‘It’s punishment politics:’ City of Jacksonville pushes DONNA Foundation to reschedule 5K race

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The city of Jacksonville is telling Democratic Mayoral candidate Donna Deegan to reschedule her foundation’s Mother’s Day 5K because it’s slated to occur during early voting.

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In an email exchange between Jacksonville Chief Administrative Officer Brian Hughes and another city employee, Hughes expressed concerns about the DONNA Foundation’s request for a permit for its Mother’s Day 5K marathon.

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“The fact the namesake of the organization will be on a ballot for the city’s highest elected office mere days after the event may cause an unintended public perception,” Hughes said in the email exchange.

He went on to request the date of the race be changed from the Saturday before the election, to the Saturday after the election.

“It’s not that easy just to reschedule a race. If you’ve ever been in event planning, you know, you have sponsors, you have tee shirts that you order, you have equipment, you have all the things that coming for a certain date,” Deegan said.

Deegan said her foundation has held the Mother’s Day marathon for the better part of 20 years and the permit has never been an issue, until now.

Related Story: 16th annual DONNA Marathon kicks off

“The foundation is there to raise money for underserved cancer patients and for breast cancer research and people support every one of our events for that reason and so it does hurt those patients, it hurts that effort and there’s just no reason to connect the two,” Deegan said.

The city, in its own defense, pointed to language in the city charter which states permit applications shall be submitted at least 90 days prior to the date of an event.

Organizers submitted their application only 50 days prior to the May 16th run.

The Chief Administrative Officer is one of four officials with the power to wave that requirement.

“The email is clear. It is not a denial and it is not an approval. It is an effort to protect the organization and COJ from the appearance of improper election influence. Since it was an invitation to consider a reasonable alternative and to follow up in discussion, the organization choosing to ignore the invitation and instead give an incorrect account to media is a disappointment,” Hughes said in an emailed statement.

Read: Sample ballots can be viewed online for May 16 general election

But Deegan sees the effort to change the date of the race as an attempt to deflect from other issues that she argues should be at the forefront of the mayoral race.

“It’s punishment politics and that’s what their specialty is honestly,” Deegan said.

The DONNA Foundation also issued a statement on the permitting dilemma.

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“We sincerely hope that this matter is resolved quickly so we can all move forward and restore our focus where it belongs: on celebrating survivorship, supporting breast cancer patients and funding critical research,” a foundation spokesperson said.