Throughout election season Annette Taddeo seemed like the long shot challenger, the hanger on, the third wheel reaping the benefits of two hotly contested races in neighboring districts. Though she presented herself as a smart and worthy candidate, and ran a good clean race, no one thought she would win, and she didn't. But the big surprise is that she actually did better in her race than Raul Martinez did in his. All along Martinez seemed like he had a shot; generating national media coverage, leading in various polls, and having the race graded as a toss up by some predictors.
Well, with 100% of precincts reporting in District 18 Taddeo scored 100,929 vote, roughly 42.3% of the ballots cast. Meanwhile in District 21, with 99% of precincts in District 21 Martinez has only tallied up about 97,184 of the votes, or 42.2% of the total.
I'm not sure if this is good news for Taddeo or bad news for Martinez (more likely), but the real loser is Miami-Dade, a Democratic leaning county where the majority of the populace is represented by Republicans in Congress. Viva La Gerrymandering.
