Wednesday, March 18th 2020, 5:08 PM EDT by Dave Elias Updated: Wednesday, March 18th 2020, 7:03 PM EDT
Voters in Naples threw out their current mayor and three city council members in Tuesday night's special election.
NAPLES, Fla. - Voters in Naples threw out their current mayor and three city council members in Tuesday night's special election.
Long time Mayor Bill Barnett lost to former city council member Teresa Heitman.
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“First of all I want to thank Bill and his supporters and the incumbents for serving and I hope to work with their supporters in bringing the community together,” Heitman said.
Incumbent Bill Barnett admits his opponent had a clean sweep and said he was surprised by the upset.
He told NBC2 he believes the continued growth of Naples led to his loss.
“All you see in this city right now is redevelopment and it is not a broken city but the opposition said we need to fix this,” Barnett said.
Chairwoman of the Collier County Democratic Party Annisa Karim said it was easy for voters to throw everybody out and hit the reset button.
Karim believes the upsets were the result of ethics issues that some voters felt needed to be updated.
“It seemed like the incumbents we unwilling to let people speak on that issue and they spoke very clearly Tuesday night by voting all the incumbents out,” Karim said.
Author and Political Consultant David Silverberg said the votes send a message that people are unhappy with the existing leadership and that they were ready for change.
Silverberg authored “Masters of Disaster” and believes that the coronavirus scare could have also factored into the incumbent upsets.
“When there is a disaster or special stress on people they take it out on their elected leaders,” he said.
His book notes how it has happened repeatedly throughout history.
An issue that the new mayor realizes will grip her administration from the minutes she is sworn into office.
“As the information comes to us we will make sure it’s transparent and they’re informed to protect themselves,” Heitman said.
Heitman takes office on April 1. Barnett has begun cleaning out his office and plans to remain in Naples after he retires.
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