Kevin Beckner Officially on the Ballot

Candidate Kevin Beckner garnered the 7,400 signatures need to get on the ballot. Beckner is running for district 6 of the Hillsborough County Commission. The openly gay Democrat will be facing off against Republican Brian Blair.

Here is the press release Beckner sent out to the media.

KEVIN BECKNER QUALIFIES BY PETITION

With supporters by his side Kevin Beckner turns in over 7,400 petitions

TAMPA: Earlier this morning, Kevin Beckner arrived at the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections office with several supporters by his side to submit over 7,400 petitions he and his campaign have collected throughout the past 16 months.

According to the Supervisor of Elections office, Beckner needed 6,334 petitions to qualify via petition in his campaign for Hillsborough County Commission District 6, a county wide seat currently held by Brian Blair. Representatives of the Supervisor of Elections Office verified that he successfully collected and submitted 7,440 petitions. They further indicated that after reviewing the first 100 petitions, via random sampling, Beckner has statistically fulfilled the requirement of qualifying by petition for his candidacy.

"I am extremely proud and very thankful to the hundreds of volunteers that committed time from their busy schedules to help me in this first stage of a long campaign by helping me successfully collect signatures and connect with thousands of voters throughout the county," proclaimed Beckner.

"I always believed that it is important to go out and meet the voters face to face, tell them about my candidacy and ask them for their support," stated Beckner. "We covered this county from one corner to the next, attending hundreds of community events and house parties and got consistent feedback," stated Beckner. "A majority of the voters we encountered are extremely dissatisfied with the current direction and focus of the incumbent and were more than happy to sign their names to support my campaign."

"The overwhelmingly consistent message I got from voters was that Brian Blair was totally out of touch with the real issues they were facing and trying to deal with on a day to day basis," reported Beckner.

"I look forward to the next stage of this campaign, facing off with Mr. Blair and challenging him on the real quality of life issues that are facing this county such as out of control development, a transportation crisis and a disregard of the environment," stated Beckner "all the pressing issues that have occurred and further deteriorated under my opponent's watch."

My prediction is Blair will avoid debating Beckner and use surrogates to gay-bash Beckner. Blair has already got his homophobic mojo working by falsely accusing the Hillsborough County school system of sponsoring the Day of Silence. The school system never gave students consent. Blair used the opportunity to score political points condemning a peaceful protest for lgbt rights. Beckner is the candidate that will bring out Blair's nasty side.