Pinellas County school board candidate Ken Peluso was briefly on the hot seat recently when he said he believed that creationism and evolution should be taught together so that students could “draw their own conclusions.” He later told the Tampa Bay Times that he reversed that comment, claiming that the question caught him off guard.

The newspaper’s Gradebook blog has now noted that Peluso was at a separate event later on the day he made that creationism comment and he verified his stance. (“North Pinellas 9/12” forum on Aug 7, 2014.) No, it doesn’t appear that he was caught off guard at all.