Important Race in Florida: GOP David Jolly WINS Special Congressional Election
GOP candidate David Jolly defeated Alex Sink in a special election for Florida’s 13th congressional district (Tampa area) on Tuesday. Jolly, who ran on border-enforcement, stopping amnesty, and repealing Obamacare, was outspent by Sink, “who cautiously embraced the health law – while insisting it needs fixing.”
According to Breitbart:
The race was widely considered a referendum on Obamacare, with top political prognosticators calling it a “must win” for Democrats in the weeks leading up to the election.
A Sink loss “would almost certainly be regarded by dispassionate observers as a sign that President Barack Obama could constitute an albatross around the neck of his party’s nominees in November,” Stuart Rothenberg, one of the most highly respected political handicappers in the country, wrote in Roll Call.
This was an unusually expensive race as Politico writes:
Both parties bet big on the race. National Republican groups — hoping to exploit a political environment that’s tilting in their favor — combined to spend nearly $5 million, much of it on tying Sink to the unpopular Affordable Care Act and painting her as a steadfast ally of President Barack Obama. Democrats, meanwhile, poured in nearly $4 million, much of it on portraying Jolly as a cold-hearted opponent of entitlement programs and abortion rights.
Individually, Sink outraised Jolly by $1.5 million. Jolly received 48.5 percent of the vote, Sink 46.6, and the Libertarian candidate, Lucas Overby, 4.8.
A referendum on Obamacare for 2014? We can only hope.
