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NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Adele Aletti understands the importance of what it takes to run a small business, which explains why she was sporting a Barack Obama T-shirt outside a polling precinct at the Brannon Center on Election Day. "

He's the guy and I need to support who I believe in," said Coletti, owner of Gone Bonkers! on Flagler Avenue and a strong advocate for the merchants of New Smyrna Beach.

To my readers, who expressed concern over a brief lapse in my column, the opening of the North Carolina deer season, Mother Nature beckoned to me requesting my presence there to do my duty of attempting to thin the herd. We did OK, but not as well as previous trips. The weather was a little tough for a Floridian as some mornings greeted us with layers of ice. However, as it has been said so many times before, all god things must come to an end. So it is back to business as usual.

On Nov. 4 2008, the citizens of the United States went to the polls in one of the biggest turnouts in our history to elect a president.

Congratulations to President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden. I have to say that he would have done better with Hillary, but in the ninth inning she struck out.

Obama has inspired the people with his speeches, people listened and responded. Obama has the charisma of our beloved 35th president, JFK, who we will be honoring on Nov. 22, the 45th anniversary of his Assassination in 1963.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Barack Obama's mesage of "change" resonated big with voters nationally tonight with huge wins in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and the New England States as he closes in on 338 electoral votes compared to 150 for John McCain. The threshold for the presidency is 270 electoral votes.

Locally, New Smyrna Beach Democrat Suzanne Kosmos crushed incumbent Republican Congressman Tom Feeney, whose 24th district seat includes greater New Smyrna Beach. Kosmas garnered nearly 64 percent of the votes in Volusia against the three-term incumbent from Oviedo. Oak Hill Mayor Darla Lauer easily outpolled City Commissioner and former Mayor Mike Thompson to retain her seat, with nearly 56 percent of the vote.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Karen Clancy first met Congressman Tom Feeney seven years ago when he helped her with several community projects when he was speaker of the Florida assembly.

This campaign season, she's returned the favor, serving as the Oviedo Republican's Volusia County campaign director.

Clancy said she's a big fan of Feeney for very obvious reasons that she believes people relate to and want from their elected leaders: "He's very strong on small government and letting people live the American dream."

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- The body of a man found on the shoulder in the 300 block of the North Causeway early this morning has been identified as that of 42-year-old Glen Gagnon of Edgewater and police say they need the public’s help in determining what happened.

Police Sgt. Eugene Griffith did not release any other details except to say police responded to the scene at 12:44 a.m. "in reference to a deceased male lying on the shoulder of the roadway" and that homicide investigators and the medical examiner's office arrived as well.