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The race for the Palm Beach County Commission District 2 seat that is being vacated by Gregg Weiss, who is termed out, is a two-candidate Democrat primary, which amounts to a Universal primary since there are no Republicans, NPAs or third-party candidates running.
That means all registered voters living in the district get to vote for either current Palm Beach County School Board member Erica Whitfield or Teresa Johnson, a Haverhill town council member and organizational manager for Palm Tran.
The person who takes this seat in November will be part of the decision-making when it comes to budget cuts should the voters approve the expansion of Florida's homestead exemption. Johnson says she's ready.
"I understand that taxpayers, they want relief and they deserve relief and they deserve value for their money. I do believe my priority will be to control spending, ensure that there's no wasteful spending that's occurring there at the county and just ensuring that those priority areas continue to be in place and continue to be available to our residents."
Johnson defines 'priority areas' as public safety, infrastructure and "those high need human services."
Whitfield is in her 12th year on the school board and was eligible for another term but decided to run for this race because she says it's always been her 'dream' to be on the county commission.
She is a former school district employee in the curriculum department and previously worked for the County Health Department. As part of the school board, Whitfield says she has helped to oversee a $5.9 billion budget and shares her thoughts on the property tax proposal.
"Even if this doesn't go through, I think the voters have said 'enough' and are saying 'enough,' that they would like to see some reductions in cost. So I think we have to respect that. If it goes through, and even if it doesn't, I think we as a county commission have to find a way to cut some of the costs and really identify what it is that we think is government responsibility to pay for."
She spent a lot of time speaking with us about her decisions on the school board, including the recent one to give teachers a 3.5 percent pay raise, knowing that could lead to layoffs.
Hear more from both candidates on various topics in the audio players above.