In the Florida Primary, there were no surprises. Romney beat Gingrich by a 14% margin, largely because he spent almost ten times what Gingrich spent on advertising. Santorum was a distant third and Ron Paul mattered so little that he could not even pull 10%. Gingrich was such a bad loser that he did not even give Romney the customary phone call congratulating him. Romney won 50 delegates, but that’s more complicated than meets the eye. We’ll go into that. Also, we’ll cover the Important Election.

Here are the election results for Florida.

Florida Goose Stepper Votes Percent Delegates Romney 771,842 46% 50 Gingrich 531,294 32% 0 Santorum 222,248 13% 0 Paul 116,776 7% 0 Total 1,642,160

And here is the latest delegate count.

Delegates Romney 84 Gingrich 27 Paul 10 Santorum 8

Florida gets only 50 delegates, instead if their normal 99, because The Republican controlled state government moved up the primary earlier that RNC rules would permit. The RNC penalized Florida by taking half their delegates. The RNC also has a new rule forbidding winner take all primaries. But the government of Florida broke that rule too, figuring that they have already received the RNC’s maximum punishment. However, at the convention, any Gingrich supporter can challenge the distribution of delegates to the credentials committee. They may well override Florida and redistribute the delegates proportionally.

The most important thing to know is that if any of these candidates becomes President, YOU lose!

In the important election, I’m pleased to announce that Suzanne Bonamici is Oregon’s new representative in the First Congressional District, and congratulate her on a well deserved win.

Currently, Bonamici leads 54% to 39% with 68% of precincts in.