Last Friday, Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Escambia County Commissioner Robert Bender to be the county’s interim Supervisor of Elections.
The first time the public got any hint Bender was interested in the position was last August when I interviewed Election Supervisor David Stafford and Bender at a WCOA live remote at the Atlas Oyster Bar.
Rick Outzen to Stafford: “Are you gonna run for another term? Robert wants to know.”
Stafford: “I haven’t decided that yet…I know people say this all the time, but I literally each time took it each term at a time and it’s a family decision. And, um, you know, there’s, there’s time to, to reach that conclusion here, but it’ll, it’ll happen here in the next couple of months.”
Outzen: “So let me know. We’ll announce it on the show, and Robert will be there with filing papers … Robert, I think you’ll agree that the election office here does a fantastic job at helping all the candidates through the process – ’cause it can be a complicated process for a candidate.”
Bender: “It can be. And, and that’s one thing that we’re great at – the job David’s done and the staff, they’re always willing to help the candidates. I look around, there are a couple other people in this room that have run and, and there are some, you know, landmines that you need to avoid and, and things you need to do so that, that you don’t get in trouble personally. So they’ve always done a great job helping us out.”
—–
More Names for D4
More names are being discussed to replace Bender on the Escambia County Commission. Buck Mitchell of Seville Quarter and Jonathon Wiggins, son of former Pensacola Mayor Mike Wiggins and son-in-law of former Councilman Jack Nobles, were mentioned.
More names will pop up.
