Scott elected governor, promises 'better days' for Florida

Florida's next governor, tea party-backed Republican Rick Scott, accepted his new job today by promising the state "better days are coming."

Scott defeated Democrat Alex Sink, who conceded the close race this morning during a phone call to Scott. "The people of Florida knew exactly what they wanted," Scott said to supporters at a gathering in Fort Lauderdale.

"Starting today, I work for every Floridian. Today is the end of politics as usual in Tallahassee. Today, we are going to work for the common good."

With more than 5.28 million votes cast in Tuesday's election, Scott's lead was about 53,000, with only a few votes remaining to be counted in South Florida.

Scott said he received a "gracious call" from Sink, who "ran quite a race."

Supporters cheered, and Scott went on:"Today I have a message for thousands of (struggling and out-of-work) Floridians: Don't give up. I give you my word, better days are coming.

"We're going to look at everything Florida does with fresh eyes to see how we can do it better. Here in Florida, our problems are solvable. Even in hard times, Florida is pretty close to paradise."

The election margin, although slim, was enough to convince Sink the race was over. She gave her concession speech from Tampa, saying she was proud of her staff and the people who voted for her.

"We fought very, very hard," she said from a podium at the Tampa Marriott Waterside at 10:30 a.m. today. "We heard those voices from every one of those 67 counties here in Florida.

"So many people who love our state and care deeply about our future gave their time, their money, their toil, sweat even their tears this morning for this campaign.

"I've lived a long time. I've seen lot of ups and downs. Every morning, we wake up to a new day and to another day. The sun is shining on Florida, and my greatest hope is the sun will continue to shine for the state of Florida."

The hotly contested race kept voters in suspense until this morning mainly because of ballot-counting issues in Palm Beach County.

As of this morning, Scott had a lead of 48.81 percent to Sink's 47.8 percent.

Palm Beach County again became the focus of Election Day attention as vote counters there continued counting until early this morning, according to Sun-Sentinel.com in a story posted shortly before 8 a.m.

Palm Beach County is the same county that drew widespread attention in the legally contested 2000 presidential election. The Palm Beach County Canvassing Board - responsible for approving election results - was to reconvene this morning after breaking away at 3 a.m., the newspaper reported.

Palm Beach election officials told the newspaper that 10 cartridges had not been reading properly and ballots instead had to be pulled and counted using a high-speed reader.

Scott, a multimillionaire businessman from Naples who spent an unprecedented $73 million of his personal wealth on the election, benefited from tying Sink to President Barack Obama, whose popularity has plummeted over the last year.

Sink, meanwhile, had tried to make the race a referendum on Scott's character. The Democrat pounded Scott for months over the history of Medicare fraud at his former health care company, of which he was CEO at the time, and blasted him for dodging questions during depositions.

But Scott dissected Sink's own track record in the private sector to connect her to fraud charges. The Republican also leapt on Sink's experience as CFO, blaming her for recession-era losses in the state pension fund and criticizing her office's decisions to allow ex-felons to work in the insurance industry.

Scott's election ushers in a new era of unprecedented conservatism, as the tea party favorite ascends to office alongside the most conservative Legislature in recent Florida history.