Pollsters Schoen, Sabato: Post-Florida, GOP Likely to Take Over Senate
Tuesday's stunning defeat of Alex Sink, one of the biggest Democratic names in Florida politics, at the hands of first-time candidate David Jolly in a special election indicates that Democrats will face a wave election in November and likely lose the U.S. Senate, several leading pollsters told Newsmax.
Jolly defeated Sink 48.5 percent to 46.7 percent in the 13th Congressional District election that filled the seat of the late Florida GOP congressman Bill Young. Libertarian Lucas Overby grabbed 4.8 percent.
Jolly's upset win was even more significant considering that Overby probably took votes from him disproportionately, pundits say. On Wednesday, Republicans touted what they called a harbinger for November while anxious Democrats tried to pooh-pooh the results.
There were a host of reasons why Sink was thought to have the advantage. When she ran for Florida governor in 2010, she not only won 2.5 million votes statewide, but carried the 13th district. Also, President Obama had carried the district in 2008 and 2012.
Democrats had been planning for years to grab the St. Petersburg-area district as soon as the popular Young retired. And unlike Jolly, Sink had no primary competition to fight through. Also, it is believed that she outspent her Republican opponent by well over $1 million.
There had been repeated sniping in recent weeks from GOP insiders that Jolly had run a mediocre campaign. NBC's chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd stated on his MSNBC show "The Daily Rundown" on Tuesday morning that Jolly's campaign performance had been "C-plus at best."
Yet despite these problems, and the likelihood that Libertarian Overby siphoned votes from Jolly, Sink still went down to defeat.Also read:
The Big Senate Battles of 2014 Are on More Pro-GOP Territory Than FL-13
Dems can't run on ObamaCare...can't hide from it either
RNC bullets on how Jolly won #FL13: pic.twitter.com/xOpJbFYFRR
— Patrick Ruffini (@PatrickRuffini) March 12, 2014
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