Every weekday, Ozzy Angulo rises at 7 a.m. for his first class at Santa Fe College.
Around the same time, Lauren Poe is preparing to teach dual enrollment students about government at the same college.
Before going to his pawn shop for another day of work, Richard Selwach remembers to feed his parrot, Papooga.
All three will fill the rest of the day shaking hands and pitching their platforms in their pursuits for a seat on the Gainesville City Commission.
Now as the calender creeps closer to Tuesday — election day — they are nearing the end.
Of the 13 candidates vying for the three seats, most said they have enjoyed campaigning despite the break-neck speed that accompanies running for public office.
“If there was a free block of time on the calendar, it quickly got filled with a campaign activity,” said Poe, who is running for re-election for District 2.
Susan Bottcher, who is running for the District 3 seat, said comfortable shoes are essential for campaign season, especially during weekends when she walks door to door talking to as many Gainesville voters as she can.
District 3 candidate Rob Zeller said the busiest part has been the dozen or so forums and paper questionnaires.
“They take a lot more time to answer than I thought,” he said.
But for most candidates, campaigning hasn’t been just hectic. Sacrifices have been made.
“I haven’t seen my kids much in the last four weeks,” said Zeller, who has three young children. “My daughter wants to see me more.”
His 5-year-old daughter, Lily, will have a birthday soon after the election, and he doesn’t want to miss it.
But if there’s a run-off, he’ll be swamped again.
“If there’s another election, then I have to get back to the grindstone,” he said.
For James Ingle, who’s running for a seat in District 2, wedding planning has been delayed.
“I am engaged to the most patient woman in the world,” he said of his fiancee and campaign manager, Trisha Dunne.
The wedding itself is still on track for April 19, but Ingle said the campaign has made an already hectic process even more stressful.
While many candidates carefully are budgeting their time with the typical campaign activities, one has taken a different approach. Selwach said he decided not to take donations from anyone, so he has no need for fundraisers. He put $2,500 of his own money into his campaign.
He also said he doesn’t want to clutter up people’s mailboxes with junk, so he didn’t make campaign fliers. Nor has he campaigned door to door.
“Do you like it when you’re at home and someone comes and knocks on your door?” he asked. “No, you don’t.”
He’s christened his store, Best Jewelry and Loan Pawnbroker, as his official campaign base. There, he meets with citizens and makes his case.
Candidates said campaigning has taught them about what they can accomplish. Campaigning even can be fun.
Angulo, another candidate for District 3, said he and his team were relatively inexperienced but still were able to pull off some victories, such as locking up an endorsement from the African American Accountability Alliance.
When they found out, Angulo and his campaign manager were speechless in their elation.
“We just looked at each other for a second, because we couldn’t believe we’d won it,” he said.
Selwach said he had fun at the Tea Party forum and felt relaxed. During the forum, he stood up and declared himself to be “Diamond Rick the Pawn Broker,” a parallel to “Joe the Plumber” from the 2008 presidential election.
Ingle said he’s become close friends with people he didn’t even know before he started running.
Because of this, he doesn’t mind going door to door every weekend and most weekdays. In fact, he said he enjoys it.
“People are great. I’d say nine out of 10 of them want to talk to you about the city,” he said.
