Cloudman, meanwhile, has contributed nearly $9,000 of his own money to his campaign and received donations from other DeLandites, including contributions totaling $325 from fellow City Commissioner Charles Paiva.

Nesbit has made no contributions to his own campaign.

The only seat not on the ballot this year is Seat 2 occupied by Paiva, who was appointed to the City Commission in 2018 after two previous stints, serving from 2001-2005 and 2006-2016.

DeLand will hold a special election for the four up-for-grabs City Commission seats Tuesday, Aug. 23, with a follow-up runoff election if necessary Tuesday, Nov. 8.

The qualifying period for the election — when paperwork is submitted and candidates are formally added to the ballot — begins June 13 and will end June 17.

For more information about qualifications to run for the DeLand City Commission, visit the City of DeLand’s website, HERE.

1 COMMENT

  1. How about concentrating on platforms versus concentrating on skin color. I do not care what a person’s skin color is. What I care about is their platforms and what they will do while in office. If you think I will vote based on color, you are sadly mistaken. It fries my grits.

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