Roger Chapin won his Orlando City Council bid Tuesday night, following the footsteps of his trailblazing mom into public office.

Chapin captured 51% of the vote to beat Mira Tanna in the District 3 runoff, according to unofficial election results.

Chapin had the fundraising advantage and better name recognition as the son of former Orange County Mayor Linda Chapin. His war chest was $293,000 compared to Tanna’s $114,000.

Chapin and Tanna were neck-and-neck in the Nov. 4 election when they were among five candidates on the ballot. Only 14 votes separated Chapin and Tanna, and neither secured a majority of the vote, sparking Tuesday’s runoff.

Chapin will be the first new Orlando City Commissioner to represent District 3 in 20 years. Longtime District 3 Commissioner Robert Stuart said he was ready to step down and allow others to lead in city government.

District 3 covers Baldwin Park, Audubon Park, College Park, Rosemont and a few other neighborhoods north of Colonial Drive.

The four-year nonpartisan term currently pays $79,343 annually.

Chapin’s move to City Hall has been nearly a quarter-century in the making.

Chapin ran for Orlando City Council in 2002 and lost. In the years that followed, the College Park resident found other ways to get involved in public service, since he said he figured he would never run for elected office again.

Chapin got on the Municipal Planning Board, the Downtown Development Board, the Orlando Utilities Commission, the oversight Committee for the construction of the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts and more. Chapin argued that made him the most experienced candidate in the race. A Democrat, he promised to govern down the middle and work with both sides of the aisle.

Chapin’s supporters included Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, Stuart, Orange County Sheriff John Mina, and Chris Durant, who placed third in the Nov. 4 election. Durant got paid $6,000 to help Chapin on the campaign trail in November and part of December, according to the latest campaign finance reports.

Chapin also won big endorsements from the Orlando Sentinel editorial board, the Orlando Regional Realtors Association and the Central Florida Hotel and Lodging Association.

But the race for District 3 was tight. Tanna ran a grassroots campaign backed by popular Orlando Democrats in U.S. Rep Maxwell Frost and state Rep. Anna Eskamani.

“Mira has spent decades in public service, holding corporations and corrupt officials accountable while fighting for communities too often overlooked. But tonight, voters chose a different path,” said Moné Holder, Chief Advocacy and Political Officer of Florida Rising, a grassroots group that endorsed Tanna, in a statement. “We hope the winner in District 3, Roger Chapin, will prioritize what our communities demanded throughout this campaign: affordable housing, economic development that benefits every family, and deep respect for immigrant communities. These needs cannot be ignored; they must be at the top of the Council’s agenda.”

Jacksonville’s Minor League Baseball (MiLB) team the Jumbo Shrimp is going to be sold and the City Council signed off on a resolution Tuesday confirming it supports the transaction.

Jumbo Shrimp owner Ken Babby decided to sell the team after he advanced to CEO of the Tampa Bay Rays Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise. Babby announced Tuesday before the council meeting that the buyer of the Jumbo Shrimp was Prospector Baseball Group. There was no disclosed price, but Prospector is owned by Ben Boyer, a technology entrepreneur, and John Abbamondi, an executive with extensive experience in professional sports.

The City Council unanimously approved the resolution supporting the sale of the Jumbo Shrimp, the MiLB AAA farm club for the Miami Marlins, with little discussion.

Council member Nick Howland said there was no reason for the city to impede the transaction.

“I don’t want to hold up the deal and I think this is good for our city,” Howland said.

The key element the city is concerned with is the lease deal with the franchise for the use of the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville. That stadium is known as VyStar Ballpark, which was contracted for the name by Jacksonville-based VyStar Credit Union.

The Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp resolution before the Council stated, “The team has entered into an agreement whereby, upon closing, a buyer will acquire all equity of the Jacksonville Club (Jumbo Shrimp). The transaction is structured as a sale of equity interests; therefore, there is no direct assignment of the agreement, and the Jacksonville Club will remain a party to the agreement under its current name.”

Babby in a news release earlier Tuesday called the sale “bittersweet.”

In a joint statement, Abbamondi and Boyer said they were thrilled about the transaction.

“We are grateful to Ken Babby and his partners for their leadership and honored to have the opportunity to build upon their success. We believe in providing an exceptional, accessible game day experience at VyStar Ballpark, and we are equally excited for the Jumbo Shrimp to be a catalyst for the future growth of Downtown Jacksonville,” the joint statement said.

Babby has advanced quickly in the baseball world. He is also owner of the Akron RubberDucks in Ohio, a AA franchise in the MiLB affiliated with the MLB’s Cleveland Guardians. The RubberDucks franchise is also part of Prospector’s acquisition.

Babby shifted to CEO of the Rays and is now heavily involved in discussions for hammering out a stadium deal and location for the team to play on the Gulf Coast.

Babby bought the Jacksonville franchise from previous owner Peter Bragan Jr. in 2015 when the team was named the Jacksonville Suns, a moniker that was steady for decades. Babby changed the name to Jumbo Shrimp in November 2016.

It’s a triumphant return for Ralph Massullo.

The Lecanto Republican is heading back to Tallahassee with strong voter support following Tuesday’s Special Election in Senate District 11.

Massullo won with 59% of the vote, buoyed particularly in Citrus and Sumter counties, over Democrat Ash Marwah, a civil engineer from The Villages.

The low-key election brought an 18% voter turnout.

Massullo topped 60% in Citrus and Sumter counties. Marwah and Massullo were neck-and-neck in Hernando County’s early votes, but Massullo pulled ahead with Election Day voting.

Massullo, a dermatologist, served eight years in House District 23 before term limits forced him from office in 2024. Gov. Ron DeSantis thwarted Massullo’s planned Senate campaign in 2022 by backing eventual winner Blaise Ingoglia; DeSantis supported Massullo’s Special Election bid this year.

When the SD 11 seat opened up with Ingoglia’s appointment as Chief Financial Officer, Massullo jumped in, and a host of big-name endorsements followed, including from Ingoglia, Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson, U.S. Sens. Ashley Moody and Rick Scott, four GOP Congressmen, county Sheriffs in the district, and the Florida Chamber of Commerce.

The Florida LGBTQ+ Democratic Caucus endorsed Marwah.

Marwah ran for HD 52 in 2024, garnering just 24% of the vote against Republican John Temple. 

Massullo raised $249,950, compared with Marwah’s $12,125. Massullo’s $108,000 in spending includes consulting, events and mail pieces. One of those mail pieces reminded voters of the odd-year election.

The two opponents had few opportunities for a head-to-head debate. The League of Women Voters of Citrus County conducted an SD 11 forum on Zoom in late October, when the two candidates clashed over the state’s direction.

Marwah said DeSantis and Republicans are “playing games” in their attempts to redraw congressional district boundaries.

“No need to go through this expense,” he said. “It will really ruin decades of progress in civil rights. We should honor the rule of law that we agreed on that it’ll be done every 10 years. I’m not sure why the game is being played at this point.”

Massullo said congressional districts should reflect population shifts.

“The people of our state deserve to be adequately represented based on population,” he said. “I personally do not believe we should use race as a means to justify particular areas. I believe we should be blind to race, blind to creed, blind to sex, in everything that we do, particularly looking at population.”

Senate District 11 covers all of Citrus, Hernando and Sumter counties, plus a portion of northern Pasco County. It is safely Republican — Ingoglia won 69% of the vote there in November, and Donald Trump carried the district by the same margin in 2024.