LAKELAND, Fla. — Some local elections are not over just yet — the city of Lakeland is headed for a runoff to decide who should be its next at-large commissioner.

The current commissioner holding the seat, Justin Troller, is term-limited. Chad McLeod and Carole Philipson are the two candidates who advanced to the runoff, knocking Shandale Terrell and Ricky Shirah out of the race. No candidate was able to get more than 50 percent of the vote.  

McLeod captured the most votes, accounting for 40 percent.

"I'm grateful to those who voted for me," McLeod said the day after Tuesday's election.

"With four candidates in the race, it was pretty much expected that there would be a runoff," Philipson said.

Philipson is a former hospital vice president, mother of four sons, and a grandmother of seven who has served on numerous boards. She said her leadership and strategic planning experience is the reason people should vote for her. 

"I'm not about words and promises. I'm about actions and results, and I have demonstrated outcomes from my past work experience in small business, large business, and corporations that show I can deliver on what I say," said Philipson, adding that while working for Lakeland Regional Health, she managed budgets similar to the size of the city's. 

McLeod, 37, is a father of three young children. He owns a public relations firm and served as a U.S. Senate aide in the past. He speaks Spanish and runs a podcast to share messages about his campaign.

"I would be the only commissioner under 40, and there are a lot of young families in Lakeland. So that perspective, the conversations of as your kids are growing up, being able to bring that to the commission. Having worked in the United States Senate, and the issues that we dealt with there, is a unique policy perspective that may not be there today," McLeod said.

Both say they want to expedite small business owners' ability to set up shop in Lakeland.

"I talked about in one of our candidate forums of trying to create a small business advisory council or some organization that helps strengthens ties between city hall and our small business community," McLeod said. 

"There are a lot of processes in place that are cumbersome," Philipson said, adding that she'd like to see trade inspectors to speed up building projects.

The two candidates also said the development of the area around Florida Polytechnic University was a priority for them. Philipson said she was on the planning board that selected the site for Florida Polytechnic when it was built. She doesn't want to see warehouses built on the vacant land near the university. 

The runoff election is December 3. Early voting is November 25-27 and December 2 from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Election Headquarters in Bartow, located at 250 S. Broadway, and the Election Operations Center in Winter Haven, located at 70 Florida Citrus Blvd. 

In Winter Haven, there will also be a run off election on December 3 between incumbent William Twyford and Tracy Mercer for the Commissioner 1 seat.