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Winners and losers of Florida's 2014 election cycle

 
Published Nov. 9, 2014

Here are our winners and losers of Florida's 2014 election cycle:

Winners

Rick Scott. Fangate? What's that?

That Navy cap. He wore it everywhere. It had to help. We'll be watching to see if it disappears, post-election, as his old lab Reagan did.

Alex Sink. She had four years of second-guessing how she managed to lose to a guy like Rick Scott. Well, Charlie Crist did, too — by almost the same margin of 1.1 percentage points.

Jeff Atwater. Don't anoint Adam Putnam the 2018 GOP nominee just yet. For the second cycle, the ever-underestimated CFO won more votes than any other candidate.

Adam Putnam. The Tallahassee insider crowd has practically elected him governor in 2018.

Florida's Everglades and springs. Three out of four Florida voters signaled that they want environmental protection to be a top priority in overwhelmingly passing the Amendment 1 conservation measure.

Joe Negron. State Sen. Maria Sachs' win over Jack Latvala-backed Ellyn Bogdanoff may kill Latvala's hopes of beating Negron for the Florida Senate presidency.

Julia Gill Woodward. Haven't heard of her? You will. Gwen Graham's campaign manager is the newest star Democratic consultant in Florida. (No offense, Julia, but that's a pretty small universe.)

Gwen Graham. Candidates matter. Bob's daughter ran a near-perfect campaign in a tough district and tough climate, and now immediately emerges as one of the very brightest lights of the Florida Democratic Party.

Bob Buckhorn. Let's go ahead and declare Tampa's Democratic mayor, who consistently sounded more enthusiastic about Rick Scott than Charlie Crist this year, the Democratic frontrunner to lose the governor's race in 2018.

Steve Crisafulli. The incoming speaker now has a super-majority in the House, with Republicans defeating six incumbent Democrats (even after Fair Districts was expected to help Democrats).

America Rising. The GOP PAC was responsible for finding that C-SPAN clip of Miami Congressman Joe Garcia seeming to pick and eat his ear wax.

Dwight Dudley. The state representative from St. Petersburg was bashing Duke Energy long before it was cool and won re-election against a big name — Bill Young II — and some of the most shamelessly misleading campaign attacks about him being a Duke patsy. Unsolicited advice for the future? Tone down the anger a couple notches.

Patrick Murphy. The Democratic congressman unseated Allen West two years ago, and then managed to scare off formidable challengers before overwhelmingly winning re-election. A 20-point win over a challenger who spent more than $1 million? Sounds like a contender for U.S. Senate in 2016.

Elections supervisors. It was a strikingly smooth election across the board, in part because local elections officials pressed for more flexibility from Tallahassee.

TV stations. More than $104 million in broadcast TV spending by the gubernatorial candidates alone!

Losers

Charlie Crist. It was mighty close against a ton of money, but you still lost and now have the distinction of losing as a Republican, as an independent and as a Democrat. Watch your back, David Jolly. Your congressional seat looks like the best shot for Crist if he hasn't yet shaken the campaign bug.

John Morgan. Batted 0-for-2 on medical marijuana and Crist.

Bill Nelson. A major reason he gave for not running for governor — he was poised to chair the influential U.S. Senate Commerce Committee. So much for that dream now that Republicans won control.

Tom Steyer. The billionaire founder of NextGen Climate bet more on Florida than anywhere else — $15 million. I'm not a scientist, as Rick Scott would say, but Steyer's track record this cycle looks weak.

Nate Silver. The predictions guru blew the call on Scott vs. Crist.

Florida Democratic Chairwoman Allison Tant. The laws of physics wouldn't allow Florida Democrats to sink lower than they have now. Phone call for Alan Clendenin, the Tampa Democrat who ran against Tant.

Libertarians. Adrian Wyllie didn't even crack 4 percent in an election where the major candidates were widely disliked. How about you Florida Libertarians start winning a city council seat or two before you start whining endlessly about how much attention you deserve for running for offices in which you don't even influence the debate?

Tampa Bay. You're supposed to be the be-all and end-all in Florida politics, but Democrats have lost the past four races for governor, nominating candidates from Tampa Bay.

Miami-Dade. The candidates for governor lavished attention on you, each plucking running mates from Miami-Dade, and yet still you produced only 40 percent turnout.

Mark Pafford. Good thing Florida Democrats ousted Darryl Rouson as leader of their House campaign operation. They replaced him with Rep. Pafford of West Palm Beach, who oversaw the defeat of six Democratic House members.

Male-only fundraising invites. With all due respect to ousted North Florida congressman Steve Southerland, it's best not to suggest leaving "the missus" at home.

Tom Lee. Maybe you should spare us any more ballot initiatives, senator. Your Amendment 3 initiative on Supreme Court appointments went down in flames, unlike the amendment you spearheaded in 2006. But are you still proud to be the main person responsible for a (doomed) constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in Florida?