The mayor of the largest city in Lee County did not merely lose his primary, he finished third in it on 14.93 percent, and the two people who will contest the job in November between them took more than half the vote in a field of six

John Gunter will not be on the ballot for mayor of Cape Coral in November. He finished third in Tuesday's primary.

The Lee County Supervisor of Elections board, read directly by this desk, gives the Cape Coral mayoral race with all 26 participating precincts reporting and 37,935 votes cast. Rick Erickson took 12,160 votes, 32.05 percent. Lisa Cohen-Adkinson took 9,280, 24.46 percent. Gunter, the sitting mayor, took 5,665, 14.93 percent. Kara Rogers took 5,489, 14.47 percent, Dan Sheppard 3,040, 8.01 percent, and Richard Leon 2,301, 6.07 percent. Erickson and Cohen-Adkinson advance to the general election.

Two numbers in that table are worth stating plainly. The gap between the incumbent in third and Rogers in fourth was 176 votes. And the two candidates going through to November hold 21,440 votes between them, 56.51 percent of everything cast in the race.

The board's columns also show where Gunter's vote came from. Of his 5,665 votes, 1,300 were cast on election day, 1,137 in early voting and 3,228 by mail. The mail share is 56.98 percent of his total, on this desk's arithmetic, a larger proportion than for either candidate who finished ahead of him.

The same Cape Coral ballot carried two charter amendments and both passed by wide margins. The one the board titles Mayor Pro Tem passed 27,571 to 9,575, or 74.22 percent to 25.78 percent. The one titled Eligibility Requirements passed 35,133 to 2,669, or 92.94 percent to 7.06 percent. This desk has not read the text of either amendment and does not describe here what they change, because the board prints the short titles only.

Countywide the board records 141,250 ballots cast against 475,217 registered voters, a turnout of 29.72 percent, with all 99 precincts and all three vote types completely reported. The page is headed election night reporting and the figures are not certified.

Gulf Coast News reported on Wednesday, in a piece by Dave Elias, that Gunter did not attend that evening's city council meeting, the first since the election, and that his chair was empty as the council convened. No reason for the absence has been reported and none is assumed here.

The station reported that Gunter took office in 2021 and lists the issues that drew criticism during his tenure as the utilities extension project, renovations to Jaycee Park and a monthly stipend for the city council that nearly doubled council pay. Those are the outlet's characterisations of the politics, and they are spending decisions rather than any allegation against anyone.

Both of the candidates who advanced spoke to the station about November. Cohen-Adkinson put her campaign on affordability, saying the big question is whether people are going to be able to live in Cape Coral in the next five years, and said she is tired of seeing a continuation of growing the government and the budget constantly. Erickson, who led the field, said he is not happy with the way things are going and that this is why he is running.

For a household in Cape Coral the practical position is this. The mayor who has held the office since 2021 is out at the primary stage rather than the general one. The two people who will contest the job in November have both campaigned against the direction of city spending, which in Cape Coral means utilities assessments, park spending and council pay among other things. What either of them would actually do to a tax bill or an assessment is not established by Tuesday's vote, and nothing here should be read as though it were.