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© St. Petersburg Times, published November 6, 2002
Republican state Sen. Ginny Brown-Waite won Florida's 5th Congressional District seat Tuesday, narrowly defeating five-term incumbent U.S. Rep. Karen Thurman, whom the national Republican Party had targeted.
Brown-Waite, 59, declared victory with only a handful of precincts in heavily Republican Polk County outstanding and a lead of just more than 3,000 votes. She had remained holed up, away from her victory party in Spring Hill, until just after 10 p.m., when she felt confident enough to emerge.
"Are you all this excited because you've been waiting 10 years for this?" a grinning Brown-Waite asked the crowd, which kept chanting her name. "My two grandchildren are here, and it's all about their future."
Thurman called Brown-Waite just before 11 p.m. to congratulate her. She then gave a fiery speech to backers in which she urged them not to give up the fight for the issues they hold dear, such as Social Security and prescription drug reform.
"We knew it was going to be tough when they changed the district and took the voice away," Thurman said.
The state's Republican-dominated Legislature redrew District 5 to remove heavily Democratic Alachua and Columbia counties and replace them with more Republican-leaning portions of Polk, Sumter and Lake counties.
Brown-Waite bested Thurman in Pasco, Polk, Lake and Sumter counties. She lost her home base of Hernando, Thurman's home county of Citrus, Marion and Levy counties. She claimed a slim victory of 48 percent to 47 percent, which appeared to be outside the realm of a mandatory recount.
Thurman said she had not decided whether to ask for a recount.
No-party candidates Jack Gargan and Brian Moore received about 5 percent of the total vote combined. Write-in candidate David Werder received a handful of votes.
During the six-week campaign, Thurman and Brown-Waite focused on matters important to the senior citizen-heavy district, which includes all of Citrus and Hernando counties and east and central Pasco County. They argued about Social Security benefits, Medicare coverage, prescription drug costs, veterans services and taxes.
The race was marred by harsh negative advertisements -- many misleading.
-- Times staff writer Carrie Johnson contributed to this report.