Mike Thomas wins Maitland City Council seat

In a race between two Maitland Planning and Zoning Commission members named Mike, Mike Thomas came out on top on Monday, winning Seat 1 on the Maitland City Council.

The former Orlando Sentinel reporter and columnist beat out long-time city volunteer and real estate appraiser Mike Dabby earning 66.52 percent of the vote compared to Dabby’s 33.47 percent, according to unofficial result totals.

“Maitland had a choice between two very good candidates, and I’m honored they chose me,” Thomas said.

Thomas celebrated with a strong crowd of supporters — including a handful of current and former City Council members — at the Enzian Theater Monday night.

According to unofficial results issued by the Maitland city clerk, Thomas won 3,064 votes compared to Dabby’s 1,542 votes. With those numbers, Maitland saw a turnout of about 42 percent of its 10,944 registered voters. If you compare the numbers to Maitland’s last municipal election in March 2014, Dabby was just 200 votes shy earning as many votes as were cast total in the Maitland 2014 election for both candidates.

It was a clean race between the Thomas and Dabby, until an electioneering committee from Tallahassee came in to town last week publishing mailers blasting Thomas. Thomas said he respects Dabby for not getting involved, and keeping the race civil and good-hearted.

“But I’ve run a lot of marathons in my life,” Thomas said, “and this was as hard as any of them.”

Dabby said he was proud of his campaign and the way both he and Thomas handled the past few months leading up until the election. Dabby said he plans to stay actively involved in the city, and serve out his remaining year left on the Planning and Zoning Commission. You’re still likely to see him at most city meetings scribbling notes from the audience, he said, and being the “thorn” in the side of the City Council members when needed. While he has no immediate plans yet to throw his name back in the race for any other upcoming City Council seat elections, he said you never know what might happen in the future.

In the meantime, Thomas will serve a three-year term on the City Council, replacing Councilman Ivan Valdes, who is terming out after serving five years on the dais.

Thomas will join the Council with experience recently as a member of Maitland’s Planning and Zoning Commission for the past year, and with a background that varies from newspaper reporter and columnist, to public policy advisor.

Thomas worked as a reporter at the Orlando Sentinel for nearly three decades investigating and writing stories and, later, opinion columns on everything from politics to the environment and education. After leaving the newspaper in 2011, he’s served as a communications manager for Orange County Public Schools, a top policy advisor to Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs, and in the communication department of former Gov. Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education.

The Maitland City Council race is his first foray into politics.

“It’s nothing like I expected,” he said. “…It taught me a whole new skill set.”

Thomas will be sworn into his seat at the April 11 Council meeting.