There are 120 members in the Florida House of Representatives, and nearly two-thirds of them are Republican.
The breakdown 41 days before Election Day is 76 Republicans and 44 Democrats. And yet there is definitely something at stake in terms of power heading into next year. Why? Well, if Alex Sink wins and becomes Florida's first Democratic Governor since 1998, we will have divided government in Tallahassee in the first time since the middle of the 1990's, and if the Florida House wants to override any vetoes by Sink, they'll need a two-thirds majority in that particular body.
Thus the Florida GOP would love to capture at least four more seats this November.
In the Tampa Bay area, there are two hotly contested contests that could decide whether that scenario plays itself out. One is in House District 57, which has been consistently Republican for many years in the seat that had been held by Faye Culp, now term limited out.
South Tampa Attorney and stay at home mom Dana Young got into the race to replace Culp last year, and was stunned and excited when Culp decided earlier this year to endorse her. She's running against first time political candidate Democrat Stacy Frank, who comes with a last name that has been prominent in Hillsborough Democratic politics for a generation in the person of her mother, now Clerk of the Circuit Courts Pat Frank.
