rockin'robin
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TAMPA, Fla. -- Democrat Alex Sink came out this morning to concede the race for governor to Republican Rick Scott.
The closely watched contest matched Republican businessman Scott against Sink, Florida's chief financial officer. With 99 percent of the expected vote counted -- all but 40 precincts -- Scott lead by 68,276 votes.
At 10:15 a.m., Scott had 48.94 percent, while Sink had 47.65 percent. An automatic machine recount is triggered if the final margin is within one-half of 1 percent.
Among the votes yet to be counted are absentee and provisional ballots, of which thousands remain uncounted. It was not clear when a final tally would be available.
WATCH LIVE: Sink To Speak At 10:45
Just after midnight, Sink declared the contest "dead even." Said Sink: "We know we're going to win."
Two hours later, Scott took the stage to say he's "absolutely confident" he'll be Florida's next governor.
Scott maintained a 51 percent to 46 percent lead over Sink early on Tuesday night, but his margin narrowed to 49 percent to 48 percent just before 1 a.m. Independence Party candidate Peter Allen was drawing 2 percent of the vote.
"We're not gritting our teeth bracing for a recount, but there are things that could lead that way,'' Sink told reporters at her hotel.
Scott dominated the vote in the Jacksonville area, with his strongest lead over Sink, 69 percent to 28 percent, in Clay County. The only county Sink won in northeast Florida was Alachua, where she won 62 percent of the vote.
With Florida facing nearly 12 percent unemployment and one of the nation's highest foreclosure rates, many voters went to the polls frustrated about Washington politics and glad election day had finally arrived. Across the state, lines formed at many polling sites before the doors opened.
"I just want this day to be over," said Steve Wise of Coconut Grove. "Because it has been too much -- political ads, newscasts, too much talking heads. I just want to move on and get this country back."
Florida Governor Vote - County-By-County Breakdown
Republicans cleaned up on the rest of the ballot. They won four congressional seats from Democrats and swept all three Cabinet races. They also won two-thirds majorities in both the state House and Senate.
Former Tampa prosecutor Pam Bondi won election to become the state's first female attorney general, Jeff Atwater was elected chief financial officer and Adam Putnam won the race for agriculture commissioner.
Among Democrats ousted from Congress was brash freshman U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, who lost to former Florida House speaker Daniel Webster of Winter Garden.
In South Florida's District 22, incumbent Democrat Ron Klein lost to Republican Allen West, a retired Army officer who was booted from his command in Iraq after firing a gun near a prisoner's head. West will become the first black Republican to represent Florida in Congress since the 1870s.
Democrat Suzanne Kosmas lost her central Florida seat to Sandy Adams, a Republican state representative from Oviedo. Conservative Democratic Rep. Allen Boyd was denied an eighth term when he lost to Steve Southerland in the 2nd District, which includes 16 counties in north Florida.
Voters approved two constitutional amendments making it tougher for the Legislature to gerrymander congressional districts. The amendments come before the results of this year's census, which will decide the number of the districts for the next decade. Florida is expected to pick up a 26th seat.
Election officials said voting ran smoothly statewide. Turnout was above 50 percent, with more than 5.6 million ballots cast. Turnout in the 2006 midterm elections was 47 percent.
In Jacksonville, turnout was 48 percent.
Months, Hours Before The Vote
Through months of attack ads and three debates, polls released in the campaign's final days showed the bitter race was still too close to call.
The candidates are both former CEOs who ran on the claim that they are the best person to turn around Florida's dismal economy and create new jobs.
After several days of frenzied homestretch campaigning, they cast their ballots Tuesday morning in their hometowns -- Scott in Naples and Sink in rural Thonotosassa outside Tampa.
Voting at a Catholic church, Scott predicted he's "going to have a big win tonight." The former hospital corporation executive then made a final push for votes, flying from Naples to Jacksonville to Tampa to Fort Lauderdale, where he hoped to celebrate victory.
Giddy supporters along the way were already addressing him as governor. In Jacksonville, tea party leader and Scott supporter Billie Tucker wore red, white and blue cowboy boots adorned with "USA" and stars.
Alex Sink speaks to her supporters before all the votes had been counted.
"We're going to kick their butts out tonight," she said.
Sink voted at a Baptist church with her husband, Bill McBride, who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2002, and their son Bert.
"It's your next governor!" McBride said when Sink strode out to meet reporters afterward.
Sink, Florida's elected chief financial officer, said she was "overwhelmed" by the support she saw campaigning on the road the past few days. She predicted that votes from independents and crossover Republicans in more rural north Florida would give her the edge over Scott. She planned a couple final campaign stops in the Tampa area before the polls closed.
