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First wave of ballots for Hillsborough special elections mailed

in The Bay and the 'Burg/Top Headlines by

The Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections mailed out the first ballots Friday for the upcoming special primary elections for House District 58 and Temple Terrace mayor.

The first wave of ballots is heading out to overseas and absent military voters, with ballots for domestic voters who have requested to vote by mail set to ship out on Sept. 5. Voters who have not already requested a mail ballot have until Oct. 4 to put their request in at the supervisor’s office.

Election Day is set for Oct. 10.

The HD 58 special primary will see Republican voters pick between Yvonne Fry and Lawrence McClure. The pair are running to replace fellow Republican Dan Raulerson, who stepped down Aug. 15 due to health issues.

Both candidates have released endorsements from Hillsborough County officials and their would-be colleagues in the Legislature.

Fry, who runs her own communications business, has picked up endorsements from Brandon Republican Rep. Ross Spano, Hillsborough County School Board member Melissa Snivley, former Hillsborough GOP chair Al Higginbotham, Plant City Mayor Rick Lott, and all current Plant City Commissioners.

McClure, a consultant on environmental mitigation and oil spill cleanup, is backed by future Senate President Wilton Simpson. Tampa Bay area Reps. Danny Burgess and Shawn Harrison are teaming up with him for a joint fundraiser on Sept. 20.

The winner of the GOP primary will face Democrat Jose Vasquez, Libertarian Bryan Zemina and no-party candidate Ahmad Hussam Saadaldin in the Dec. 19 general.

The Temple Terrace mayoral primary candidates are David Ganessingh, Mel Jurado, and Linda Ormsbee. The special election was set after Mayor Kim Leinbach stepped down due to “significant family health issues.”

All city residents will be able to vote in the non-partisan race, and if no candidate gets more than half of the vote the top two finishers will be on the Dec. 19 ballot.

Drew Wilson covers legislative campaigns and fundraising for SaintPetersBlog and FloridaPolitics.com. While at the University of Florida, Wilson was an editor at The Independent Florida Alligator and after graduation, he moved to Los Angeles to cover business deals for The Hollywood Reporter. Before joining Extensive Enterprises, Wilson covered the state economy and Legislature for LobbyTools.

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