Ds pick up Tampa Bay seats

Statewide, looks like Democrats may pick up as many as seven state House seats (Dan Gelber and Steve Schale must be smiling wide), and they'll break even on senate seats - Justice beating Berfield in SD 16 and Republican Oelrich beating Democrat Jennings in Rod Smith's SD 14.

Bill Heller comfortably beat Angelo Cappelli in HD 52; Janet Long narrowly beat Dottie Reeder in HD 51. In the Bradenton area HD 69, Democrat Keith Fitzgerald is barely leading Republican Laura Benson; In Orange County's HD 36, Democrat Scott Randolph unseated Republican Sherri McInvale; in Broward's District 97, Democrat Martin Kiar beat Republican Susan Goldstein; in Miami's 107, looks like Democrat Luis Garcia will take Gus Barreiro's seat, and in the Keys Democrat Ron Saunders won HD 120.

That's the first time Democrats have picked up state House seats in 16 years and their biggest gain in nearly 30 years.

Comments

You forgot Ron Saunders in the Keys.

[SN]

Thank you SD 16 voters for NOT allowing the filthy nasty negative ads of Berfield to be victorious. Now her and Farkas can go be miserable together

Geller is still a turd.

WHatever you do, Ron, don't bring Sloppie Joe's back to tallahassee. Harry's is awesome.

Big question on my mind -- whey did Rod Smith resign to run for governor?

Ds could have picked up a seat in the Senate. It's not like Smith even came close in the primary, or would have done any better than Davis.

Waste of talent.

This is absolutely huge. Marco Rubio is getting off to an absolutely awful start.

Arza scandal, losing 7 seats, couple other races barely won, Dade delegation barely tolerates him.

If Smith had been the nominee, would he have beaten Crist?

[Steve S]

Hard to beat endless millions of dollars worth of negative TV ads paid for by the insurance industry.

Probably big shakeup coming at RPOF. Dems' state senate operation, too, for that matter.

So Fitzgerald did or did NOT pull it out to unseat Benson?

Looks like Fitzgerald won by 1,000.

Charlie gus, charlie Gus...yeah to the exclusion and LOSS of berfield, reeder, and capelli.

Way to go Chairman Dimatteo and crew/ mob.

You had ebtter not run, Tony. You will lose.

Not to mention you guys endorsed Rice over our new Attorney general, and wasted our money. McCollum. Oh how wise you are.

Pinellas Republicans have never doen so poorly, we have never lost seats., and now..thanks to tony..we lost clout.

Way to go Marco!!!!!!!!!!!

Nothing is going your way:

1) Bolanos - lost
2) Gallagher - lost
3) Arza - resigned
4) super majority - lost

South Florida politics is a thing of beauty. I want to thank you guys down there for keeping the rest of us entertained.

Marco has run a horrible party. 100 ideas was just about his ego. Thanks Marco.

Wait, how exactly is all of this Rubio's fault? These elections were on Bense's watch...

[Will]

The loss of the house seats i believe was inevitable in this climate, the way national elections are going.

So now the house is 79-41, and senate stays 26-14. Still a nice majority in both.

100 Ideas. Oh, the ghost written cut and paste job from GOP position papers lying around GOP HQs around the country. Yeah, those 100 ideas.

Incoming caucus leaders are responsible. Outgoing caucus leaders are just that -- outgoing.

The GOP operation seemed a little tame this time around. Negative stuff, but not the naked character assassination of years past. They also had a lot of lame candidates.

The result is they got spanked!

Bill Helmich and his band of lackeys are morons. They lost every targeted race. Bring back Terraferma!

These were Rubio's races. Bense's races were in 2004...he did fine. I think Sansom will do better in 2006, as hopefully he learned from Rubio's mistakes. It's not all about ego and feeding the needs of the David Riveras of the world.

In a related story...Dan Gelber is now sitting in his Miami Beach home sharpening his teeth....

Really there's no one but W to blame for this...not Rubio, Bense, or Helmich...maybe Foley some, but definitely Dubya the most.

