As expected, Charlie Crist and Rick Scott have trounced their opposition in today's primaries.
On the Democratic side, Crist captured 74 percent of the vote to Nan Rich's 26 percent.
And Governor Rick Scott beat two relatively unknown challengers, with 88 percent. Elizabeth Cuevas-Neunder received 11 percent.
In the Democratic contest for state Attorney General, George Sheldon has beat Perry Thurston, 68 to 32 percent.
It was a long shot especially for Rich, who barely mentioned Charlie Crist in her concession speech.
"I entered this race to defeat Rick Scott, and to get Florida back on the right track," Rich said from her election night gathering in South Florida. "And that is the goal that I remain committed to. And I hope all of you will join me in that goal."
Crist basked in applause during his victory speech in Fort Lauderdale.
"We’re supposed to serve the people – but too many politicians, including my opponent, are making peoples’ lives harder, not easier," he said. "You know when I was governor, serving the public was never about right versus left – it was about right versus wrong. That’s why I accepted billions of dollars in stimulus funding from a Democratic President, even as other Republicans were turning it down – because saving 20,000 teachers’ jobs was the right thing to do."
Scott released the following statement:
“The next few months are about talk versus action. That means Florida will have a choice between a governor who sent our state into a tailspin and a governor who gets results. Charlie Crist failed as governor, lost 830,000 jobs, and tried to run off to Washington – and now he wants his job back. We’ve come a long way in the last few years, but there’s plenty of work left to do. Let’s keep working."
Here's some local results:
In Hillsborough County, Ed Narain defeated three challengers in the Democratic primary for State House District 61 with 42 percent. The closest runner-up was Sean Shaw, with 35 percent.
Stacy White captured 39 percent of the vote in the Republican primary for Hillsborough County Commission District 4, followed by Janet Dougherty with 34 percent and Rick Cochrane with 27 percent.
Also in the Hillsborough county commission race for at-large District 7, incumbent commissioner Al Higgenbotham received 66 percent of the vote. The closest challenger in that race was Tim Shock, trailing far back with 16 percent.
In the Democratic primary for that at-large County Commission seat, Pat Kemp won over Mark Nash, by a margin of 65 percent to 35 percent.
In Pinellas County, Jack Latvala trounced Zahid Roy in the Republican primary for state Senate District 20, 87 percent to 13 percent.
In the Republican contest for state House District 65, Chris Sprowls defeated Debbie Faulkner, 65 percent to 35 percent.
In the Republican race for state House District 67, Chris Latvala got 67 percent of the vote to Christopher Shepherd's 33 percent.
And in the Republican race for State House District 68, Bill Young received 80 percent of the votes cast, trouncing Joshua Black, with 20 percent.
There are three Republican primaries for Pinellas County Commission:
In the at-large District 2, Ed Hooper defeated Norm Roche, 64 to 36 percent.
In the crowded District 4 race, the Dave Eggers won with 30 percent; followed by Peter Nehr with 22 percent; Johnny Johnson with 22 percent; and Jim Ronecker with 11 percent.
And in the race for County Commission District 6, John Morroni beat Tom Rask, 66 to 34 percent.
In Sarasota County, in the Republican primary for State House District 74, Julio Gonzalez defeated Richard DeNapoli, 57 to 43 percent.
There are two Republican primary races for County Commission. In the race for Seat 2, Paul Caragiulo captured 60 percent, to Shannon Snyder's 40 percent.
In Seat 4, Alan Maio defeated Lourdes Ramirez by 70 to 30 percent.
