Interim Coast tax collector overwhelmingly defeats veteran supervisor in runoff election
Sharon Nash Barnett, interim Harrison County tax collector, trounced longtime county Supervisor Connie Rockco in the nonpartisan runoff for tax collector.
Barnett captured 84.71% of the vote to 15.28% for Rockco. Total votes for Barnett, with all precincts reporting, were 10,372 to 1,871 for Rockco.
Barnett officially takes office after the election results are certified, but she has been serving in the position since the Board of Supervisors appointed her in April.
Barnett replaced David LaRosa, who resigned in April for health reasons.
The nonpartisan race was the only one in Harrison County that went to a runoff. Only 8.93% of the county’s 137,172 registered voters cast ballots Tuesday.
Five candidates ran for the office Nov. 3, when Barnett led the race with 36.34% of the vote to 25.45% for Rockco. None of the other three candidates reached 12% of the vote.
During the race, Rockco emphasized her leadership skills and 21 years’ experience as a supervisor, while Barnett stressed her 18 years in the tax tax collector’s office.
The office is the busiest in the county, customer-wise, because it is where people pay their property taxes on land, vehicles, houses and businesses.
Supervisors extracted a pledge from Barnett to stay out of the tax collector’s race when she accepted the interim position, but she said taxpayers talked her into running.
She wrote on Facebook on the eve of the election: “I have been dedicated to the Tax Collector’s Office for 18 years. I don’t wish I had a different job. I don’t strive to become a board member, a senator, a congressman or the president of anything.
“I have one passion. I only have one career goal and that’s to become the tax collector of Harrison County.
“I can assure you I love my job.”
