More Florida primary redux: Gelber wins, Bondi beating Kottkamp, D17 Dime

More races closing in the sunshine state:

Dan Gelber has defeated fellow State Sen. Dave Aronberg, 59% to 40%, setting up a showdown with, most likely, Pam Bondi, who is ahead of Lieutenant Gov. Jeff Kottkamp and fellow GOPer Holly Benson slightly — it’s 37%-33%-29% with 86 percent of precincts reporting. I’m sure Charlie Crist is smiling over his turncoat LG’s fate tonight. After all, Crist was the one whose political career was supposed to be ending tonight.

Just about every House incumbent easily won their race or ran unopposed. So much for the anti-incumbent wave!

In House District 8, Daniel Webster won the right to challenge Alan Grayson, defeating tea party favorite Todd Long and a long list of other challengers with 40% of the vote to Long’s 23% (96 percent of precincts reporting). This will be one to watch nationwide, if only for the Grayson soundbites.

Crazy Allen West is headed for victory in his primary, but in what could be an alarm bell for Democrats (and non-crazy people,) so far, the combined West-David Brady vote is larger than the Ron Klein vote vs. his primary opponent, although to be fair, Klein’s wasn’t much of a contest.

Both Joe Garcia and David Rivera won their primaries easily tonight, proving once again that nobody listens to Deroy Murdoch. Now comes the fun part for Democrats, who plan to paste David Rivera’s picture on the side of every mail truck crusing the Palmetto Expressway.

In the D17 dime, my early predictions that name recognition trumps money appear to be coming true, with State. Sen. Frederica Wilson winning the race to replace Kendrick Meek (she’ll face independent candidate Rod Vereen in November, and she’ll enter the race as a heavy favorite.) In a race with just 48,000 votes cast, Senator Wilson got 34.5 percent of the vote, versus 16% for self-funder Rudy Moise (who ran one of the nastier ad campaigns this cycle, targeting Wilson and Shirley Gibson), 12 percent for Gibson and 10 percent for Yolly Roberson. (And yes, an electric slide did indeed break out.) Marleine Bastien, whose armed robber is still at large, got 6 percent, tying NoMi councilman Scott Galvin, and the rest are in low single digits.

BTW James Bush, who gave up his newly won seat in State House District 109 to try and graduate to Congress, must be kicking himself right about now. His former competitor in that race, Cynthia Stafford, will now take the 109 seat, and he’ll take a powder. Bush tried boosting his wife Bernadine for the seat, but Stafford is beating her 44% to 24% with 54 percent of precincts reporting.

Staying in Miami-Dade, much to its shame, District 2 appears to have re-elected Dorrin Rolle. And county manager George Burgess, whose salary is higher than Rahm Emanuel’s, will have to find a new gig, though doubtful it will be as sweet.

While in Broward, former Miramer commissioner Barbara Sharief’s gamble on a county commission seat appears to have paid off, while in District 9, Dale Holeness, a very smart guy who played amateur political strategist for other candidates this cycle, appears to have beaten charismatic pol Carlton Moore.

And in the controversial, record number of judicial challenges in Broward, all of the incumbents, including the minority judges who faced challenges this cycle, appear to be safe.

By the way, if you haven’t played with it yet, do try Florida Election Watch from the DOE. It’s really addictive (if you’re nerdy.)

One more intersting set of numbers, which may or may not mean something going forward. If you look at the most hotly contested races, and add up the total Democratic vs. Republican votes, there are warning signs on the horizon for the Ds. As hot as the Meek-Greene contest was, Marco Rubio pulled in more votes by himself in his barely contested primary, than the four Democrats did combined:

Republican Primary:

Democratic primary:

Meanwhile, Alex Sink, who didn’t have a real primary, managed to pull in more votes than the guy who looks like the winner, Rick Soctt: although the combined Democratic vote in that race: 812,116, is still well below the combined GOP total of 1,238,792

Democratic primary:

Republican Primary: