Congressional Race Closeups: Steve Southerland Prevails; Lois Frankel Coasts

In CD 2, Republican Congressman Steve Southerland endured a spirited fight from former state Sen. Al Lawson, keeping his North Florida seat. Political observers called the race at 10 p.m. for the Panama City mortician with 320, 887 votes cast. Southerland had 53.26 percent of the the vote to Tallahassee Democrat Lawson's 46.74 percent.

In CD 22, a heavily Democratic district, the Democrat -- feisty former West Palm Beach mayor Lois Frankel -- was ahead of enthusiastic former state Rep. Adam Hasner by nearly 10 percentage points, 54.94 to 45.06. At that point, more than 286,000 votes had been counted. It was enough for political observers to call the race.

A handful of other congressional contests are close to resolution and remain close:

CD 10: Republican Congressman Daniel Webster leads Democrat Val Demmings, 51.86 to 48.14.

CD 18: The nail-biter of the night is on the Treasure Coast, where less than 2,000 votes separate Republican Congressman Allen West (50.33 percent) from energetic Democratic newcomer Patrick Murphy (49.67 percent).

CD 26: More votes need to be counted, but at this hour it looks fairly certain that Republican Congressman David Rivera, plagued with legal and ethical problems, will not be re-elected. Democrat Joe Garcia is beating him 53.82 to 42.89.