Sarasota City Commission contests will continue to May 12 runoffs, as no candidates secured a majority of votes in elections held Tuesday. Candidates Liz Alpert and Eileen Normile will duke it out for the District 2 seat and candidates Stan Zimmerman and Shellie Freeland Eddie will fight for votes in District 3. All candidates say they are prepared to fight as hard to win the runoff as they did to get a spot on the ballot.

The fight for District 2 seems the most likely to come down to the wire. Alpert was the top vote-getter there, with 1,655 votes (43.67 percent) to Normile’s 1,446 votes (38.15 percent), while David Morgan was eliminated after pulling in 689 votes (18.18 percent). After early voting, Alpert and Normile were separated by only five votes, but Alpert performed strongly on Election Day.

“The voters of the City of Sarasota sent a clear message we need new leadership on the City Commission,” said Alpert in a campaign statement. That was a clear shot at Normile, who was appointed to fill a vacancy on the City Commission in November and is filling out a term that ends in May.

But Normile felt heavy involvement from the Democratic Party of Sarasota accounted for a difference in her vote total and Alpert’s. “I would say with 10 volunteers and a completely grassroots campaign of Democrats, Republicans and independents, we did pretty well against a fully fueled partisan political machine,” she said.

As for District 3, Zimmerman, who was also appointed to the Commission in November, nearly avoided a runoff completely thanks to a strong showing in early and absentee votes, but ended the night with 749 votes (45.95 percent), not quite enough to avoid a second contest in May. Eddie pulled in 584 votes (35.83 percent) thanks to growing momentum leading into Election Day. Matt Wooddall received 297 votes (18.22 percent) and was eliminated.  

Zimmerman has heartened by his a strong absentee showing, and felt partisan calls from Democrats on behalf of Eddie was what pushed his race into a runoff. “I’m very pleased with the election results tonight,” he said. “I expected a runoff… Clearly the Democrats swamped the system for Ms. Eddie with robocalls. They want to play that way and now I have to figure out how I want to play.” 

Eddie, meanwhile, was bracing for the next phase of the campaign. “We weren’t worried at all,” Eddie said Tuesday night. “We knew we had done the work and just hoped voters would come out and recognize that.”