The voting is over, ballots have been cast, and even though all the results may not be in--Florida has spoken. Many voters voiced their frustration with the long lines and are demanding to know: why did the state shorten early voting and what went wrong on election night? President Obama won this election, but the biggest news in Florida is the state's continued troubles with administering an election.
In this special, host Phil Latzman, along with the Miami Herald's Sergio Bustos and Patricia Mazzei, speak to current and former Florida lawmakers to analyze the election results and what they mean going forward.
Congresswoman Deborah Wasserman-Schultz (D-20) joins us from Chicago and tells us how the election results will affect negotiations between the parties in the next congressional session. Former Democratic Senator Bob Graham offers what the future holds for the relationship between the newly re-elected President and the split legislative houses. Congressman Ted Deutch (D-19) hopes that the addition of more Democratic representatives from South Florida will help get more accomplished in Washington.
Former Republican Senator George LeMieux gives the takeaway for the Republican party from this election: it needs to be the party of the common man and woman, and it needs candidates with better stories. Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-18) agrees that the GOP needs better outreach to African-American and Latino voters. She adds that one response to this "election disaster" of long voter lines is to encourage more absentee voting.
At the state level, Republicans lost their supermajority in the state Senate with, among others, the win of Democratic Maria Sachs against Republican Ellyn Bogdanoff in Senate District 34. State Senators Anitere Flores and Nan Rich discuss how Election Day results will impact Tallahassee lawmaking and what the failure of most of the proposed state constitutional amendments tells us about the makeup of the prior legislature.
