While South Floridians went to the polls Tuesday to vote in special elections for two legislative seats, both races were very close -- in fact, the House election could be headed for a recount.
Turnout was extremely light with only 6 percent of the registered voters in the districts in Miami-Dade County showing up at the polls and a paltry 1.6 percent of the eligible voters in Broward County casting ballots in the House race.
Frederica Wilson vacated her seat in the Senate, which represented parts of Miami-Dade County, when she won election to Congress, and four former state representatives -- Oscar Braynon, Phillip Brutus, James Bush and Darryl Reaves --ran in the Democratic primary on Tuesday to take on Republican candidate, former North Miami mayor, Joe Celestin in March.
Braynon emerged victorious on Tuesday, but -- despite his considerable financial advantage -- it was a close race. Braynon took 41.3 percent with 4,068 votes with Brutus right behind him, taking 38.9 percent with 3,824. Bush placed third with 1,163 votes, 11.8 percent of the total votes cast. Reaves placed last with 783 votes which was 8 percent of the total.
As of Feb. 3, Braynon, who had the backing of many prominent Democrats, including former state CFO Alex Sink, had hauled in almost $178,000 in cash and spent more than $135,000. As of the same date, Brutus raised just under $9,700 and spent under $9,200.
Bushs last report was filed at the end of September and showed he had brought in $665 while Reaves raised more than $10,000, loaned his campaign $10,000 more and had the bulk of it on hand as of Jan. 14, having spentless than $2,750 as of that date. Brutus helped narrow the gap by active campaigning among the districts large Haitian-American community and by running ads on Creole radio stations.
The special election for the House seat Braynon vacated to run for the Senate proved even closer. With three Democrats running in the special election for the House seat, which was open to all voters, whoever won would be headed to Tallahassee.
Former Miami Gardens City Councilwoman Sharon Pritchett led the pack with 1,665 votes, which is 41.6 percent of all votes. Former Miami Gardens Vice Mayor Barbara Watson, who also served on the City Council, was 14 votes behind Pritchett, with 1,651 votes, 41.3 percent of the total.
Erhabor Ighodaro, an educator who served aschief of staff to the late Robert Ingram, a former member of the Miami-Dade County school board, placed a distant third with 684 votes, taking 17.1 percent of the total vote.
Ighodaro raised more than $20,000, including more than $800 in loans, through Feb. 3, but spent almost $17,000 of that. Pritchett raised more than $12,000, loaned her campaign more than $2,000, and spent just less than $8,500 as of Feb. 3. Watson raised more than $6,000, kicked in $7,100 in loans and spent almost $8,000 of that amount by Feb. 3.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
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