Charles McBurney, a GOP activist from Jacksonville, won a special election tonight to replace Mark Mahon in the Florida House. Taking 79 percent of the vote, McBurney defeated Democrat Debra Jahns-Nelsen in Republican leaning District 16.  Mahon, who faced term limits, left when Gov. Crist appointed him as a circuit judge in June.

"This win is especially significant because it comes in a district that is almost equally divided with 41 percent registered Republican voters and 40 percent registered Democrat," RPOF Chairman Jim Greer said.

UPDATE: Nobody can sneeze at 79%, but Democratic registration in North Florida  doesn't exactly mean a whole lot. Bill Nelson barely topped 50 percent in that district last year, and Alex Sink won about 42 percent of the vote. Steve Schale, the House Democrats' political director who went to high school in that district, said the party's internal polling President Bush with an approval rating of roughly 60 percent there: "We finally found a place in America where the president is more popular than in Crawford, Texas."

McBurney, 50, is returning to a familiar place. As a boy, he was a page for the Florida House, according to his Web site. He attended UF, served as an assistant state attorney and now has his own law practice.