Republican Gov. Rick Scott eked out a victory over Republican-turned-independent-turned-Democrat Charlie Crist, to win the governor’s race for another four-year term on Tuesday.
Scott, who made job creation the focus of his campaign and benefited from a recovering economy nation-wide, won with 48 percent of the vote to Crist’s 47 percent, and 70,000 votes separated the two.
In a campaign that consisted mostly of attacks against each other, Scott called for an end to divisiveness and a coming together of all Floridians.
“It’s time to put all the division behind us and come together. Forget the partisanship. Florida is a mission — and that is to keep growing,” Scott said in his victory speech. He also pledged not to let up on creating more jobs saying: “We will become No. 1 in job creation.”
Crist also called for unity saying, “We need to come together, we really do.” As he campaigned, he again suggested that expanding Medicaid to a million uninsured Floridians was important and would go a long way in that direction.
According to the Miami Herald, Crist won the counties in just four of the state’s media markets: Miami, Palm Beach, Tallahassee and Gainesville. Scott carried six, including Crist’s hometown market of Tampa as well as Orlando, Fort Myers, Jacksonville, Pensacola and Panama City.
