Two weeks after battling with St. Lucie County election officials, South Florida GOP Congressman Allen West faced the music this morning and announced that he was conceding his race against Democrat Patrick Murphy.
His announcement comes after a recount of early votes showed Murphy gaining more votes, and it was apparent that count was not going to fall below the .05 percent threshold needed to trigger a machine recount in their 18th Congressional District race.
"While there are certainly still inaccuracies in the results, and the actions of the St. Lucie County and Palm Beach County Supervisors of Elections rightly raise questions in my mind and for many voters, after much analysis and this past weekend's recount in St. Lucie County, our legal team does not believe there are enough over-counted, undercounted or fraudulent votes to change the outcome of the election," West said in a statement early Tuesday morning.
Although he only served one term, West won't be easily forgotten. That's mainly because of his incendiary language against Democrats, comments that thrilled Tea Party members and the conservative base. West also had to run in an area with more Democrats voting in 2012 than 2010, thanks to Barack Obama's presence on the ballot. No Congressional race had more money spent on it.
But who knows? Alan Grayson, a fiercely partisan Democrat who was elected in 2008, lost his re-election bid in 2010, then came back to run again successfully for Congress this year. We may not have seen or heard the last of Mr. West.
The big news in the Tampa Bay area yesterday was the Chuck Sykes press conference detailing how there could be enough public funds available to pay for a new stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays if and when a plan to move from Tropicana Field comes to fruition – in some part of the Tampa Bay area.
Two weeks after the 2012 vote, visions of Americans waiting in six-hour lines is still fresh, which is why two new bills have already been introduced in Congress by Democrats that would attempt to clean up the election process.
And with the 2014 elections right around the corner (not really), Governor Rick Scott is surely going to do what he needs to do to make himself more popular. Responding to a request from good government types, Scott ordered an Inspector General to widen her scope into a growing scandal with Citizens Insurance.
This article appears in Nov 15-21, 2012.