Deborah Clark, Pinellas County’s supervisor of elections, officially filed for re-election.
Clark, 66, has been the county’s elections supervisor since 2000, when she was appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush. She was subsequently elected that same year, as well as in 2004, 2008 and 2012.
As of Thursday, Clark, a Republican from Palm Harbor, is the only person to file for the 2016 elections supervisor seat.
She’s joining a gradually growing field of early and officially announced candidates, like Janet Long, who now serves as Pinellas County’s District 1 commissioner.
Long, 70, filed for re-election back in early May of this year. So far, she’s declared over $16,000 in contributions. A Democrat from Seminole and former member of the Florida House of Representatives, Long is the only candidate who has filed to run for Pinellas County’s District 1 Commission seat so far.
Like elections supervisor Clark, Commissioner Long serves as her own 2016 campaign treasurer.
Former state Rep. Jim Frishe, 66, a St. Petersburg Republican, is, so far, the only candidate filed to run for Pinellas County’s property appraiser in 2016. Pinellas County’s current property appraiser, Pam Dubov, announced last year that she wouldn’t be running for re-election in 2016.
Despite having yet to officially announce his campaign, Frishe has amassed over $19,000 in contributions to date.
Frishe’s campaign treasurer is listed as Thomas M. Kiernan, who also works on campaigns for state Reps. Kathleen Peters, Chris Latvala and Larry Ahern, as was first reported by SaintPetersBlog’s Janelle Irwin.
Republican James McLynas, of Indian Shores, so far, is the only individual who has filed to run for sheriff of Pinellas County in 2016 — though current Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri has publicly stated that he will also be running in 2016.
McLynas filed his paperwork to run for Pinellas County sheriff way back in November of 2013. His listed campaign treasurer is Kim Harwell, of South Pasadena.
