District 6 Update: Whittington Qualifies, Wallace Maintains Lead

Its official. You can add one more name to the Orange County District 6 slugfest.

Launching her campaign 10 months ago, Virginia Whittington, officially qualified this week after successfully gathering the 951 signatures required.

Although it took ten months, an unusually long time to gather 951 signatures, Whittington was ebullient.

“Qualifying by petition is a huge milestone for this campaign,” said Whittington.

Indeed it is. Up until now, Derrick “Shine” Wallace was the only candidate who had qualified by petition, doing so several months ago.

To date, the race has attracted six candidates: Homer Hartage, Victoria Siplin, Roberta Walton, Whittington, Derrick Wallace and Josh (Pazy) Paladino, who withdrew from the race earlier this month. Voters get to decide on August 26th.

The District 6 seat is currently held by Tiffany Moore-Russell, who is termed out and will leave office next January. Moore-Russell is currently the favorite in the Orange County Clerk of the Courts race.

Some residents of Orange County’s most diverse district, are amused by all of the entries into the race. “Homer didn’t do anything when he was in there, neither did T-Mo (Tiffany Moore-Russell)”, said Jaquinta Rodriguez. “I’m gonna wait and see what they say, but I like ‘Shine,’ cause he knows about business”.

The smart money in the district says, it will come down to Derrick Wallace versus Victoria Siplin, but her Tea Party support and accepting monies to oppose the 2010 Fair Districts amendment could prove to be a liability.

To date, the strongest candidate financially is Wallace, with a campaign war chest approaching $150,000 compared to Siplin who has not reported any funding to date, filing waivers every reporting cycle. Virginia Whittington reported contributions of $27,000. and has spent nearly half of that thus far. Walton has raised a reported $38,000 to date with Hartage pulling up the rear with $7,000.

The race for District 6 commissioner is being viewed as a race of old style politics versus new ideas. Perhaps this is why Derrick Wallace is the early favorite in terms of new ideas. His business background and strong community roots puts him out ahead of his opponents, at least in terms of managerial experience. Wallace, a well-known CEO of Florida’s largest minority owned construction management company, could play to his advantage.

Wallace is credited with training and hiring hundreds of locally troubled youths over the years. His well established firm Construct Two Group, has built Jones High School and the Hulk and Spiderman rides at Universal Studios, among other achievements.

Whoever wins this race will determine the future of District 6, in many ways.