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Yesterday was one exhausting day. From working my polling precinct off and on from 6:45am up until 5pm, a city commission meeting followed by a President's Council meeting at my community (having to leave both early) and then an election party on Clematis Street, it was non-stop. I went to bed believing that Crist had won as well as medical marijuana. Rick Scott took 49% of the vote to Crist's 47% and medical marijuana failed to get its 60%.
Thank God we live in a state that is 65,755 sq. miles and the state and national elections are not decided in Palm Beach County alone. Heavily Democratic strongholds are Broward and Palm Beach which is hard to overcome while running as a Republican. (Even Erica Whitfield, in the non-partisan School Board race, promoted Party loyalty on her campaign literature..."the only Democrat in the race"). Florida is the 4th most populous state with Democrats still outnumbering Republicans among Florida’s registered voters. Republicans Among Florida’s 11,446,540 registered voters: 40% Democrat, 36% Republicans, 20% No Party Affiliation (independents) and 4% Minor Parties.
Now with the GOP controlling Washington with 52 seats in the Senate and the Democrats with 44, this is a huge win for Republicans that will shape President Obama's policies for the next two years unless he institutes more executive privilege. And in the House the largest majority was won by the GOP since World War II, 246.
Patrick Murphy won his race which was no surprise. He had some of the best campaign ads throughout this election. All of those for whom I endorsed won other than for House District 22 (wishful thinking because Frankel in this area is hard to beat, sort of like Alcee Hastings in his). It's hard to figure Frankel's popularity. When she was mayor of West Palm Beach, she told the people to screw off and did it her way anyway but there are other voters out of this city who only know her as a Democrat. There is a lot of Party loyalty with voters. Amendment 3 was rejected by the voters with only 48% of approval. It needed 60%.
The other was the non-partisan School Board District 4 race where highly qualified Tom Sutterfield lost. The City of Lake Worth voters, (in the city where Whitfield resides) came out strongly for popular Erica Whitfield who
had a resounding win over Sutterfield. Whitfield had the backing of several unions. Her attack ads (I hope those are not a "Mother's voice") helped her to gain thousands of voters for her win.
Tom took it with grace and class.
