For those of you who are curious about what happened to the known creationists running for school board seats across Florida, here’s what we know so far.
I’ll let commenter Pierce Butler tell us about Alachua County:
The good news is that pro-science candidate Gunnar Paulson picked up a clean win on 8/24.
The other two school district races went into run-off, which means they’ll be decided in November along with the general election. More good news: the District 5 finalists are Jancie Vinson & Carol Oyenarte, both of whom seem to be members of the reality-based community.
More problematic is the District 1 runoff between Rick Nesbit and April Griffin. Nesbit is the white hat here, but he only garnered 32.7%, while Griffin won 39.1% and the other pro-creationists took 28.3%.
In Seminole County, Paul Ackerman was defeated while Becky Erwin goes into a runoff.
In Pasco County, John Tracy was defeated, while Mike Ryan goes into a runoff.
In Palm Beach County, Ron Young was defeated.
In Polk County, Terry Pittman was defeated.
In Hillsborough County, it looks like Terry Kemple was defeated, but I have yet to see any official final results posted.
Let me know if I missed anything, please.
Which of the winners/losers were the creationists? Unless we know their names/positions, no way to know.
nico – follow the links.
Short version: every individual named is a creationist or creationism-friendly.
Terry Kemple lost and also spent the most money of any candidate in Hillsborough County. 😉 Here’s the Data:
* are winners, # are runoffs in November
District 2:
* Candy Olson – $25,007
Frank Hernandez – $4,625
District 4:
# Stacy White – $12,496
Kirk Faryniasz – $3,616
Jennifer Faliero – $3,408
# Richard Bartels – $3,259
District 6:
# April Griffin – $41,447
Terry Kemple – $34,624
# Sally A. Harris – $13,773
Benjamin Fink – $2,596
What scares me is that John Tracy got almost 10,000 votes and ended up in the third spot. If his votes go to Mike Ryan, we’ll have a problem…
kmlisle – Did your data get a little scrambled there, or do both Alachua and Hillsborough Counties boast 2010 school board candidates named April Griffin?
kmlisle,
April Griffin raised and spent the most. She raised almost $46,000 and spent over $41,000. Kemple only raised just over $36,000 and spent most of that.
April also only lost 17 of the 383 precincts in the county. Of those precincts only one precinct was lost by 75 or more votes (Mr. Kemples home precinct). 12 of the 17 precincts April lost were lost by less than 25 votes.
April beat Terry Kemple handily in the heart of East Hillsborough County where he was expected to run strong. Unfortunately with 4 candidates in a race, it is very difficult to get the required 50% + 1.
To Pierce R. Butler:
April Griffin in Hillsborough County is currently serving as one of the two countywide representatives on the Hillsborough County School Board and the incumbent who is currently running for re-election.
There is another woman named April Griffin running to win a seat on the Alachua County School Board.
I happen to know that Alachua April contacted Hillsborough April. Hillsborough April did not want to get caught up in such distractions and after a polite conversation between the two they have not stayed in contact.
Redisni – thanks for the clarifications.
Is the rumor true that both April Griffins are creationists?
I know April Griffin in Hillsborough and she believes that science belongs in the classroom. I have heard that April Griffin in Alachua is a conservative and a creationist. I think that the same name and the same position creates a lot of confusion.