Final: Congressional District 6 in Florida

Above: DeSantis with Democrat Heather Beaven at a debate. Stock Photo.

Above: DeSantis in his Navy uniform. Stock Photo.

Above: While campaigning DeSantis made an appearance on Fox News. Stock Photo.

Congressional District 6 of Florida, which is mostly located in St. Johns County but includes some of Flagler, Putnam and Volusia counties, typically votes for republican candidates. Out of a total of 153,620 registered voters in St. Johns County, 81,412 are registered republicans where as there are 39,014 registered democrats and 33,194 registered with another affiliation. This is echoed in the surrounding areas of Flagler, Putnam and Volusia counties. The two candidates that ran in the 2012 Congressional race were Republican Ron DeSantis and Democrat Heather Beaven. DeSantis won the election with 57.2 percent of the vote where as Beaven had 42. 8 percent. It would have been easy for DeSantis to win this district simply because he is a republican. Although the majority of the voters in District 6 are indeed registered republicans, they hardly cross party lines. So being a republican already lends a helping hand. However, his background of being a military veteran is also another indicator as to why republicans in this area elected him. He ran on the policy positions of a typical republican. For instance, DeSantis is for cutting spending in order to reduce the deficit and is also for not giving the government all of the power. "Don't make government work like a business it's inherently inefficient," contends DeSantis. "You need to be intent on reducing size, scope and influence of government." Going along the lines of reducing government; DeSantis supports term limits, pay based off of performance (which he stated that there should be no pay until a budget is passed) as well as ending pensions for Congress.Overall, DeSantis had an easy time getting elected for his first time running for public office. With the support of his district behind him, hopefully he will have a good run in Congress come the new year. DeSantis will have to prove to the people of Congressional District 6 that there vote was indeed cast for the correct person by doing a superb job for the district. And if he does not do an adequate job for the people, the district will not be shy in finding someone else who will.

           

 

           

 

 

General Petraeus

            Recently, General Petraeus, the director of the CIA, resigned from his position after being questioned in regards to an affair that he had been having. Not only is Petraeus' morals being questioned because of this affair, but now his ethics are being called in to question as the government is investigating the situation in order to see if Petraeus violated national security in any way.

            The question that has frequently been asked with this situation, is why did Petraeus resign for something so miniscule as an affair. There has been much speculation, such as that he broke national security by sharing secrets with the woman who he had his affair with, Paula Broadwell. However, there are other theories as to why he may have resigned. Another being that Petraeus knows more than what American's have been led to believe in regards to the situation in Libya with the attack at Benghazi. And his departure comes at an optimal time, as he was scheduled to testify in front of Congress the following week on Benghazi. Because of this, it has lead many members of Congress to believe this was a planned decision. Rep. Peter King, R-New York, said elements of the story "don't add up." He called Petraeus "an absolutely essential witness, maybe more than anybody else."

            Overall, it remains unseen as to why Petraeus resigned. The American people will continue to speculate as to the reasons for his resignation, but with in the coming days more information will likely be uncovered.

First Presidential Debate

The first Presidential Debate kicked off on Oct. 3, at the University of Denver.  Both President Obama and Gov. Romney were prepared for the debate but there was one person who seemed to have won where as the other seemed to lag behind in some areas. Gov. Romney seemed very comfortable on the stage, giving responses that seemed very concise and well thought out. Whenever the president would question Romney on something he knew just how to counter the argument. Whereas Obama seemed to  be on the defensive for most of the night and most viewers could notice that he had a rather nonchalant attitude throughout the entire debating, leading viewers to believe that Obama did not want to be there. Due to Romney's stage presence, at ease demeanor and to the point  responses, it can be said that Romney won this round.

US Foreign Policy Panel

On Sept. 11, Lynn held a foreign policy panel where three professors and two journalist informed students different topics in regards to changing US foreign policy. There were many interesting points that were expressed during this panel, one point being that who gets to decide what countries can have nuclear weapons. "If it's not okay for Iran to have a nuclear weapon, why was it okay for Pakistan to have a nuclear weapon," stated Professor Marcheta Wright. All in all students were able to get a good understanding of how our country has developed since the events of September 11.

My interests

In the world of journalism there are copious different topics that can interest reports. For myself I find international relations and politics to interest me. In this assignment for Multimedia Journalism, I am to announce the two topics with in my interests that I wish to report on. These are:

1. The effect that the war in Syria is having on the surrounding countries.
2. The effect that Congressman Todd Akin's rape comments will have on the GOP and the election.