Martinez Will Face Castor in Race for Florida’s Open Senate Seat
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Mel Martinez, the former Bush administration housing secretary hoping to become the first Cuban-American senator, won the Republican nomination for Senate yesterday in a primary that saw a mostly trouble-free test of the touch screen machines introduced after Florida’s punch-card fiasco in 2000.
In November, he will face Florida’s former education commissioner, Betty Castor, a Democrat who swept to an overwhelming victory yesterday as her party’s nominee.
Mr. Martinez’s run had quiet support from the White House, which had repeatedly urged him behind the scenes to seek the Senate seat. Republicans have predicted that Mr. Martinez could boost a large turnout among Cuban-Americans in South Florida and a growing Hispanic community in central Florida. As a teenage refugee, Mr. Martinez also had a compelling personal story that spoke to many Floridians.
In a field of seven Republicans, Mr. Martinez drew 42%, or 388,226 votes, with 74% of precincts reporting. Bill McCollum, his nearest rival and a former congressman who won the nomination in 2000, had 33%, or 304,630 votes.
Ms. Castor drew 59%, or 548,564 votes, with 84% of precincts reporting.
Earlier this week, Mr. McCollum called on Mr. Martinez to repudiate a campaign mailing that called Mr. Mc-Collum “the new darling of the homosexual extremists” for supporting a hate-crime bill that included protection for gays. Mr. Martinez refused. Mr. McCollum accused him of practicing “the politics of bigotry and hatred.”
At stake is the seat held by Democratic Senator Graham, who is retiring after three terms. The winner of the November election could help determine control of the Senate.
Florida is one of just eight states with open seats in the Senate, which has 51 Republicans, 48 Democrats, and one Democrat-leaning independent.
The balloting was a critical test of the touch screen machines introduced after the 2000 presidential election, when punch-cards were responsible for delaying the outcome of the race between George Bush and Al Gore for more than a month. There were no immediate reports of serious problems in yesterday’s voting, which was closely watched by voter rights groups.
Although the Republican race was close in the polls until the end, the Democratic race was consistently led by Ms. Castor, who was helped by name recognition built during two statewide campaigns as education commissioner and her tenure as president of the University of South Florida.
Despite reports from some voter watch groups, Secretary of State Glenda Hood said her office had no reports of major problems after the last of the polls closed, even in the most populous counties and those hit hardest by Hurricane Charley.
But groups skeptical of the new touch screen voting machines said the November election would not necessarily be as trouble-free.
“These machines haven’t been independently tested, they don’t have an audit trail,” said a lawyer working with the Election Protection coalition, Cindy Cohn. “This idea that we have to cross our fingers and hope everything went okay is no way to run an election.”