One of those crossover votes for Sink came from Erik Lindquist, 31, an Orlando Republican who said he was "bothered" by a highly publicized Medicare fraud scandal at Scott's former hospital company.
"I just didn't have that warm, fuzzy feeling for Rick Scott," Lindquist said. "I didn't find him trustworthy."
But the black spot on Scott's business record didn't seem to bother others, including Rus Ives, 57, and his wife, Pattie, 47, who voted for him in Palm Beach County.
"I think he'll get things going in the state. I hope," said Rus Ives, a retired self-employed businessman. "You hear allegations about all of them, don't you? You've got to go with what you feel."
Scott, 57, is a multimillionaire who unexpectedly jumped into the Republican primary race in April. With an antiestablishment message and tea party backing, the political newcomer proceeded to spend about $73 million of his family's money beating Attorney General Bill McCollum for the GOP nomination and then taking on Sink.
After the August primary, he quickly picked up the backing of state GOP leaders, many of whom had worked to defeat him, and began to paint Sink as a "Tallahassee insider" who marches in lockstep with President Barack Obama.
Scott's albatross in the campaign has been his leadership of Columbia/HCA, a hospital conglomerate that ended up paying $1.7 billion in fines to settle federal charges of Medicaid and Medicare fraud.
Scott, who founded the company and built it into the largest for-profit hospital chain in the world, said he didn't know anything about criminal activity and was never charged, but now assumes responsibility for what happened on his watch. He wanted to fight the charges, but was forced out by his board in 1997.
Sink, 62, worked for 26 years in the banking business, eventually becoming one of the state's most prominent businesswomen. As Florida president of NationsBank - which later became Bank of America - she oversaw 9,000 employees, 800 branch banks throughout the state and $40 billion in customer deposits.
After parting ways with the bank in 2000, Sink stepped up to take a high-profile role in the failed gubernatorial campaign of her husband when he opposed Jeb Bush in 2002.
Then, positioning herself as an outsider, she won the job of Florida's chief financial officer in 2006 in her first ever election. The CFO is the Cabinet officer who not only pays the state's bills but has such other varied duties as regulating funeral homes, overseeing the fire marshal's office and investigating insurance fraud.
Sink Concedes: Rick Scott Next Governor - Politics News Story - WJXT Jacksonville
The closely watched contest matched Republican businessman Scott against Sink, Florida's chief financial officer. With 99 percent of the expected vote counted -- all but 40 precincts -- Scott lead by 68,276 votes.
At 10:15 a.m., Scott had 48.94 percent, while Sink had 47.65 percent. An automatic machine recount is triggered if the final margin is within one-half of 1 percent.
Among the votes yet to be counted are absentee and provisional ballots, of which thousands remain uncounted. It was not clear when a final tally would be available.
WATCH LIVE: Sink To Speak At 10:45
Just after midnight, Sink declared the contest "dead even." Said Sink: "We know we're going to win."
Two hours later, Scott took the stage to say he's "absolutely confident" he'll be Florida's next governor.
Scott maintained a 51 percent to 46 percent lead over Sink early on Tuesday night, but his margin narrowed to 49 percent to 48 percent just before 1 a.m. Independence Party candidate Peter Allen was drawing 2 percent of the vote.
"We're not gritting our teeth bracing for a recount, but there are things that could lead that way,'' Sink told reporters at her hotel.
Scott dominated the vote in the Jacksonville area, with his strongest lead over Sink, 69 percent to 28 percent, in Clay County. The only county Sink won in northeast Florida was Alachua, where she won 62 percent of the vote.
With Florida facing nearly 12 percent unemployment and one of the nation's highest foreclosure rates, many voters went to the polls frustrated about Washington politics and glad election day had finally arrived. Across the state, lines formed at many polling sites before the doors opened.
"I just want this day to be over," said Steve Wise of Coconut Grove. "Because it has been too much -- political ads, newscasts, too much talking heads. I just want to move on and get this country back."
Florida Governor Vote - County-By-County Breakdown
Republicans cleaned up on the rest of the ballot. They won four congressional seats from Democrats and swept all three Cabinet races. They also won two-thirds majorities in both the state House and Senate.
Former Tampa prosecutor Pam Bondi won election to become the state's first female attorney general, Jeff Atwater was elected chief financial officer and Adam Putnam won the race for agriculture commissioner.
Among Democrats ousted from Congress was brash freshman U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, who lost to former Florida House speaker Daniel Webster of Winter Garden.
