By Matt Wiley
It’s been nearly a month since the 2014 Midterm General Election and the completed, “official” results are in. While our state’s governor keeps his seat and medical marijuana likely will appear again on a future ballot, a New Tampa resident who used to represent our area in the Florida House of Representatives has unseated the incumbent (and fellow New Tampa resident), who defeated him for the same seat in 2012.
Of the more than 40,000 registered voters in the 12 voting precincts in New Tampa’s 33647 zip code, only 19,186 submitted ballots, for a turnout of 47.6 percent (see chart). Our area’s General Election turnout was just short of Hillsborough County’s 49.13-percent (376,306 ballots cast of more than 765,000 registered voters) and a little further below the state’s turnout of 50.34 percent (with slightly more than 6 million ballots cast of nearly 12 million registered voters).
The highest voter turnout in New Tampa was in Precinct 358, which voted at the Compton Park Recreation Center in Tampa Palms, where there were 1,042 ballots cast of 1,719 registered voters in Precinct 358, for a turnout of more than 60 percent. The lowest voter turnout in our precincts came from Precinct 356, which voted at the New Tampa Family YMCA (located on Compton Dr., also in Tampa Palms), where only 129 ballots were cast among the precinct’s 463 registered voters, for a dismal total voter turnout of only 27.86 percent.
Mr. Harrison Returns To Tally
On the local front, former Dist. 63 Rep. Shawn Harrison (R-New Tampa) was elected to the Florida House of Representatives for the second time, retaking the seat he previously held from 2010-12 from Rep. Mark Danish (D-New Tampa), who defeated Harrison for the same seat two years ago in the 2012 General Election.
Harrison, a Hunter’s Green resident, was able to narrowly defeat Danish (of Arbor Greene) in this election by fewer than 3,000 votes to regain the seat, receiving just more than 52 percent of the District’s vote. However, Harrison actually only won two of New Tampa’s precincts and 46.5 percent of our area’s vote to Danish’s 48.6 percent.
“It feels great (to get elected again),” Harrison says. “Redemption is a powerful motivator. I am honored to once more be representing New Tampa in the Florida House.”
Harrison says that he attributes his re-election to “old-fashioned hard work,” adding that he thinks that knocking on the doors of voters in New Tampa and across the District and explaining policy differences between him and incumbent Rep. Danish played a large part in his victory.
“I’m ready to get to work right away,” Harrison explains. “There is no learning curve for me. I want to hear from constituents about the issues that are important to them. There are no party lines in District 63, just the same common-sense, bipartisan effective representation that I have always tried to achieve.”
Victor Crist Wins Reelection
In other local races, a long-time New Tampa resident has been re-elected to continue serving on the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC), as Republican Victor Crist defeated Democrat Elizabeth Belcher, with 55.98 percent of the county’s vote, to keep his District 2 seat. However, Crist received just 45.1 percent of New Tampa’s vote, where he won just five of 12 precincts. “I appreciate the support and am glad to be welcomed back,” Comm. Crist said. “There’s still much work to be done in the county.”
Crist, a Hunter’s Green resident, added that he plans to stay focused on reforming government agencies to be more transparent. He says one example is the county’s Public Transportation Commission, in which he wants to work to reform the agency’s rules and guidelines. Crist also is a strong advocate for the proposed cultural center and dog park on the 80 acres of county land across from the entrance to Hunter’s Green. Look for an update about that project in a future issue.
State Remains Largely Republican
As you know, Republican Gov. Rick Scott narrowly won his re-election bid against Democrat Charlie Crist (with 48 percent of the state’s vote to Crist’s 47 percent), in what has been called the most expensive campaign in Florida’s history. Gov. Scott won re-election by just 65,000 votes, a similar margin of victory as he had against Democrat Alex Sink in 2010. This year, Libertarian gubernatorial hopeful Adrian Wyllie was only able to manage 3.8 percent of the state’s vote and two candidates with no party affiliation garnered only 1 percent combined.
Crist actually took Hillsborough County, where he collected 48.29 percent of the vote, while Gov. Scott gathered just 45.59 percent and Wyllie received 4.82 percent of the county’s vote. Crist’s margin over Scott in Hillsborough County was just more than 10,000 votes. And, Crist also actually defeated Scott in ten of New Tampa’s 12 precincts by a total of just 1,090 votes.
In other races, Republican Pam Bondi retained the office of Florida’s Attorney General, as she defeated Democratic hopeful George Sheldon with 55 percent of the state’s vote, to Sheldon’s 47 percent. Bondi won in Hillsborough by nearly 37,000 votes (53.46 percent of the county’s vote to Sheldon’s 43.43 percent) and Libertarian opponent Bill Wohlsifer collected just 3 percent of the county’s vote. In New Tampa, however, Bondi won only half of our precincts.
Meanwhile, New Tampa’s voting precincts have nearly 15,000 registered Democrats to just more than 12,500 Republicans, which is reflected in our area’s vote for the governor’s mansion and Crist’s County Commission seat, but not so much for the attorney general and the Dist. 63 House seat.
More Results…
Also winning election on Nov. 4 were several local candidates to serve on Community Development District (CDD) Boards of Supervisors, including Michael Candella (38.68%) over Amy Eckhardt (36.65%) and Valerie Olivito Casey (24.66%) in Arbor Greene CDD’s Seat 1. In addition, Thomson George defeated Alexander K. Levy (50.51% – 49.49%) for Arbor Greene’s Seat 2; Joyce Hepscher defeated Vicki Castro 57.14% – 42.86% for the Cory Lakes CDD Seat 4 and Daryl W. Rucker (52.88%) defeated Michael J. Colitz, III, (47.12%) for the Tampa Palms OST (Open Space & Transportation) CDD’s Seat 1.
And finally, the controversial Amendment 2, which would have legalized medical marijuana in the state, fell a little short of the necessary 60 percent “Yes” vote it needed on election night to pass. Statewide, Amendment 2 received the support of just 57.62 percent of voters. In Hillsborough, the amendment also “failed” by receiving only 57.9 percent approval, but 63.9-percent of New Tampa’s 12 voting precincts supported Amendment 2.
Congratulations to all of those elected from the New Tampa Neighborhood News. For more information and complete 2014 Midterm Election election results, please visit VoteHillsborough.org.
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