On Tuesday, Dec. 19, Escambia County Supervisor of Elections David Stafford called Inweekly to say that he was taking a new job with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency as an election security advisor. He had sent his resignation letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis, effective Jan.15.
Stafford will stay in Pensacola and report to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) Region 4 office in Atlanta. He explained his new position to Inweekly publisher Rick Outzen on WCOA’ “Real News with Rick Outzen.”
“We’re going to be working directly for the regional directors, in essence, to make sure that CISA’s capabilities are being leveraged,” Stafford said. “Basically, it’s a presence, somebody in each of these regions with election backgrounds that can work with the cybersecurity advisors, protective security advisors, and others who are charged with protecting our nation’s critical infrastructure.”
This came as a shock to everyone. This creates a huge gap for our community coming into yet another Presidential Primary as well as General election.
With Election Integrity being one of the top three issues for our primarily Republican voter base here in Escambia County.
The word on the street are the following names:
Dave Murzin: Former House of Representatives, termed out and now serves the community through various organizations, most prominent being First Place Partners. He’s the most formidable choice.
Robert Bender: Current County Commissioner, but has been involved directly in the robbing of our citizens on the retirement debacle. He isn’t known in the north end of the district, but is the “newest” of politicians in the behind the scenes scuttle but.
Grover Robinson: Has the most political experience, but the north end says he is definitely not the guy. This former mayor barely made it through his first and only term as mayor. With election integrity being number one on the list of importance, his ties to so many partisan controversies are sure to be extremely problematic.
We are sure to see dozens of folks run towards this position, I am sure this will be one of the most sought after opportunities.