Clearwater – Republican David Jolly is the winner of a hard-fought congressional election in Florida to replace the late Rep. Bill Young.
With nearly 100 percent of the vote counted, The Associated Press says Jolly bested Democrat Alex Sink in a contest that attracted national attention and millions of dollars.
The special election served as the first test of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul ahead of November’s midterm elections. Local issues took a backseat to the health care law as both national parties and outside groups flooded the swing-voting district with ads, phone calls and mailings about “Obamacare.” Democrats and Republicans used the race to audition national strategies.
While Republicans held the congressional seat for more than four decades until Young’s death last year, district’s voters favored Obama in the 2008 and 2012.
Jolly took 48.443% of the vote while Sink garnered 46.56% in the March 11 special election.
To put it into perspective, Sink fell by a mere 3,417 votes when the last Pinellas County precinct reported. Libertarian Lucas Overby received 4.83 percent of the vote, with 8,799 votes cast for him.
Sink gave her concession speech in front of supporters at the Hilton Carillon in St. Petersburg. Sink called the results disappointing, but she thanked her voters and her thousands of volunteers.
“Life brings many challenges, it brings many opportunities,” she said. “My values have always been to do good, to do good for my family and my community and for my state and my country.”
Sink wrapped up her speech on a positive note.
“My commitment to you is we don’t know what the future holds, but I’ll do what I’ll always done and continue to serve my community,” she said. “And I want to thank you all again and although we’re disappointed, the bars are open, let’s enjoy our friendship.”
Overby also addressed supporters at Finley’s Irish Pub in Largo.
“The amount of people that were reached, tens of thousands of voters have reached out to us through the course of this campaign, and you can’t ask for anything stronger than that,” Overby said. “The movement pushes on and so will we. We’ll make announcements about November in the next couple weeks.”
Overby said his campaign planned to take a look at what happened to decide what they would do for the general election.
The win means Jolly will serve out the remainder of the late Bill Young’s term, which ends this year. Jolly will have to seek re-election this November.
“The bottom line is I did not run for Congress to advance Washington,” Jolly told supporters at Sheraton Sand Key on Clearwater Beach. “I ran for Congress to advance Pinellas County.”
Sink, a long-time advocate for LGBT rights—including marriage equality—fell short in her gubernatorial bid against Florida Gov. Rick Scott in 2010. Democrats bet big on Alex Sink, Florida’s former chief financial officer, in the race for the swing district.
Experts saw the race as a prequel of sorts to the national fight this year over who controls Congress in the last two years of Barack Obama’s final presidential term. The House is expected to remain under Republican control. But in the Senate, Republicans hope to leverage Obama’s unpopularity and his health care law’s wobbly start to gain the six seats required to control the 100-member chamber.
That made the race in Florida a pricey proving ground for both parties, with the candidates the faces of the effort.
Jolly, backed by Republicans and outside groups, said Sink would undermine Medicare because of Democratic-passed cuts to programs under the Affordable Health Care Act.
Sink and her allies, meanwhile, painted Jolly an extremist who wanted to privatize Social Security and gut Medicare.
More than 112,000 people voted by mail and another 5,000 voted early, according to the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections office.
Deborah Clark said 42 percent of the early ballots were cast by registered Republicans and 39 percent by registered Democrats.
The race earned a national spotlight and brought in millions in outside money. According to figures compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, groups such as political action committees and conventional party committees have spent a total of $8.8 million on the race in 2014 as of March 10.
The candidates also raised millions of dollars. Sink raised $2.5 million and Jolly $1 million.
The Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections estimated voter turnout at 39 percent. That includes the unofficial early voting turnout of 26.7 percent.
The intense national interest is not surprising. Florida’s 13th, which includes Clearwater and much of St. Petersburg, is one of the few remaining truly-competitive districts in the country, thanks to partisan gerrymandering.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce spent more than $1 million attacking Sink, a former banker.
Former President Bill Clinton recorded a phone call a week before the election seeking local volunteers to help with Sink’s campaign and a half dozen House Democrats emailed fundraising appeals to their own supporters on behalf of her. More than a third of Jolly’s campaign contributions came from members of Congress. Meanwhile, Republican Rep. Paul Ryan joined Jolly on a conference call with voters, while Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul recorded a phone message for the GOP nominee aimed at supporters of Libertarian candidate Lucas Overby.
While Republicans held the congressional seat for four decades until Young’s death, the district’s voters favored Obama in the past two presidential elections. In all, the candidates, their party committees and several outside groups collectively spent almost $10 million blanketing the airwaves with largely negative ads focused on health care costs and Social Security.
Part of the reason is the large percentage of seniors in this district, which is 37 percent Republican, 35 percent Democrat and 24 percent independent. More than one in four registered voters is older than 65, a population that could make up more than half of those who cast ballots.
But in an effort to deflect Republican attacks on the health care law and rollout problems, Democrats also prominently featured proposed Republican curbs on Social Security and Medicare in competitive races across the country.
“Those issues are paramount,” said Rep. Steve Israel of New York, who chairs the House Democrats’ campaign operation. “Having Republicans say that they want to cut Medicare but continue to fund massive subsidies to big oil companies … that will be a defining theme.”
Republicans answer by highlighting how some Medicare payment rates were cut by Democrats to help pay for the health overhaul. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce spent $1.2 million on ads arguing Sink is “still pushing Obamacare,” the 2010 law that it calls “a disaster for families and seniors.” Another spot said Sink supports Obamacare “even though it means higher costs and lost benefits,” citing reductions to Medicare Advantage, which lets seniors enroll in Medicare through private insurance plans.
Jolly put up ads promising spending cuts, balanced budgets and replacing the health care law.
Sink outspent Jolly by more than 3 to 1 on television advertising, though outside groups aligned with the GOP have helped narrow the overall Democratic advantage.
Having focused much of his campaign on the botched launch of the health care law, Jolly found himself on the defensive about entitlement programs. On a recent morning at a senior center, the former lobbyist devoted the bulk of his remarks to rebutting Democratic ads that say he worked for a group that wants to privatize Social Security. The spot also charges that he “praised a plan ending Medicare’s guarantee.”
The Republicans’ national campaign committee for House candidates poured $2 million into TV ads, including one picturing Jolly’s opponent next to Obama and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. “She’s fighting for them, not for us,” the ad says of Sink.
Sink attempted to blunt the criticism in her own ads. One spot said repealing the health care law would “force seniors to pay thousands more for prescription drugs”
