With the municipal election for three seats on the Delray Beach, FL City Commission just three weeks away, about half the Likely Voters still have not stated a preference, according to a recent poll conducted by the Florida Housing Innovations Council (FHIC).

In the Mayor’s race, the survey - done among 304 Active Voters and 249 Likely Voters - showed former Mayor Tom Carney off to an early lead with 27% Preference among Likely Voters.  Current Vice Mayor Ryan Boylston posted 20% Preference and former-Vice Mayor Shirley Johnson had 13%.  A sizable chunk of voters (40%) are still undecided.

FHIC President, Dr. Kurt Jetta commented on the results, “The Mayor’s race is still wide open with such a high percentage of voters undecided.  At this stage, though, Carney appears to have an advantage in Awareness over Boylston (69% vs. 65% among Likely Voters) and Favorability among those Aware (+13 Points Net Favorability vs. +9 Points for Boylston).  The Favorability scores are typically what carries the day in municipal elections.”

In the two other Commission races Seat 1 is shaping up to be extremely tight with Jim Chard (15%), Tom Markert (15%) and Tennille DeCoste (14%) all within one point of each other.  56% of Likely Voters are still undecided in that race.  For Seat 3, former-Commissioner Juli Casale has jumped to early lead over her opponents Nick Coppola and Anneze Barthelemy (26%/17%/9%, respectively).  48% of Likely Voters are still undecided in that race.

When asked about affordable housing, an overwhelming majority of Likely Voters supported increasing affordable housing for low-income people in Delray Beach.  76% were in support with only 14% opposed, a margin of over 5:1.

When asked about Multi-Tenant Housing Units (MTHU’s), a new housing concept for very-low income individuals, Likely Voters also supported this by a 3:1 margin with 64% supporting and 22% opposed.  This support was strongest among Democratic Voters (78% support/9% oppose) and weakest among Republican Voters (38% support/48% oppose).  Democrats outnumber Republicans in Delray Beach by 50% and usually have higher turnout rates in municipal elections.

“Even with the misinformation being disseminated by some of the candidates, Delray Voters still see the advantage of MTHU’s, when given full information,” stated Jetta. “To offset that misinformation, we are seeing the impact of making voters aware of which candidates oppose affordable housing initiatives for low-income individuals.”

About FHIC

Florida Housing Innovations Council has the mission of increasing affordable housing for low-income individuals.  FHIC achieves this through a combination of public education and political advocacy.  For more information see www.floridahic.org.

Methodology

This survey was conducted by American Pulse, a nationally recognized provider of survey research, from February 21-23, 2024 among 304 randomly selected Active Delray Beach Voters.  The survey was done through a mix of phone, text-to-web and online methods.  Results were weighted by Ethnicity and Age to align with the voting patterns of the last two Delray municipal elections.  There is a 4.5% margin of error around the statistics.