Debra Harkrider, as a new person seeking to unseat an incumbent on the Gainesville City Council, is somewhat of an anomaly in the city's political landscape.

A local business owner and registered nurse, she is the first person in eight years to challenge an incumbent on the board.

The faceoff between Harkrider and longtime Councilman Robert "Bob" Hamrick at the city polls Nov. 8 will also be the first contested race seen in Gainesville since a special election to fill an unexpired term drew three candidates in 2006.

Gainesville's city council doesn't see a lot of turnover, nor a lot of interest.

Councilwoman Myrtle Figueras, who was first elected to
represent Ward 3 in 1996, said she would not have sought re-election if someone from her ward had stepped up to replace her.

Instead, she runs unopposed in the Nov. 8 election, as she was in 2007.

Some blame comfort. Others blame apathy or the intimidation of incumbency.

But Faye Bush, a resident of Figueras' district and local activist, blames the city's at-large voting system.

Council candidates in Gainesville run to represent one ward but are elected citywide by residents of all five.

Bush's group, the Newtown Florist Club, once sued the city over the voting practice and lost.

"I think people now just don't try ... they know they can't stand a chance because of at-large voting," said Bush. "I know I talked to people and they said ‘well, there's no point, because you can't win.'"

Bush never ran for City Council, because it wasn't her thing, she said

"Sometimes, you can do more on the outside than you can on the inside," she said.

But once you're on the inside, for the most part, you can stay there in Gainesville.

Political scientists regularly tout the power of incumbency in all levels of government. Incumbents often generate no opposition because they have already gained notoriety and likely have a longer list of achievements than their novice opponents.

Harkrider is only the fourth candidate to take on Hamrick since he was first elected in 1969.

When Hamrick was last challenged in 2003, he received 74 percent of the vote, defeating Tom Nichols, who later said he would have never run had he known Hamrick was going to seek re-election.

"Apparently, he has never been controversial," longtime Gainesville government observer Alley Terrell said of Hamrick. "I think everybody has liked him."

Neither has Harkrider been willing to take a shot at her political opponent. Her campaign website lauds Hamrick's work on the council and says part of her mission is for Hamrick to "sit back and enjoy the fruits of his labor" and to inject "new energy and new ideas" into the city government.

But in recent history, only vacancies on the council have been successful in bringing new members to the board.

In 2003, the same year that Nichols challenged Hamrick, three people sought the Ward 5 seat left vacant by Emily "Sissy" Lawson. In that race, Bruner, Lawson's neighbor and appointee to the city Board of Education in 1991 (when City Council made such appointments) took 56 percent of the vote.

And again, in 2006, the early departure of Mark Musselwhite from the council drew three more newcomers to the ballot. That race ended in a runoff, a phenomenon Gainesville voters hadn't been subjected to in 20 years.

The result was a victory for Danny Dunagan, owner of a local dry cleaning chain and current mayor pro tempore.

Dunagan, who beat out current Hall County Commissioner Ashley Bell in the runoff, hasn't been challenged since.

"I don't know why local people aren't willing to step up to the plate," Terrell said.

A general level of comfort could be to blame. At least it's one of the reasons attorney Joe Diaz lists for the lack of interest in the city's elections.

"I'm satisfied with the city of Gainesville's government, relative to other governments," said Diaz, a one-time City Council hopeful and a former vice chairman of the city's Planning and Appeals Board. "I notice that their budget's balanced. I notice that they're not furloughing employees. Contrast them to Hall County (government) and it's a pretty stark contrast, I think."
But if it isn't comfort that Gainesville residents feel, it is the numbness of apathy. And that's what Diaz and Terrell sense the most.

Terrell says she notices that each year only "a miniscule amount of people" turn out to vote in city elections. Even in the 2006 special election runoff, which drew the most excitement in city politics in two decades, fewer than 1,900 voters went to the polls.

This year, Terrell says she's hardly heard anyone mention the race between Hamrick and Harkrider. She's only seen a few signs for one candidate or the other in local shops and yards.

"It just seem like people are just not that interested," Terrell said.

When Diaz ran against Dunagan and Bell for the Ward 1 post in 2006, he theorized that if the candidates focused on the issues that would improve the city and not on each other's flaws, residents would feel engaged and respond at the polls.

In the end Diaz concluded the opposite, he said.

"I think people don't pay attention, is what it amounts to," said Diaz, who is admittedly cynical. "They don't know what's going on. They don't know what people stand for, and it's easier to not get involved. It's just apathy."

And Diaz knows exactly why one would hesitate to run for the City Council. Diaz said the experience — the time and money spent and the emotional drain of defeat — didn't leave him wanting for more.

"Those that have experience in the system, I think, recognize that you do a whole lot of work, make some enemies in the process, and in the end, nobody cares," he said.