Dear Fellow Republicans,

As we gear up for the 2016 elections, it is important to know who the candidates are and what they are running for. That is why I will begin profiling candidates for the 2016 races on this website, in a series called Candidate Spotlight. My first article will feature a candidate running for Leon County Commission District 2, Manny Joanos.

Manny Joanos is no stranger to the County Commission. He once sat on that commission from 1990 to 1998, serving as Chairman twice. Manny has also served on several boards around the area, including the Leon County Research and Development Authority and the Florida Associations of Counties Trust. Many of you may know Manny from eating at Manny’s restaurant until it closed in 2003. Currently, Manny is the Divisional Director of Food Service, Purchasing, and Energy at Leon County Schools where he has worked to bring down costs to taxpayers by doing innovative things, such as switching the school buses in the county to compressed natural gas instead of diesel.

Manny announced that he is running for the Leon County Commission back on October 14^th in front of a crowd of supporters at Bruster’s Ice Cream. He is running on a platform of bringing economic prosperity back to Leon County through creating jobs and encouraging businesses to grow in areas of the county that need revitalizing, particular in the district he is running in. He is a fiscal conservative that wants to help Leon County thrive
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Like Manny Joanos, there are many other great Republican candidates running for office in 2016. We will highlight more of those candidates in the weeks and months to come, in the Candidate Spotlight.