Janet Cruz handily wins House District 58 race

Despite another low turnout at the polls, a clear majority of voters in state House District 58 has elected Democrat Janet Cruz as their new representative in Tallahassee.

She won the seat with 64 percent of the vote to Republican Hunter Chamberlin's 35 percent. Write-in candidate Jose Vazquez received 19 votes, or about one half of 1 percent of the total tally.

About 3,700 voters among the nearly 64,000 people in the district who are eligible to cast ballots did so Tuesday. That is about 400 more than the number of voters who participated in the Jan. 26 special Democratic and Republican primaries.

The seat became open in December when Rep. Michael Scionti, D-Tampa, announced he had accepted a job with President Obama's administration.

Cruz will complete the final months of Scionti's unfinished term. The seat again will be up for grabs in the general election in November. Cruz already has filed to run.

Chamberlin said he hasn't decided on a second run. "I'm thinking about it," he said. "I knew it was an uphill battle."

With such a low voter turnout, Chamberlin said there is no mandate from the voters, and he did manage to pick up some Democratic voters. He took what he knew to be unpopular positions on some issues including support for offshore oil drilling, but he said, "I got a lot of positive feedback."

Chamberlin congratulated Cruz on her win. "It was a very respectful campaign," he said.

Cruz immediately must turn to preparations for the 2010 legislative session in Tallahassee, which begins Tuesday. Two of Scionti's aides have been preparing briefs for her review, and Cruz said: "At 8 a.m. in the morning I'm going to turn the key to the district office and I am going to work."

She also settled one issue that plagued her during the campaign: her residence which previously was in South Tampa. State law requires elected representatives, but not candidates, to live in the district they represent.

Cruz, upon winning the election Tuesday, said she had signed a lease on a West Tampa condominium and "I'll be sleeping there tonight."

And she almost immediately will begin campaigning for the November election. "It was a hard fought race. I am a fighter and I intend to take my strength [to Tallahassee] and bring back to District 58 what the district is due."

Balancing the budget is the priority and "it takes the air out of everything we do," Cruz said. She plans to focus on creating jobs, incentives for small businesses and eco-friendly businesses.