Republican Mel Martinez claimed victory as he held onto a slim lead early Wednesday in the race to replace Sen. Bob Graham. Democrat Betty Castor refused to concede and she was preparing to challenge the results. Martinez led by 79,067 votes out of more than 7.1 million counted as he hoped to become the first Cuban-American senator. Castor was trying to become the state's first woman senator since Graham beat Republican Paula Hawkins 18 years ago. With 7,178 of 7,241 precincts reporting, Martinez had 3,542,919 votes, or 49 percent, compared with Castor's 3,462,952 votes, or 48 percent. Veterans Party candidate Dennis Bradley had 161,880 votes.
Castor, though, wasn't willing to give up. "What we are anxious to do is find out what the final vote is and when we find out what the final vote is, we will make some decisions," she said, estimating that about 250,000 votes were still uncounted. Castor spokesman Dan McLaughlin, said the campaign hired lawyer Eric Kleinfeld and said it was preparing for a possible challenge. He called Martinez's victory claim "the height of arrogance."
| I guess we all have our own definition of "the height of arrogance." |
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