Commission races heat up with GOP candidates

Seminole County’s election season is heating up after two longtime commissioners announced this year they would not seek re-election.

Four Republicans have filed to run for seats that will be vacated next year by District 4 Commissioner Carlton Henley and District 2 Commissioner John Horan, the commission chairman. The primary is 14 months away.

Last week, Donald Menzel of Winter Springs became the latest candidate to seek Horan’s seat by filing paperwork at the Supervisor of Elections Office. This comes after businessman Jay Zembower of Chuluota announced June 1 that he would campaign for the District 2 seat.

In the District 4 race, Longwood Mayor Joe Durso, 37, and School Board Chairman Amy Lockhart, 42, filed in May to run for Henley’s seat.

Menzel, 40, is chairman of the Seminole Soil and Water Conservation District and president of Precision Tax & Accounting in Longwood. “There’s a lot of frustration among people that they are not being represented,” Menzel said about his decision to run. “There’s the feeling that people can’t communicate with their elected officials.”

Zembower, 56, is chairman of Seminole’s Planning and Zoning Commission, the owner Zembower’s Auto Center in Altamonte Springs and conducts transportation forensic analysis for law firms and state investigators.

“I’m looking to preserve [Seminole’s] rural area and maintain a good fiscal oversight of the county’s budget,” Zembower said.

Horan, 64, a retired Winter Springs attorney, was elected to the commission in 2010 and reelected in 2014. He was selected last November to serve as chairman. Horan said he decided not to run because he wants to spend time with his family. Henley, 84, served on the commission since the 1990s. A retired Lyman High School principal, Henley said in May he felt it was “time for some new people” to serve.