Tag: The Gainesville Sun

But the Democratic nominee for governor, who later served a decade on the city commission before being elected mayor, has long hinged his political identity on his humble roots far from the state's capital city. There, as one of only two African-American male students in his AP-level classes in high school, he met and befriended the son of a state legislator who — long before Gillum went to college — helped open some of Gillum's first doors to Tallahassee politics. "At that time it seemed something major to have Skittles, Snickers and real Doritos, not generic taco chips, in the vending machines," Gillum told the paper in 2003. But it wasn't until he entered Gainesville High School in the fall of 1994 that he would meet and befriend Christopher Chestnut, the son of two local politicians. "When you saw one you'd see the other," said Cynthia Chestnut, who still lives in Gainesville. Those early trips, Gillum said, were the first time he had ever been to the Capitol or to Tallahassee. Cynthia Chestnut "was the gateway for me," he said. "I could see the influence of exposure to government" on Gillum," Christopher Chestnut recalled. Gillum eventually graduated as student body vice president his senior year of high school. The lawyer, who used to practice law in Gainesville but moved his firm in Atlanta, also has two disciplinary actions against him still pending with the Florida Bar.)