After months of campaigning, three debates and millions of dollars spent on campaign advertising, Rick Scott won re-election by the smallest of margins. Scott earned 2,846,127 votes to opponent Charlie Crist’s 2,769,381 (48% to 47% of the vote in very low voter turn-out).

Former Gov. Charlie Crist, a Republican-turned-independent-turned-Democrat, conceded Florida’s close gubernatorial race against GOP Gov. Rick Scott at around midnight.

“I called Governor Scott and I congratulated him,” Crist said Tuesday night at his election night headquarters around midnight. “And I wish him the best.”

Crist said his campaign made the decision to concede after “the gap got to 100,000″ votes.

“Losing is not fun. But what is most important is that we come together as a state,” he said. “This was a tough election, and I understand that. I wish Gov. Scott the best. And his family. But I wish the best also for our state.”

Speaking from his campaign headquartered, Scott said, “”I have two great pieces of news for the people for Florida,” Scott said at his election night party. “First I’m not going to give a long speech. And second, the campaign is over.”

“You know what they say about democracy. It’s messy, but it’s absolutely the best form of government there is,” he continued.

It was a nail-biter for both Florida gubernatorial candidates with Republican Rick Scott watching the votes come in from his campaign party headquarters in the Hyatt Regency Coconut Point Resort in Bonita Springs, not far from his Naples, Florida, home.  His competitor Charlie Crist spent the final hours of his campaign watching the election results at the Renaissance Vinoy in his hometown of St. Petersburg.

Scott, the incumbent governor, spend his day accompanied by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, crisscrossing the state by plane, thanking his supporters and campaign workers. He started the day in Miami, then traveled to Tampa, Orlando, the Panhandle, and Jacksonville ending his day in Lakeland and The Villages, the mega-retirement complex that’s a mandatory destination for Republican candidates.

Crist countered with a last-minute appearance with former President Bill Clinton at a nighttime student rally at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. It was the final stop on a bus tour that took Crist and his running mate, Annette Taddeo, through the heart of the South Florida Democratic base including stops in Allapattah and Lauderdale Lakes, inner-city areas that many African-American voters call home.

The race was ugly, it was personal and highly caustic between two polarizing political figures. It is said that Scott and Republicans spent much more money than Democrats.

The campaigns combined spent at least $104 million on TV ads since March, the majority from Scott, who is said to have spent $100 million on his re-election effort. Most of the ads have been negative.

Half of all voters cast their ballots in early voting locations, setting a new high for the state. That total includes a Sunday surge of thousands of Democrats, many of them African-Americans, who helped to shrink the Republicans’ pre-election ballot advantage to slightly more than 100,000 votes.

While there were no tallies available for the way gays cast their ballots, traditionally a slim majority were favoring Charlie Crist who endorsed same-sex marriage and the marijuana initiative.

Regarding that Amendment vote, Associate Press projected that the Florida voters have rejected the sale and distribution of medical marijuana in the state. While 57% of voters cast their ballots to pass Amendment 2, it did not reach the necessary 60 percent required to pass.

The campaign for medical marijuana was among the most expensive ballot measures in the country, with millions spent on both sides.

In other voting news, Wilton Manors voters re-elected incumbent Mayor Gary Resnick and Commissioner Scott Newton to office, while selecting former Commissioner Justin Flippen over incumbent Ted Galatis.

Flippen led all candidates in the seven-way race for two commission seats, while Resnick fended off two challengers.

The mayor was thrilled with securing another win, saying the city was heading in the right direction.

“Everyone’s very happy in Wilton Manors,” Resnick told the Sun Sentinel. “Even my opponents didn’t say anything about the city. There was no reason to fire the existing mayor.”

The Agenda will have full voting news from across the state in next week’s issue.

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