For only the second time in history an incumbent mayor has lost in Jacksonville. The last time it happened was 20 years ago to be exact. This time former Democratic mayor Alvin Brown lost to Republican challenger Lenny Curry.

The campaign will also go down in history as being one of the most expensive races but at the end it was the financial and crime problems of Jacksonville that are to blame for Brown’s loss.

Lenny Curry’s campaign was ran like a well oiled machine. With the help of Brian Hughes they followed text book campaign strategies and executed them superbly. If that is done the candidate has a good chance of winning and that was evident Tuesday night.

Alvin Brown’s campaign ran on the message that Lenny Curry was running a negative campaign. That was their platform. It lacked a clear message and voters saw right thru it.

Some went as far to say this election set the stage for 2016 because it was being followed nationally but I think that is stretch. Granted Brown brought out Bill Clinton and Curry brought out Marco Rubio but the reason Curry won was because of Jacksonville’s problems. Just a week before the election two girls were shot on their school bus and every day before that Jacksonville was plagued with violent crime.

During Curry’s victory speech he thanked his family, his team and his supporters. He said he couldn’t have done it without them and he said “the work starts now.”