Posey picked to replace Weldon

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Posey picked to replace Weldon

BY JOHN McCARTHY
FLORIDA TODAY

Bill Posey is going to Washington.

The Rockledge Republican easily won the four-way congressional race to replace the retiring Dave Weldon in the 15th Congressional District.

With 333 of 334 precincts reporting, these were the totals:

Posey: 191,341

Stephen Blythe: 151,031

Frank Zilaitis: 14,228

Trevor Lowing: 3,472

Blythe was the Democratic candidate. Zilaitis and Lowing ran with no party affiliation.

“I am truly humbled by the results of this election. . . . I look forward to serving with all the members of Congress — both new and old, Republican and Democrat,” Posey said.

A state senator, Posey had campaign experience and funding that none of his opponents had. By the middle of October, Posey had spent $620,000 on the race, far more than all his opponents combined.

Still, he said it was his experience — in both houses of the Legislature and previously on the Rockledge City Council — that was the deciding factor.

“Twenty-six years of working hard, serving the people of Florida,” he said.

Posey handily bucked the nationwide trend of open Republican seats going to Democrats.

“It’s been a grueling race,” Posey said. “You never know about these things until they are over.”

Blythe said he had no regrets about running.

“It’s been fun. I can’t think my supporters and volunteers enough,” Blythe said.

But Blythe pointed out that the lack of formal party support could make it harder to attract good Democratic candidates for the district in the future. “It’s just a shame that with an open seat, they didn’t think it was worth the effort to put the money into it,” he said.

Zilaitis, who ran a campaign based on replacing federal income taxes with a national sales tax, agreed that the campaign was grueling, but added that it also was fulfilling.

“I just wanted to do it Frank Sinatra-style, my way,” he said.

Unlike Weldon, who was swept into office in the “Republican Revolution” in 1994, Posey will head into a Congress where he will be in the minority. He said that doesn’t bother him.

“I look forward to serving with all the members of Congress — both new and old, Republican and Democrat,” Posey said.

Posey plans to continue to focus on what has become his central political theme: government accountability.

Contact McCarthy at 752-5018 or .