Ford wins Benson's Dist. 3 House seat
STAFF REPORTS Gulf Breeze News news@gulfbreezenews.com

Lisa Newell/Gulf Breeze News Clay Ford won the election for House District 3. He is establishing a district office on Garden Street in Pensacola.

Voters made the choice to keep a Republican representing District 3 in the Florida House.The district encompasses most of the City of Pensacola and Precinct 22 in the City of Gulf Breeze.

Clay Ford h a n d i l y d e f e a t e d Democratic o p p o n e n t E l i z a b e t h Campbell in the race to r e p l a c e H o l l y Benson, who left office in January to become the head of the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

"It has been especially gratifying to me to be elected with the strong support of the Gulf Breeze electorate. It is certainly the best compliment to have the confidence of my friends and neighbors, you know, with 80.5 percent of the voters in Gulf Breeze supporting me," Clay Ford said. "It is truly the finest thing the citizens could say."

Ford served on the Gulf Breeze City Council, most recently as Mayor Pro Tem.

When asked what goals he had set for his tenure in office, Ford responded: "I think the first thing I want to begin to work for other than the obvious statewide priorities of alleviating the problems in insurance and taxes, is addressing Highway 98 congestion. It is my understanding that the funds for Highway 98 improvements have dropped out from the next Five Year Plan. Clearly, we need to get the funding restored to solve this challenge.

"And second of all, I would like to see some of the state grants that are available to return to our area to fund parks improvement and development. We must secure some of the matching funds that are available specifically for parks development to continue the quality of life that we value and enjoy in our public areas."