Joshua Encinias
Published: Wednesday, November 5, 2008
“I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices; I need your help, and I will be your President too,” said President-elect Barrack Obama to 100,000 people in Chicago Tuesday night.
Obama was speaking to Escambia County in his speech.
According to PNJ.com, Obama received 60,231 votes in Escambia County, but John McCain received 89,257. McCain won Escambia County, despite losing Florida’s 27 electoral votes.
Local Republican candidates faired better results.
Jeff Miller (R) retained his Congressional seat with a 64% win.
Clay Ford (R) also retained his District 3 seat by a narrow margin of 50.5% votes compared to the 49.5% votes Lumon May (D) received.
Malcom Thomas (R), superintendent-elect for Escambia County, watched election results with hundreds of supporters at the Pensacola Garden Center Tuesday night.
Thomas beat Claudia Brown-Curry (D) with 60% of the vote.
“Booker T. Washington once said, ‘You want a man to feel responsibility? Show him that you believe in him.’ These folks inside and outside [the system] have shown me that they believe in me,” Thomas said.
Thomas’s first action as superintendent is putting a survey on his website.
The survey asks ‘…where [do] you believe the school district PERFORMS THE BEST?’ and ‘ …where [do] you believe the Escambia School District needs the MOST IMPROVEMENT?’
“I’m going to the stake holders and that’s where we’re going to start,” Thomas said. “They’re going to help me establish our priorities.”
PJC students for Obama
Students for Obama and Mike Gilbert, political science teacher, attended the Obama party at Apple Annie’s last night.
The Obama campaign held voter registration drives on PJC’s Pensacola campus.
“We could have done more to get people interested… [but] we told them, people went home, did some studying and made their decision,” said Chris Randall, president of the Students for Obama club.
The Apple Annie’s crowd decided on Obama. People were cheering and occasionally yelled when electoral votes came in for their candidate.
Gilbert noticed early on that McCain was not winning critical States.
“If Obama pulls out Florida it’s over with. This area could decide that,” said Gilbert early Tuesday night.
Obama took Florida’s 27 electoral votes, but without a majority win in Escambia County.
“If PJC voted I think McCain would win but it wouldn’t be by much of a margin,” said Gilbert at the idea of PJC student election.