By HENRY FREDERICK / Headline Surfer
DELTONA, Fla. -- So much for Webster Barnaby's attack mailers against fellow candidate Erika Benfield in the the three-way Aug. 18 GOP primary race for State Rep. 27.
Barnaby finished dead last in a straw poll vote held online Wednesday by the West Volusia Chamber of Commerce. Benfield was first with 63 votes, Zenaida Denizac was second with 43 votes, and Barnaby was third with 37 votes. The GOP primary winner faces Democrat candidate Delores Guzman who garnered 15 votes.
Benfield was ecstatic with the results, and of course, was the lone candidate to post the results of the straw poll on her Facebook page.
"Momentum is beginning to build!," said Benfield, DeBary city councilwoman and vice mayor. "We won an overwhelming majority at the initial West Volusia Regional Chamber Straw Poll! Now onto victory August 18."
Barnaby, who has the largest campaign war-chest with $121,220, ($34,293 left) compared to $48,393($21,264 left) for Benfield, and $21,472 ($8,474 left) for Denizac, has spent thousands on at least two attack mailers exclusively targeting Benfield, with half-truths, exaggerations and downright fallacies. Barnaby, with political consulting from Nathan Johnson, a former staffer with Ex-State Rep. Fred Costello, has taken a page from the Roger Stone playbook with a series of disinformation charges against Benfield in a series of attack mailers that have drawn the ire of district voters who have received them in recent weeks.
Webster Barnaby, who has the largest campaign war-chest with $121,220, ($34,293 left) compared to $48,393 ($21,264 left) for Erika Benfield, and $21,472 ($8,474 left) for Zenaida Denizac, has spent thousands on at least two attack mailers exclusively targeting Benfield, with half-truths, exaggerations and downright fallacies. Barnaby, with political consulting from Nathan Johnson, a former staffer with ex-State Rep. Fred Costello, has taken a page from the Roger Stone playbook with a series of disinformation charges against Benfield in a series of attack mailers that have drawn the ire of district voters who have received them in recent weeks.
But if Wednesday's chamber straw poll is any indication, Barnaby is on his way to becoming a three-time loser in his quest to hold office for the first time in six years. His only win was for a seat on the Deltona City Commidssion in 2012, which he quit two years later to run for a seat on Volusia County Council, in which he finished last in a three-way primary.
Barnaby then ran for a seat on the West Volusia Advertising Authority in 2018, but lost by a whopping 7,0002 votes to Delores Guzman, the Democrat awaiting the winner of the Aug. 18 GOP primary between Barnaby, Benfield, and Denizac for a showdown in the Nov. 3 general elections.
Henry Frederick is publisher of Headline Surfer, the award-winning 24/7 internet news outlet launched 12 years ago that serves greater Daytona Beach, Sanford & Orlando, Florida via HeadlineSurfer.com. Frederick has amassed more than a hundred journalism industry awards in print & online -- more than than all other members of the working press combined in Central Florida since the mid-1990s. He earned his Master of Arts in New Media Journalism with academic honors from Full Sail University in 2019. Having witnessed the execution of serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Florida's death chamber and other high profile cases, Frederick has appeared on national crime documentary programs on Discovery ID and Reelz for his investigative reporting and cops & courts breaking news stories.