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Verdict Is In: Catlin Wins

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By TODD PRATT

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 31, 2008

TAMPA - Call her Judge Catlin.

Results changed little Saturday after a recount between Catherine Catlin and incumbent Kevin Carey in the race for circuit judge. Catlin still emerged the winner.

"I'm so excited," she said. "It's a dream I had 24 years ago when I went to law school, and now it's become reality."

The recount, which was done for several hours Friday afternoon and was finished early Saturday afternoon, was required by state law after the results of Tuesday's primary showed Catlin leading Carey by a mere 209 votes. That was a winning margin of about a third of a percent; recounts are required when the two leading candidates are separated by less than half a percentage point.

The recount increased Catlin's margin of victory slightly, to 220. The figures, which will become final when certified next week, showed a tally of 30,912 votes for Catlin and 30,692 for Carey.
Catlin will officially assume her new position as a judge in the 13th Judicial Circuit on Jan. 6.

Carey said he accepted the results of the recount and wished Catlin well in her new position.

"We did want to see what the recount figures were, and they are what they are and we'll move on," he said.

Carey was elected to the position in 2002. Before that, he was a partner with the law firm Carlton Fields.

Editor Todd Pratt can be reached at tpratt@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7154.

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