ORLANDO, Fla. — After a months-long and often bruising campaign filled with personal attacks, Shan Rose emerged victorious over her political foe Regina Hill to permanently fill the Orlando City Council District 5 seat.
By choosing Rose, who lost to Hill during the last cycle but then gathered 1,218 votes to Hill’s 769, voters sent a strong message that Hill’s legal troubles were too much for them to ignore as they sought stability in city hall.
WFTV was with Rose when she won, who let out a cheer in the parking lot as supporters blared music as the results came in faster than expected.
The election happened 20 months after the federal investigation into Hill and the accusations she took advantage of an elderly and vulnerable constituent became public.
According to investigators, Hill met the woman in her capacity as commissioner while the 96-year-old lived in deplorable conditions. One month later, an affidavit reported the woman signed Power of Attorney over to Hill, which allowed Hill to name herself a trustee on the woman’s estate, purchase a home and obtain a Housing and Urban Development loan to renovate the property, in addition to spending $100,000 of the woman’s money.
Hill was also discovered to be living outside her district when she was evicted from the woman’s home.
Prosecutors, however, have faced challenges as they prepare for trial. One of their key witnesses, who worked for Rose, obstructed Hill’s attorneys as they tried to depose her. The alleged victim’s fragile mental state made it difficult to confirm how much she was aware of and approved.
It’s fed into Hill’s narrative that the charges she faces are a conspiracy constructed by her political opponents, despite Hill’s son providing evidence that helped build their case. Hill tried to use that narrative to slowly win back favor in her district as she remained highly visible throughout her campaign.
“I’m standing because the people asked me months ago to go back,” Hill said after she cast her ballot Tuesday morning. “I voted for redemption, restoration, revitalization.”
The campaign’s final few days became as much of a referendum on Rose’s tenure and conduct as Hill’s. The interim commissioner has a significantly smaller following than her predecessor and did not generate many crowning achievements to campaign on since being elected. Rose was also wrapped in several scandals involving her use of city staff and facilities to campaign and her notarizing a document on behalf of a sex offender that consumed most of the oxygen in the last week.
Still, most area leaders endorsed Rose, wary of throwing their support behind a candidate that could be given a prison sentence.
The third candidate in the race, Lawanna Gelzer, received 357 votes.
In the other Orlando races, Tom Keen blew out incumbent Jim Gray, who was wrapped in controversy thanks to a GOP-sponsored mailer touting his conservative credentials that critics called homophobic.
The District 3 seat will head to a runoff between Mira Tanna and Roger Chapin.
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