No concession in board race
Published 2:47 pm Wednesday, November 5, 2008
By By Kerry Whipple Bean and Lisa Tindell
Two new faces soon will be on the Escambia County Commission, but a county school board race is too close to call after election returns Tuesday night.
Democrat Raymond Wiggins won a decisive victory over independent Norman Miller, earning 2262 votes to Miller's 555 in the District 2 county commission race.
Incumbent Democrat Mike Goolsby is leading Republican Lawton Shipp for the District 1 school board seat by just 12 votes, with provisional ballots to be counted a week from today.
Wiggins said he appreciated the support for him and for his family.
Wiggins will replace Todd Williamson, whom he beat in the Democratic primary.
Provisional ballots in the school board race will be counted next Wednesday. County clerk Ken Taylor said they are normally counted a week after the election, but they will be counted a day later because Tuesday is Veterans Day.
Goolsby acknowledged it was “a very tight race.”
Shipp was not ready to concede the race.
In other county races, Brandon Smith beat Kevin McKinley for the District 4 commission seat.