House Appropriations Chairwoman Denise Grimsley's campaign for a Senate seat this year has received relatively little attention.

Except in one way: Grimsley, R-Sebring, collected $914,348 in contributions, making her the top fundraiser in Tuesday's legislative elections.

Candidates faced a Friday deadline for filing finance reports that offer the final snapshot of how much money has been flying into campaigns.

Are you black, or a woman? If so, you can't cast a vote for your U.S. senator. But that's OK. No one else can, either.

Such was the state of affairs from 1787 to 1913. Few Americans today know that for the first 126 years of the nations existence, United States senators were not popularly elected. Rather, they were appointed or elected by every states legislature. The U.S. Senate was intended to be a quasi-aristocratic check on the much more directly democratic U.S. House of Representatives, whose members were popularly elected.

"I don't know," a very wise and skeptical Washington political analyst confided to me on Sunday as I limned the Romney victory I foresee. "I'd like to believe it," she said, "but I have to overlook a lot. If you're right, then a whole lotta state polls have to be wrong."

Today is E-Day: Election Day. The day Florida and the nation have striven toward with sweat and hope and fury for what seems like the past four years.

After more than 12 months of intense swing-state focus, Florida has seen a record number of candidate visits and political ads.

Hopefully, well know how Floridians voted this year on the presidential contest, a U.S. Senate race, the state constitutional amendments, Supreme Court retention, and congressional, legislative and local contests without having to go deep into E-Day plus one or more.

This isn't Vegas, but I've got my crystal ball and I'm willing to make a few wagers on the Election 2012 landscape 48 hours from now. Not all the races, just the ones I think are the tightest or most interesting in Florida.