Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Yvette Drucker re-elected to Boca Raton Council alongside returning member Andy Thomson

Jesse Scheckner

March 19

Boca Raton voters re-elected Yvette Drucker to another three-year term on the City Council, where she will serve alongside returning member Andy Thomson, who will again serve from the dais after two years out of office.

Drucker took 77% of the vote in a rematch with former cop and teacher Bernard Korn, who ran against her in March 2021.

Thomson, meanwhile, bested real estate executive Brian Stenberg with 63% of the vote to replace term-limited Deputy Mayor Monica Mayotte in Seat D.

More than 12,100 Boca Raton voters cast ballots Tuesday.

*Yvette Drucker won handily Tuesday. Image via Yvette Drucker.*

Seat C

Drucker, 48, first joined the Boca Raton Council in October 2020, when the four-seat panel appointed her to complete the term of ex-Council member Jeremy Rodgers after his military deployment overseas.

She won the seat outright in the city's General Election five months later with 51% of the vote.

Drucker vowed, if re-elected, to refocus her efforts on improving transportation and making housing more affordable while boosting the local economy and job market, public safety and government responsibility.

Through March 14, the last date for which campaign finance information was available, Drucker raised roughly $61,500 and spent about half that sum.

Korn, 69, hoped to score more than 10 times the share of votes he received three years ago, when he took just 5% of the vote in his first time running against Drucker. He also mounted unsuccessful bids for Mayor in 2018 and 2020.

Korn planned, if elected, to make city government more transparent and answerable to residents. He also wanted to impose stricter term limits for Boca Raton officials and tighten political finance strictures to reduce the influence of special interest groups, lobbyists and political action committees.

And he put his money where his mouth was by running a wholly self-financed campaign.

However, of the $5,550 Korn transferred from his bank account into his campaign coffers, he spent just $334 by mid-March, all of it on the city's qualifying fee.

*Andy Thomson returns to the Boca Raton Council after two years away. Image via Andy Thomson.*

Seat D

Thomson, a 41-year-old lawyer and adjunct professor in private life, served from 2018-2022 in Seat A of the City Council. He also served on many local government and advisory boards.

His priorities included improving neighborhood policing, building sustainable transportation and overseeing responsible, well-managed city growth.

By last week, he had raised $134,000 and spent about $108,500.

Stenberg, a commercial real estate executive, similarly dedicated time to community-based and government organizations, including the Boca Raton Housing Authority and Palm Beach County Planning Commission.

The 55-year-old said he was disinterested in making politics a career and would, if elected, focus on easing government-resident relations, supporting development considerate of the existing character of neighborhoods and improving residents' quality of life.

He raised close to $17,000 and spent $12,000.

While the election was technically nonpartisan, party politics did influence the race. Drucker and Thomson were among several candidates the Florida Democratic Party supported ahead of the March 19 election through its "Take Back Local" program, which donated to Thomson.