Rick Scott Wins in Florida
UPDATED: Sink's campaign has a 200,000 vote deficit. Rick Scott is Florida's next Governor.
Sink's campaign is NOT happy. With 75 percent of the vote in, including most of South Florida, she still has a 200,000 vote deficit. Unless something truly unexpected happens, Rick Scott is going to be the next governor of Florida.
Posted at 10:45pm by Eli Lehrer
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A Republican source reports that two-thirds of the South Florida precincts are in. This is bad news for Democrats. With Alex Sink still behind by roughly 3 points and some votes in the heavily Republican panhandle still not in, Sink will need to show truly exceptional performance in the remaining South Florida areas in order to pull it off. A large portion of the outstanding vote does lean Democratic so the race will tighten further. But, right now, things look pretty good for Rick Scott.
Posted at 10:39pm by Eli Lehrer
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Alex Sink spokesman Dan McLaughlin just told reporters: "There are about 600k votes outstanding. Alex trails by 100k. Those are our counties so stay with us." This thing is going down to the wire. He's right, by the way. Only 20% of votes have been counted in Palm Beach County. 61% are counted in Miami-Dade, 67% in Broward. So I say to you, loyal FrumForum readers, stay with us.
Posted at 10:35pm by Jeb Golinkin
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The Florida race is going to be INCREDIBLY close. With 51% in, Scott is up on Sink 51-46. Having said that, neither Miami Dade nor Broward counties' votes have started coming in. Those will trend hard blue. This thing is going down to the wire.
Posted at 9:11pm by Jeb Golinkin
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Sink campaign source says that the early returns favor Republicans and that they expect the race to tighten a lot.
Posted at 7:52pm by Eli Lehrer
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With 14% of votes in, Rick Scott leads Alex Sink 51-46.
Posted at 7:43pm by Jeb Golinkin
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Rick Scott, who started with a 100,000 vote lead, is up on Sink 51% to 44% with 5% of precincts reporting.
Posted at 7:30pm by Jeb Golinkin
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Hello hello. Most polls in Florida are closed this evening, except for those on the Western panhandle, which won’t close until 8 ET. The Miami Herald reported this morning that prior to the polls opening, Rick Scott had a 100,000 vote lead on Alex Sink.
Both sides are preparing for an incredibly close election. The Miami Herald reports that Sink officials are saying “if the vote is headed to a recount, they will know by 9:15 CT.
It rained in the Tampa area today, which is good for Rick Scott since Republicans already hold a sizeable early vote advantage.
Posted at 7:20 by Jeb Golinkin
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Everything in Florida points to a Republican sweep of the state's seriously contested congressional races. The race for Governor, on the other hand, looks likely to be “thisclose”.
Congress first: Early voting--a big deal in a state with lots of people in the military and even more sun-birds who have a second residence, greatly favors Republicans: the Republican ballot total was more than 300,000 greater than the Democrat/Independent total. Good weather in historically liberal South Florida, today, however, may cut in to the natural Republican advantage a bit. But, so far, Republicans have every reason to think that they'll prevail. A Republican source working for the Congressional candidates says that turnout was "50 to 60 percent, easy" in the most heavily Republican precincts as of 2:00 p.m. this afternoon. The presence of Marco Rubio, a man who may well be the second coming of Ronald Reagan, may explain part of the enthusiasm. Rubio, while a tea-partier through-and-though is also smart, thoughtful and interested in governing as well as protest. Other races throughout the state look pretty good.
The race for governor, which New York Times polling guru Nate Silver forecasts as a truly tied dead heat looks likely to remain very tight. Early, partial exit polls I've seen show at least some precincts with literally tied votes. State CFO Alex Sink does seem to be running pretty well--as any Florida Democrat hoping to prevail statewide must--in some precincts that are considered heavily Republican. Sink, the only Democrat I've financially supported as a grownup, has received the endorsement of every significant newspaper in the state (even archly conservative ones) and plenty of Republican elected office holders. She has run a competent, if sometimes uninspiring campaign and, in an ordinary election year, would probably have waltzed into the governor's mansion. I still tend to believe she's going to prevail. But Floridians should prepare themselves for a long night.
Posted at 5:45pm by Eli Lehrer