Scott wins second term by just under 76,000 votes

Republican's margin of victory 1.1% -- narrower than 2010 election

Gov. Rick Scott spoke to supporters about 11:30 p.m.

BONITA SPRINGS, Fla. – Gov. Rick Scott narrowly won re-election Tuesday in one of the nastiest and most expensive governor's races in Florida history, completing a political resurrection that many observers thought almost impossible a year and a half ago.

With all the state's precincts reporting, Scott claimed 48.2 percent of the vote, to 47 percent for former Gov. Charlie Crist, a Republican turned Democrat. Libertarian Adrian Wyllie claimed almost 3.8 percent of the vote, far below what many polls had shown before the election. Scott beat Crist by fewer than 76,000 votes out of more than 5.9 million cast.

"We have made great strides in the last four years, but we cannot rest on our laurels," Scott told cheering supporters at the Hyatt Regency Coconut Point in Bonita Springs. "Now is the time to charge boldly ahead."

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The race was yet another example of Scott confounding political observers who expected him to lose a race. In 2010, then-Attorney General Bill McCollum was favored to beat Scott in the Republican primary election, and then-Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink appeared at one point to be ahead in the general election. Instead, both lost.

This time, Scott was facing a charismatic former governor who enjoyed high approval ratings during his four years in the state's top job. Crist, who bolted the Republican Party in 2010 and become an independent to avoid losing a GOP primary for U.S. Senate, easily won the 2014 Democratic gubernatorial primary and hammered Scott as a plutocrat out of touch with everyday Floridians.

After first signalizing he would might challenge the result of the tight race, Crist called Scott after 11 p.m. to congratulate him, then briefly spoke to somber supporters shortly before midnight.

Joined by his wife, Carole and running mate Annette Taddeo, Crist took the stage in a nearly empty ballroom at the Vinoy Renaissance resort in St. Petersburg to call for unity.

 "We need to come together. We really do," Crist said.

 Crist was interrupted when he said he had called Scott and congratulated him. "Demand a recount!" a supporter cried out.

 A Crist aide said in a 35-second conversation with Scott, the former governor mentioned the expansion of Medicaid, one of his top campaign issues.

 "I know we had a lot of differences in this race," Crist said. "That was pretty clear. But one thing that we talked about that was common ground was to expand Medicaid for about a million of our fellow Floridians."

Scott also talked of the need to bring the state together after a brutal campaign that featured about $100 million in advertising, much of it harshly negative and often personal.

"It's time to put all the division behind us and come together," Scott said. "Forget about all the partisanship. Florida is on a mission. And that mission is to keep growing, and to become the very best place in the world to get a job, to raise a family, and live the American dream."

UNCUT:  Scott claims victory | Crist concedes

Much of Scott's margin in the race came from racking up big victories in north Florida and small and medium-sized counties. In fact, while his margin of victory was smaller than his 2010 election over Alex Sink, Scott's share of the vote was higher in Duval and other northeast Florida counties than during his first election.

Breakdown of governor's vote by region, area counties

The Scott victory brings to an end a brutal and unique campaign between two governors. While the candidates traded the usual charges and countercharges of an election, the fight between Crist and Scott seemed unusually intense.

Scott always addressed Crist by his first name in debates, and pro-Scott commercials slammed Crist as a "lousy governor." Crist blasted Scott for the latter's conservative record, complaining in a book written before the election of everything from Scott's decision to reject federal support for high-speed rail to his removal of Crist's personal barber from a state board.

Scott and his supporters relentlessly attacked Crist as a flip-flopper who can't be trusted and who drove the state into an economic meltdown before Scott took office four years ago.

Crist, who previously ran statewide as a Republican three times and as an independent once, painted Scott as a wealthy Republican who, like others in the party, is out of touch with everyday Floridians.

Crist and his supporters also tried to capitalize on Scott's tenure as chief executive of Columbia/HCA, a hospital corporation that paid more than $1 billion in fines to the federal government for Medicare fraud, the largest fine in the nation's history at the time.

Crist's campaign banked on an intensive ground game, shepherded by staffers who helped President Barack Obama nail down victories in 2008 and 2012 in swing-state Florida, to reverse the typically lackluster Democratic turnout in mid-term elections like this year.

Crist enlisted Taddeo, who was raised in Colombia and is a former county chairwoman of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party, as his running-mate with an eye on drumming up support from women and Hispanics, two demographics considered critical for a win in Florida.

And Crist also focused on black voters, who, like Hispanics, tend to vote in huge numbers during presidential elections and who played a large role in Obama's Florida victories in the past two elections, but whose turnout drops off significantly in mid-terms.

Scott remained focused during the campaign on themes such as bringing jobs to the state.

After a difficult first year in office that saw his approval ratings at near-historic lows, Scott tried to broaden his appeal, focusing on politically popular issues such as increases in education funding --- after slashing school spending in his first budget. He also supported a bill this year that grants in-state college tuition rates to some undocumented immigrants.

He also used a vacancy in the lieutenant governor's office caused by the resignation of Jennifer Carroll to appoint former lawmaker Carlos Lopez-Cantera, a Republican who became Miami-Dade County property appraiser after leaving the House. Lopez-Cantera is the first Latino to hold the lieutenant-governor post in Florida's history.

Crist's loss Tuesday night may mark the end of his political career just six years after he was considered for the Republican nomination for the vice presidency.

"Thank you, all of you in this room and all of you across Florida who helped us in this effort," he said. "I will never forget you. I will always be in debt to you. You are the most wonderful friends a person could ever hope for."