The little autistic boy from DeBary who stole hearts when his parents were fighting to keep his backyard chickens is back in the news, only this time JJ is trying to help get his mom Ashleigh Hart elected to the DeBary City Council.
One of her opponents, however, says JJ's mom broke the law and was confrontational against city leaders to achieve her goal.
"They call me JJ." said 4-year-old JJ when we caught up with him standing with his mother on a DeBary corner waving to potential voters.
You may recall we first met the autistic little boy several years ago when his mother was fighting to keep chickens in their Debary backyard for therapeutic purposes to help JJ break out of his shell.
"He's much more social, he actually has friends, he's in a preschool with his own age group now," said Ashleigh Hart.
DeBary city leaders told her in 2012 she was in violation of city ordinances by keeping backyard chickens.
She fought city hall, and won.
But it was that battle which prompted her to run for office.
"I don't think that the city council was listening back then, but at the end we ended up rectifying things and everything is great," said Hart while holding a sign that reads 'A Hart for DeBary'.
Hart says she's running for office to give constituents a voice in city hall.
But her opponent Mike Brady says issues can be resolved with diplomacy rather than confrontation.
"I just don't think confrontation is the way to get things accomplished in the city this size," said the 63-year-old opponent who lives in the DeBary plantation.
Brady is very critical of how Hart got her point across in trying to keep JJ's chickens.
"Initially she was in violation of city code, she broke the law. Then she was confrontational about the resolution," added Brady.
"When everything happened with Jay, our eyes were kind opened to things that were going on and we decided that we were gonna take action," countered Hart.
News 13 reached out to a third opponent for the same seat, Marshall Lee, but Lee did not return several calls.