Military Public Affairs Blog

Introduction
On November 19, 2008 Rebecca Heyse visited USF to discuss military public affairs reporting. She is a 2D Lieutenant who serves as the Public Informations Officer for MacDill Air force Base in Tampa, FL. During this discussion there were a variety of topics Rebecca touched on. She mentioned the process of entering people into the base, especially when there is a major event; how reporters should build a good reputation with the base; and, other important material for beginning reporters to know.
General Petraeus Visit
Just recently General Petraeus, a high ranking officer in the U.S. Army, and the Secretary of Defense visited the base. When these high profile types of events occur there are certain procedures Rebecca has to follow. Before the event, there was a media release sent out to inform all of the media outlets in their contact list and about thirty of them showed up. For them to enter they had to be at the base on time and park outside of the gate. After being approved by showing the proper identification, they were bussed in to where they needed to set up. The event ended and no interviews with General Petreaus were allowed; however, there were some of his fellow classmates from West Point and random people in the crowd who were available for comment.
Advice for Reporters
• They prefer to get to know reporters and build relationships before something happens, which will make it easier for everyone when crisis occurs.
• The base is always looking to give out stories, so it would behoove reporters to sometimes take the stories they don’t necessarily want to cover. This would perhaps them more access to the good stories when they come around.
• Should give the military your personal e-mail address, so you can get on the media contact list. This will allow you to find out everything that’s going on.
• Work hard to get information: We want to release the information to you, but it’s our commanders that keep a tight hold. Just because information is releasable doesn’t mean were going to release it…Don’t wait for them to release information, call and keep asking for it. The more questions you ask the more they are going to release.”
• Don’t get on the bad list by writing a horrible story or getting information wrong (such as titles.) Your credibility will go down the drain and she will make it hard for you to get information and access to places.
• Build relationships with civilians in the office because the officers don’t stay long. The turnover isn’t good for trying to build long term connections.

Miscellaneous Facts

No two days are the same, Rebecca mentioned. Her job is extremely diverse. New days bring new challenges and occurrences.
Most PIO’s will be officers that have four year degrees. Below them are the enlisted, which usually are those that came straight out of high school.
Lastly, the biggest mistake people make when dealing with MacDill is not knowing what they do. People will request to see a tank or some other contraption that is not housed by the base. This causes a lot of confusion.

High voter turnout, yet low concern for local elections

November 4, 2008 is a singular day of infamy. The first African American was elected to the United States Presidency, the highest position in the land. Many voters came out, setting an unimaginable record for our country. People were engaged in the national elections, but didn’t show the same vigor for local elections. Across Hillsborough County, people of all ages and ethnicities cited that the local elections didn’t add to their motivation to vote this time around. A majority of the items on the ballot were local and statewide issues, yet voters didn’t have much to say about them. “I am ashamed to say that I really didn’t,” said Vanessa LaFrance, commenting on local candidates, “Because I was handed a paper that told me which candidates were in which parties; that’s how I based it off of…I’m ashamed to say that I really didn’t know anything about them.” People interviewed from churches, schools and other precincts near the University of South Florida campus all held a similar message of disdain for voting for the local issues and candidates. Mark Trubiano, an older voter, mentioned that he voted because he doesn’t believe in communism, but believes in freedom of choice. Although, he devoted little efforts to the local campaigns and said they weren’t a big factor in his voting. This raises many questions. Why aren’t people connecting with the local elections? Is it an issue in Hillsborough County? Are the candidates not getting out the message good enough? What role does the Supervisor of Elections office play? And does it matter more than national elections? All of these issues are tough to crack, but work needs to be put in to address them. It is plausible that a record number of voters came out this time around, yet the activism needs to improve for local elections.
Local Elections
The current United States Representative Kathy Castor was able to pull out another win. She defeated GOP candidate Eddie Adams Jr. with 67.21% of the vote. She tallied the most votes out of Hillsborough County for House of Representative candidates receiving a popular vote of 120,990.
Republican candidate Gus Bilirakis was able to maintain his seat. He defeated his opponents by a large margin gaining 64.58% of votes. Bilirakis first served as a Florida House Representative for eight years and used the mantra of being a family man as a campaign slogan.
One hard fought battle was that between Democratic candidate Kevin Beckner and GOP candidate Brian Blair for County Commissioner District 6. Beckner who was endorsed by both the St. Pete Times and Tampa Tribune won the race garnering 52.86% of the vote according to the Supervisor of Elections Office.
The controversial bill for Amendment 2 (Florida Marriage Amendment) passed slightly with 62.1% of the vote. The language of the bill reads, "This amendment protects marriage as the legal union of only one man and one woman as husband and wife and provides that no other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or recognized." Florida now does not recognize same-sex marriages.
All together in the Bay area there is a registered number 701,464 voters. The number of ballots cast was 434,895 which was a voter turnout rate of 62.00%. “Election officials warned a massive flood of voters could overwhelm South Florida's election employees this year. Long lines during early voting stoked the fears. But the numbers show those fears were exaggerated. Florida's statewide voter turnout Tuesday was the third lowest in a presidential election since 1956, according to Florida Division of Elections statistics,” according to state news on tcpalm.com.