In South Florida's District 22, incumbent Democrat Ron Klein lost to Republican Allen West, a retired Army officer who was booted from his command in Iraq after firing a gun near a prisoner's head. West will become the first black Republican to represent Florida in Congress since the 1870s.
Democrat Suzanne Kosmas lost her central Florida seat to Sandy Adams, a Republican state representative from Oviedo. Conservative Democratic Rep. Allen Boyd was denied an eighth term when he lost to Steve Southerland in the 2nd District, which includes 16 counties in north Florida.
Voters approved two constitutional amendments making it tougher for the Legislature to gerrymander congressional districts. The amendments come before the results of this year's census, which will decide the number of the districts for the next decade. Florida is expected to pick up a 26th seat.
Election officials said voting ran smoothly statewide. Turnout was above 50 percent, with more than 5.6 million ballots cast. Turnout in the 2006 midterm elections was 47 percent.
In Jacksonville, turnout was 48 percent.
Months, Hours Before The Vote
Through months of attack ads and three debates, polls released in the campaign's final days showed the bitter race was still too close to call.
The candidates are both former CEOs who ran on the claim that they are the best person to turn around Florida's dismal economy and create new jobs.
After several days of frenzied homestretch campaigning, they cast their ballots Tuesday morning in their hometowns -- Scott in Naples and Sink in rural Thonotosassa outside Tampa.
Voting at a Catholic church, Scott predicted he's "going to have a big win tonight." The former hospital corporation executive then made a final push for votes, flying from Naples to Jacksonville to Tampa to Fort Lauderdale, where he hoped to celebrate victory.
Giddy supporters along the way were already addressing him as governor. In Jacksonville, tea party leader and Scott supporter Billie Tucker wore red, white and blue cowboy boots adorned with "USA" and stars.
Alex Sink speaks to her supporters before all the votes had been counted.
"We're going to kick their butts out tonight," she said.
Sink voted at a Baptist church with her husband, Bill McBride, who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2002, and their son Bert.
"It's your next governor!" McBride said when Sink strode out to meet reporters afterward.
Sink, Florida's elected chief financial officer, said she was "overwhelmed" by the support she saw campaigning on the road the past few days. She predicted that votes from independents and crossover Republicans in more rural north Florida would give her the edge over Scott. She planned a couple final campaign stops in the Tampa area before the polls closed.
One of those crossover votes for Sink came from Erik Lindquist, 31, an Orlando Republican who said he was "bothered" by a highly publicized Medicare fraud scandal at Scott's former hospital company.
"I just didn't have that warm, fuzzy feeling for Rick Scott," Lindquist said. "I didn't find him trustworthy."
But the black spot on Scott's business record didn't seem to bother others, including Rus Ives, 57, and his wife, Pattie, 47, who voted for him in Palm Beach County.
"I think he'll get things going in the state. I hope," said Rus Ives, a retired self-employed businessman. "You hear allegations about all of them, don't you? You've got to go with what you feel."
Scott, 57, is a multimillionaire who unexpectedly jumped into the Republican primary race in April. With an antiestablishment message and tea party backing, the political newcomer proceeded to spend about $73 million of his family's money beating Attorney General Bill McCollum for the GOP nomination and then taking on Sink.
After the August primary, he quickly picked up the backing of state GOP leaders, many of whom had worked to defeat him, and began to paint Sink as a "Tallahassee insider" who marches in lockstep with President Barack Obama.
Scott's albatross in the campaign has been his leadership of Columbia/HCA, a hospital conglomerate that ended up paying $1.7 billion in fines to settle federal charges of Medicaid and Medicare fraud.
Scott, who founded the company and built it into the largest for-profit hospital chain in the world, said he didn't know anything about criminal activity and was never charged, but now assumes responsibility for what happened on his watch. He wanted to fight the charges, but was forced out by his board in 1997.
Sink, 62, worked for 26 years in the banking business, eventually becoming one of the state's most prominent businesswomen. As Florida president of NationsBank - which later became Bank of America - she oversaw 9,000 employees, 800 branch banks throughout the state and $40 billion in customer deposits.
After parting ways with the bank in 2000, Sink stepped up to take a high-profile role in the failed gubernatorial campaign of her husband when he opposed Jeb Bush in 2002.
Then, positioning herself as an outsider, she won the job of Florida's chief financial officer in 2006 in her first ever election. The CFO is the Cabinet officer who not only pays the state's bills but has such other varied duties as regulating funeral homes, overseeing the fire marshal's office and investigating insurance fraud.
Sink Concedes: Rick Scott Next Governor - Politics News Story - WJXT Jacksonville