A seven-year effort to give voters more control over local growth decisions went down in defeat Tuesday as opponents of Amendment 4 rallied to defeat a proposal they said would have cost thousands of jobs and billions of dollars.

Republicans won control of the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday -- with a helping hand from Florida voters.

In a rematch from 2008, Allen West knocked out U.S. Rep. Ron Klein to return South Florida's 22nd Congressional District to Republican control. Tuesday's vote was almost an exact reversal of the tally two years ago.

While there were some dramatic races in the Sunshine State, including some pivotal victories that helped Republicans take control of the U.S. House, most of the states congressional races were not particularly close.

At 10:25 p.m. Tuesday, with 160,000 votes still to be counted in Palm Beach County and Republican outsider Rick Scott ahead of Democrat Alex Sink by 110,000 votes, Sunshine State News called the gubernatorial race for Scott.

Republican Pam Bondi will be Floridas first female attorney general.

What a difference four years make.

Outgoing Florida Senate President Jeff Atwater will remain in Tallahassee next year as the states chief financial officer.

Republican Adam Putnam will be the next Florida agriculture and consumer services commissioner after defeating Democrat Scott Maddox in a landslide victory Tuesday.

It's one and done for U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, who was trounced in his first re-election bid by Republican Daniel Webster in Central Florida's 8th Congressional District.