Pierce stresses transparency as new elections chief
Rhonda Pierce, Gulf County’s new supervisor of elections, is reassuring constituents that she plans to always be transparent in her role overseeing the county’s elections.
Pierce was elected without opposition after her predecessor, John Hanlon, decided during qualifying week that his health concerns had convinced him it would be unwise to seek another four-year term.
Pierce, who had not planned to challenge her boss for the job, was then able to qualify by petition on the last day of qualifying week, and since no one had come forward, she was elected to the office, which pays $123,976 annually, without having to face an opponent.
Pierce, 64, said that in the weeks leading up to Hanlon’s decision, several people had inquired, but not followed through, regarding their paperwork to seek the office. And that she had been above board in her actions.
“I want to move past that,” she said. “I will always be transparent.”
Had Pierce faced a challenger, she still would have been a formidable contender, as she had been a full-time assistant supervisor since 2020.
Prior to that, she had frequently worked part-time since 2012 when former elections chief Linda Griffin hired her.
After Hanlon was elected in 2012, Pierce went to school to become a registered nurse after being a licensed practical nurse. Eventually, though, she decided to leave nursing and go to work at a desk job.
A 1978 graduate of Port St. Joe High School, Pierce is married to Rick Pennington, and the couple are parents to her two sons, BJ and Justin Pierce, who work in the auto repair business, and the two “bonus children” Pennington brought to the union, son Ricky, who is a welder, and daughter Raquel, an American professional mixed martial artist who competes in the women’s bantamweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, where she is the former UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion.
Pierce said she is continuing to work with her two full-time colleagues at the office, Denise Tharpe and Tammy Linton.
Since 2025 is a non-election year, she said she and her staff plan to focus more on training and educational classes.
Meet the Editor
David Adlerstein, The Apalachicola Times’ digital editor, started with the news outlet in January 2002 as a reporter.
Prior to then, David Adlerstein began as a newspaperman with a small Boston weekly, after graduating magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He later edited the weekly Bellville Times, and as business reporter for the daily Marion Star, both not far from his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
In 1995, he moved to South Florida, and worked as a business reporter and editor of Medical Business newspaper. In Jan. 2002, he began with the Apalachicola Times, first as reporter and later as editor, and in Oct. 2020, also began editing the Port St. Joe Star.