Eight Gainesville candidates running for three city commission seats spent Tuesday making phone calls, answering e-mails and waving signs on street corners, all with one thing in mind - a last-minute vote.
For two candidates, last-minute campaigning could only have made their wins more dramatic.
Thomas Hawkins Jr. and Jack Donovan won the District 2 At-Large and District 3 seats, respectively, by wide margins.
But for District 2 City Commission candidate Lauren Poe, who said earlier in the night that he thought his last-minute efforts were fruitless, those extra votes may have made all the difference. Poe forced a runoff against Bonnie Mott, who won the race by about 500 votes, or about 6 percent.
Poe said he recruited about a dozen people to make phone calls throughout the day and, like other candidates, waved signs on street corners. He said he didn't pay attention to his opponents' campaigning efforts.
"My own was enough to keep me occupied," he said.
Hawkins said he did some basic campaigning Tuesday on precinct corners, holding signs and waving at passing cars. He said he couldn't sleep Monday night.
But Hawkins, who won his position after he received nearly 5,000 more votes than opponent Robert Agrusa, said he didn't think last-ditch campaigning had a significant effect on the election's results.
Hawkins said he'd heard Agrusa's campaign included negative advertising about him, though he hadn't seen it himself.
"I think when you do something like that, it says more about your character than the other person's character, and voters can see that," Hawkins said.
Agrusa, who served as UF Student Senate president in 2007, said he wasn't sure what Hawkins was referring to, but he was only trying to inform voters of his opponent's stance on certain issues.
"I think it was very educational," Agrusa said of his campaign.
He said his last-minute campaigning included sign-waving and informing people of his plans and goals. He also campaigned on Turlington Plaza in hopes of winning over young voters.
Unlike Hawkins, Agrusa said he thought late campaigning helped him win a lot of votes. His parents were especially helpful with his campaign, he added.
Jack Donovan, who was re-elected to the commission Tuesday night with 70 percent of his district's vote, said he spent the day answering e-mails and making phone calls to his supporters. Donovan said his main strategy was connecting with his supporters and encouraging them to vote.
"It doesn't do good to have support if people don't vote," he said.
