Notes: Gov. Rick Scott (R) won a second term, defeating former Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, running as a Democrat, by little more than 1-percent.

A couple of events from early 2013 provide context.  On Feb. 20, in an surprising move Scott, a strong critic of Obamacare, announced his support for limited Medicaid expansion (>).  In March 2013 Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carrroll  resigned amid an investigation.  The office of lieutenant governor was to remain vacant for 10 months.  Finally on Jan. 14, 2014 Scott announced Carlos Lopez-Cantera, property assessor for Miami-Dade County, as his lieutenant governor; the choice was seen as likely to boost Scott in South Florida and among the Cuban-American community.  Lopez-Cantera had previously served as House Minority Leader before being term-limited out of the legislature.  
 
On the Democratic side, former Senate Minority Leader Nan Rich was first to enter the race, but lagged in fundraising.  On Dec. 7, 2012 Crist announced he was switching to the Democratic Party; he filed to run for governor on Nov. 1, 2013 and announced his candidacy on Nov. 4.

Crist, who was elected governor as a Republican in 2006, served one term but opted to run for U.S. Senate in 2010.  He ended up running as non party affiliated in the general election, losing to Marco Rubio (R).   

Crist announced Annette Taddeo-Goldstein, chair of the Miami-Dade County Democratic Party, as his running mate on July 17.  Taddeo, a Columbian American, owned a translation business and had run unsuccessfully for Congress in 2008 and Miami-Dade County Commission in 2010. 

In the Aug. 26 primaries, Crist defeated Rich by 74.4% to 25.6%, while Scott won with 87.6% of the vote.

Scott and Crist engaged in two debates.  The first at Broward College in Davie on Oct. 15 was memorable for the "fangate" dispute over a fan under Crist's podium which delayed the start of the debate (>).  The second meeting took place in Jacksonville on Oct. 21 and was broadcast by CNN (>).

Crist's manager Omar Khan later summed up the race, "Managed a $48M, 170-person campaign that achieved the then best Democratic margin in a Florida governor’s race in 20 years."

The Miami Herald estimated that from Mar.-Nov. 2014 more than $103 million was spent on TV ads in the governor's race, $67.96 million for Scott and $35.6 million for Crist.  The Center for Public Integrity pointed out that most of the spending was by outside groups. 




Campaign Managers:
Rick Scott:  Melissa Sellers
(Jan. 2014)  Communications director to Gov. Scott , Sept. 2012-Jan. 2014.  Director of regional media for the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa, May-Aug. 2012.  Communications director to Gov. Bobby Jindal (LA), 2008-Dec. 2011.  Press secretary on Michael Steele for U.S. Senate (MD), 2006.  Press secretary to U.S. Rep. Jim Nussle (IA), June-Dec. 2005.  Northeast regional media coordinator on Bush-Cheney '04. Managed Kris Gillespie's campaign for a Texas House in 2002.  Degree in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin.  Interned on the 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign in Austin, TX.

Charlie Crist:  Omar Khan
(Feb. 2014)  Director of public engagement for the U.S. EPA, Dec. 2013-Feb. 2014.  Director of congressional and ntergovernmental relations for the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force, Feb.-Dec. 2013.  National associate political director on Obama for America re-election to Nov. 2012. Congressional liaison for HUD, May 2009-Feb. 2012.  Deputy political director for the Tampa region on Obama's Campaign for Change, July-Nov. 2008; started on the Obama campaign on Nevada on voter outreach and in New Mexico and Texas as a field organizer, and then taking the role of operations director for the Texas Democratic State Convention.   Nevada state field director for Biden for President, Mar. 2007-Jan. 2008.  Deputy political director for Florida Senate Democrats, Sept. 2005-Dec. 2006.  Deputy campaign manager for Florida House targeted race in Pasco Co.; also Tampa Bay area college outreach coordinator for the FDP, June-Nov. 2004.  B.A. in political science from the University of South Florida, 2004; student body president, 2003-04 and appointed to the USF’s Board of Trustees. Native of Central Florida.


See also:
Harold Orndorff, III.  "Campaign Spending and the 2014 Florida's Gubernatorial Race: A Research Note."  Journal of Florida Studies, Volume 1, Issue 6, 2017.

Marc Caputo.  "The 2014 governor's race votes and ad spending by Florida media market."  Miami Herald, Nov. 25, 2014.

Rachel Baye.  "'Outside' Groups Swamp Florida's Airwaves  in Race for Governor."  Center for Public Integrity, Sept. 14, 2014.

Marc Caputo.  "Meet Charlie Crist's new campaign team."  Tampa Bay Times, June 12, 2014.

Bill Cotterell.  "Florida governor picks Hispanic running mate as lieutenant."  Reuters, Jan. 14, 2014.

Rebecca Shabad.  "Crist launches video and website for expected gubernatorial run."  The Hill, Oct. 25, 2013.

Adam C. Smith.  "Critics Say Scott Thinking of Re-election With Recent Changes."  Tampa Bay Times, Feb. 22, 2013.