State senator wins Fla. congressional race

BROOKSVILLE, Fla., Nov. 6 (UPI) -- Republican Ginny Brown-Waite was declared the winner of the Florida District 5 congressional seat on Wednesday.

She won the hotly contested race against 10-year incumbent Democrat Karen Thurman despite being outspent 2-1.

With 99 percent of the votes counted, Brown-Waite had 48 percent, taking 4,200 votes more of the 250,000 cast than Thurman, who received 46 percent.

The remaining 3 percent went to independent Jack Gargan.

Although Thurman has not formally conceded, she did call Brown-Waite to offer congratulations. The election will not be considered final until all absentee ballots are counted.

"We knew that we were never going to be able to compete on the airwaves financially, so we knew if we couldn't win in the air, we'd win on the ground," Brown-Waite said of her campaign.

She plans to go to Washington on Monday for the freshman congressional orientation.

She believes that she won "because of the tax increases that she (Thurman) voted for, that she voted against tax reductions and that she voted to raid the Social Security trust fund. I think these are the issues that resonated the most with constituents."

Thurman said recent redistricting by the Florida Legislature to eliminate Democratic strongholds from her district cost her the election. She also claimed her record in Congress was distorted by her opponent's campaign.

Brown-Waite served 10 years in the Florida state senate, leaving that seat due to term limits. She was also a former legislative aide in her prior home of New York state.