LARGO — Curtis Holmes, a member of the Largo City Commission since 2009, won another four-year term Nov. 3, defeating Planning Board Chair Matthew Faustini for Seat 3.
Holmes received 14,558 votes, or 57%, to Faustini’s 10,996, or 43%, according to unofficial results from the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections.
Holmes, a Chicago native and licensed insurance agent, campaigned on his experience and fiscal responsibility. He was reelected in 2012, 2016 and 2022. Commissioners serve four-year terms and earn nearly $19,000 a year.
Faustini ran a grassroots campaign focused on affordability amid the city’s high cost of living.
In a Facebook post on election night, Faustini conceded and congratulated Holmes, calling the result “a decisive, clear victory and mandate.” He wrote that he was proud of the campaign and “the agenda we ran on,” but was “crushed I lost, especially by the margin.”
He also said the loss would push him out of public view for now. Faustini wrote that after voters “clearly rejected me,” he would not return to commission meetings to criticize commissioners as if nothing had happened.
“In fact, I won’t even be going to commission meetings in person anymore,” he wrote. “I will not be serving on a board. I will just be plain, simple Matt Faustini again.”
He closed with a nod to Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s famous farewell.
“To paraphrase a great general: ‘Politicians never die; they just fade away.’ I plan on fading away for the next couple of years, but I’ll be back.”