Endorsements good as gold for dist. 3 county council candidates heading into Tuesday's primary

Dist. 3 County Council candidate Jim Hathaway, shown far left) has picked up endorsements from Volusia Building Industry Association and the Sierra Club while fellow candidate Deb Denys has won the endorsement of the New Smyrna Beach Board of Realtors. And candidate Justin Kennedy is content with endorsements from the Volusia Sheriff's Deputies Association, Volusia Teachers Organization, Edgewater Professional Firefighters Association and the Daytona Beach Fire/Rescue Association.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- They're not quite Olympic gold medals, but for the three candidates running for Volusia County Council dist. 3 seat in Tuesday's primary, endorsements are golden.

"I am absolutely thrilled to announce I have been endorsed by the Volusia Building (Industry) Association," New Smyrna Beach Commissioner Jim Hathaway wrote on his Facebook candidate page." Coupled with my endorsement with the Sierra Club, the evidence is clear that I have broad bipartisan support."

Fellow candidates Justin Kennedy of Edgewater and Deb Denys of New Smyrna Beach weren't too impressed with Hathaway's having previously listing more than a dozen individual elected office holders or those who ran for office, including his own father, former Mayor William Hathaway, and resident Barbara Herrin, a mere candidate who didn't even win a county council seat she had run for.

"It's pretty weak that after 18 years as a (city) commissioner, he's not had real endorsements," said Kennedy, the first-term Edgewater councilman and former planning board member. Kennedy's list of endorsements include Volusia Sheriff's Deputies Association, Volusia Teachers Organization, Edgewater Professional Firefighters Association, Daytona Beach Fire/Rescue Association, all major unions in Volusia County.

At left is a copy of the letter of endorsement County Council disat. 3 candidate Jim Hathaway received from the Sierra Club.

Among Hathaway's other individual endorsements he listed his current municipal colleagues in Mayor Adam Barringer and Commissioners Judy Reiker, Jack Grasty and Lynne Plaskett (also a former county councilwoman); former NSB mayors Sally Mackay, Jim Vandergrifft and Bill Rogers; and past elected county council members Jack Hayman, Jack Ascherl and Clay Henderson.

While Hathaway's listing of individual candidates is certainly not the norm for candidates in recent election cycles, Denys, the former elected Republican School Board member, listed Margie Patchett as one of her endorsers. Patchett is head of the six-year-old grassroots Volusia Tax Reform.

Neither Kennedy nor Hathaway gave Denys much credence because she was not endorsed by Patchett's organization.

Denys did receive the endorsement of the New Smyrna Board of Realtors.