I'm a big R but I can't wait to hear the wit that Gelber guarantees. He still won't get anything through, but I like him because he's smart, and not many Florida Dems are these days.

The entire Rubio-Sansom-Cannon triumverate is responsible. The sinking ship that is house campaigns was all the while listing out of control---the warning alarms were blarring--- there was no plan--- they never had enough money---the races they spent the most on, lost by the largest margins. Meanwhile all they did was collect ideas and spend more money on collecting even more ideas after that. Oh where oh where did our frank go?

Who can stop the bleeding?

[Where is Marco?]

Rubio's races are you kidding me. Rubio has been absent. Never before has an incoming speaker turned over the party to his successor. Rubio should watch his back for a coup.

Sansom is the one who ran House Campaigns, he is the one who must answer for his poor decisions. Keeping Helmich tops the list.

The Democrats recruited great candidates and that was the difference. Their candidates flat out-worked the Republican candidates and it showed tonight, with so many close wins. With Davis losing by 6-7 points, a pick-up of seven seats is a remarkable accomplishment and deserving of much credit to Dan Gelber and team.

Not many florida Rs are smart, either, in tallahassee. sad bunch on both sides of aisle.

there are like 5-6 stars, another 10-12 who are pretty sharp, another 20-25 high-functioning. then there are about 30-40 i swear are mildy retarded. and the rest seem literate and alert enough to at least follow directions.

Ha! Dems didn't have better candidates... they just didn't have Republican house campaigns fighting a rising tide of angry independents and fleeing soft republicans.

I thought David Rivera was the go-to guy. He's Rubio's political guru, alter ego.

Not enough money? This is rich. Tell us more.

Hmmmm... Helmich V. Schale
Can you believe this match-up?

I smell something burning. Do you?

[Republican in EXILE]

Fire Bill Helmich! Fire Faron Boggs!

They are both incompetent and untalented.

Steven Schale took them to the woodshed with less money and mediocre candidates.

It is time to start over from scratch. They took a brilliant operation that Terraferma took a decade to build and let it collapse overnight.

12:57 I spit up my beer on my keyboard!

12:58- Keep thinking that. We'll pick up more in 2008. Love your arrogance.

Sniff! Sniff! Is that a flicker?

Crakle Crakle. I got some hot dogs--- anyone for a smore?

Rome wasn't built in a day but it burned in hours. Hail Caesar!

I am just waiting for the rats to start jumping off the ship.

Too late the wait is over.

Man overboard!

They will purge the worthless bodies from their ranks... that's right you know who you are... RUN! RUN! Rubio has already shown his fondness for driving buses. Ask Arza. All we Dems need to do is keep our heads down and you Repubs will devour eachother.

Most of the Democrat candidates were pretty good, at least the ones I spoke to or met over the past several months.

Everyone knows Saunders. Heller and Krisemen and Long and Boyd are rock solid or at least solid.

That fire chief guy Garcia could hone up his English a little, but since he's from Miami no one will care. The one exception is Kiar, who seems a little dim-witted, but personable. He's replacing a major dimwit, so I doubt anyone in his district will notice.

[Republican in EXILE]

Gelber owns Rubio/Sansom/Cannon.

Geller still calls Pruitt daddy.

I think lobbyists will be saying Representative who? I think I'll talk to a Senator.

The grand old party is both grand and old because it can survive these events--- Back, back you liberal beasts.

Kriseman- tax and spend liberal.
Heller- tax and spend, nutty professor liberal.
Fitzgerald- tax and spend liberal profesor
Saunder--- (you get the idea)...

Gelber has better relations with more of the Dade GOP delegation than Rubio does.

Rubio would be smart to cut some deals with Gelber to keep the peace, else it will be a long 2 years.

Does anyone think Rubio might lose his speakership because of this?

What happened to the Republican operation in the House?

How do you go from not losing a seat in a decade to the blood bath we witnessed tonight?

As a lobbyist all I can say is there is a new day dawning in Tallahassee.