Although we don't expect to know for awhile about the two closest races in Hillsborough County – that being the District 1 seat between Republican Sandy Murman and Democrat John Dingfelder – and in District 5 – where Ken Hagan and Linda Saul-Sena's campaign descended into accusations of racism, along with indie candidate Jim Hosler, there will be at least two new members on the Board, both coming from Tallahassee.
One is Republican Victor Crist, who essentially switched jobs with Jim Norman (who by the way should be officially declared the winner in Senate District 12 any moment now) after serving 18 years in the Legislature. He is expected to win easily over independent Steven Morris.
Another Tallahassee lawmaker coming to serve in the county will be Les Miller, who is running against write-in candidate Dwight Bolden, in a race that contains no drama. That's because all of the media attention in this Democratic stronghold was focused on the primary back in August, when Miller challenged embattled incumbent Kevin White, and newcomer Valerie Godard.
In a stunning upset, Miller won a convincing victory, with White finishing dead last. There were lots of trash talked in that race.
Mark Sharpe is expected to win re-election easily as well in District 7, where he is running against perennial candidate Neil Cosentino, running as a write-in candidate. The drama ended in this heavily Republican district back in August as well, when Sharpe held off a Sam Rashid led campaign for young Josh Burgin. Burgin ran against the incumbent by strongly saying Sharpe was out of touch with the electorate with his strong backing of the penny transit tax. That support didn't hurt the former Navy lieutenant. Of course, we're all looking forward to seeing the results of the transit tax later tonight.
This article appears in Oct 28 – Nov 3, 2010.