Elections were a nail biter in greater Daytona and Florida with governor's race

Dana Swanson columnist / Headline Surfer®By Dana Swanson
Dana's Domain
Political Columnist
 
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Thank goodness the Nov. 4 mid-term elections are over. With the polls having Democrat Chrlie Crist and Republican Rick Scott so close, every voter mattered for Florida.

I did not want us moving backwards to the days of high unemployment, high foreclosures and all the other baggage Crist would have brought moving forward had he won the governor's race again.

Thankfully, that wasn't the case as Scott won a second-four-year term.

One interesting thing in particular of note is how attorney John Morgan and the Democratic Party thought that putting the issue of medical marijuana on the ballot would put Crist over the top. But it did not work.

I heard from some poll greeters that some were going in and voting on marijauna but did not even vote for Crist for governor. The voters that Crist was counting on did not come through for him, after all.

I wonder if this will be the last we see of Crist after two party changes, a failed U.S. Senate race and now a failed governor's race. Will the Democrats say "sorry Charlie" and kick him to the curb? Probably so, unless they want to see a three-time loser.

I wonder if this will be the last we see of Crist after two party changes, a failed U.S. Senate race and now a failed governor's race. Will the Democrats say "sorry Charlie" and kick him to the curb? Probably so, unless they want to see a three-time loser.

 

I do not see where Crist could go from here in the political realm, but he is like a bad penny that keeps popping back.

Other locals in trouble with the law like Daytona Beach Commissioner Carl Lentz, IV, facing a misdemeanor battery charge with a bartender when he was trespassed from a strip club relier this year, lost to a candidate, who otherwise likely would not have won in Ruth Trager.

She has run for municipal office several times before and never came close. But this time, Trager won by more than 700 votes over Lentz who now finds himself out of office.