DELTONA -- Rich Gailey has done everything a candidate for public office can do to win the support of the voters, even taking the ALS ice bucket challenge.
Gailey won the Aug. 26 primary in what was a three-way race and there's no reason why the voters in district 5 shouldn't give him the nod when the votes are counted in Tuesday's general election.
He has earned the endorsement of HeadlineSurfer.com for his honesty, integrity and approach to the campaign.
There really is only one possible scenario the internet newspaper foresees in Gailey's campaign being derailed. And that's a backlash of sympathy votes for opponent Fred Lowry, Jr., like Gailey, a registered Republican, who was dissed by the GOP executive committee led by chairman Tony Ledbetter, which excluded a number of Republicans across the county from its voter guide.
Notable in the primary was two-term incumbent Stan Schmidt, the district 3 School Board member out of Port Orange, who ended up finishing third among three candidates in that race in the primary and out of the running.
Such a scenario, though possible, is unlikely given Lowry's lack of a cohesive campaign platform and his shying away from media interviews. Lowry has been heavily backed by the elite insiders of Daytona Beach.
Lowry has done everything asked of him as a candidate for county office, attending hob nobs, chicken dinner events, including the GOP Lincoln Dinner in Daytona Beach and multiple candidate forums and debates.
Gailey, a financial planner, understands Volusia County's financial plight as the second highest taxed of Florida's 67 counties.