United States Senate election in Florida, 2004

United States Senate election in Florida, 2004

1998 ← November 2, 2004 → 2010

Nominee Mel Martinez Betty Castor Party Republican Democratic Popular vote 3,672,864 3,590,201 Percentage 49.4% 48.3%

County results

U.S. Senator before election Bob Graham Democratic Elected U.S. Senator Mel Martinez Republican

Elections in Florida
Federal government Presidential elections 1860 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 Presidential primaries Democratic 2008 2012 Republican 2008 2012 U.S. Senate elections 1968 1970 1976 1980 1982 1986 1988 1992 1994 1998 2000 2004 2006 2010 2012 U.S. House elections 2006 5th 8th 9th 16th 2008 2010 2012 2014
State government Gubernatorial elections 1966 1970 1974 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 Attorney General elections 2002 2006 2010 2014 Chief Financial Officer elections 2006 2010 Agriculture Commissioner of Florida 1994 2006 2010 Ballot measures Other elections 2006 2010
Jacksonville Mayoral elections 2003 2007 2011
Tampa Mayoral elections 2011
Orlando Mayoral elections 2012

The 2004 United States Senate election in Florida took place on November 2, 2004 alongside other elections to the United States Senate in other states as well as elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Bob Graham decided to retire instead of seeking a fourth term. The primary elections were held on August 31, 2004. Republican Mel Martinez won the open seat.

Democratic primary

Candidates

• Betty Castor, former President of the University of South Florida, former Education Commissioner of Florida, and former State Senator
• Peter Deutsch, U.S. Congressman
• Bernard Klein, businessman
• Alex Penelas, Mayor of Miami-Dade County

Results

Democratic primary results
Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage
	Democratic	Betty Castor	669,346	58.1%
	Democratic	Peter Deutsch	321,922	27.9%
	Democratic	Alex Penelas	115,898	10.1%
	Democratic	Bernard E. Klein	45,347	3.9%
Totals			1,152,513	100%

Republican primary

Martinez was supported by the Bush Administration.

Candidates

• Johnnie Byrd, State Representative
• Doug Gallagher, businessman
• Larry Klayman, attorney
• William Kogut
• Sonya March
• Mel Martinez, former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
• Bill McCollum, former U.S. Congressman
• Karen Saull

Results

Republican Primary results
Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage
	Republican	Mel Martinez	522,994	44.9%
	Republican	Bill McCollum	360,474	30.9%
	Republican	Doug Gallagher	158,360	13.6%
	Republican	Johnnie Byrd	68,982	5.9%
	Republican	Karen Saull	20,365	1.7%
	Republican	Sonya March	17,804	1.5%
	Republican	Larry Klayman	13,257	1.1%
	Republican	William Billy Kogut	3,695	0.3%
Totals			1,165,931	100%

General election

Candidates

• Dennis Bradley (V), activist
• Betty Castor (D), former State Senator
• Mel Martinez (R), Secretary of Housing and Urban Development

Campaign

Until the spring of 2004, Castor's fundraising was much slower than her Democratic and Republican rivals^{[citation needed]}. In the spring, the campaign hired fundraising staff from the defunct presidential campaigns of Howard Dean and Bob Graham^{[citation needed]}, and subsequently posted much higher fundraising numbers over the summer^{[citation needed]}. Online grassroots techniques devised for the Dean campaign (Castor became a Dean Dozen candidate in August^{[citation needed]}) were one contributing factor^{[citation needed]}: another was the support of EMILY's List^{[citation needed]}, which named Castor as its highest-rated candidate for the 2004 election cycle^{[citation needed]}, even when her support for banning intact dilation and extraction (D&X) abortions was not in line with the EMILY's List support for woman's issues^{[citation needed]}. The latter was a source of criticism during the August primary heat - a complaint was filed by a Deutsch supporter with the Federal Election Commission accusing inappropriate coordination with EMILY's List^{[citation needed]}. The complaint was dismissed by the Federal Election Commission in 2005^{[citation needed]}.

Castor's handling of Sami Al-Arian became another source of criticism during the campaign^{[citation needed]}. In June, The American Democracy Project, a 527 group founded by Bernie Friedman^{[citation needed]}, began attacking Castor's handling of the incident, alleging that she had sufficient evidence to fire Al-Arian in the mid-1990s^{[citation needed]}. Castor responded by stating that she never had sufficient evidence to fire Al-Arian, who was a tenured professor at the time^{[citation needed]}. On June 29, Senator Graham, who had previously remained outside of the Al-Arian controversy, released a statement that "Betty Castor acted appropriately as President of the University of South Florida to deal with Sami Al-Arian"^{[citation needed]}: later, Graham and Senator Bill Nelson brokered an agreement between the Democratic candidates to refrain from negative campaigning against each other^{[citation needed]}, although this agreement appeared to break down in the final weeks of the race, when Deutsch launched attack ads on television^{[citation needed]}.

Despite these controversies, Castor won the Democratic nomination on August 31. She was defeated, however, by Republican candidate Mel Martinez in a close race on November 2, 2004. The overwhelming support for Martinez among Latinos effectively counterbalanced Castor's relatively high popularity among swing voters throughout the state.

There was some speculation that Castor would run for Governor of Florida in 2006 to replace Jeb Bush, who was ineligible for re-election due to term limits, but she announced in 2005 that she would not be a candidate.

Polling

Poll Source	Date(s) administered	Sample size	Margin of Error	Mel Martinez (R)	Betty Castor (D)	Unde- cided
Zogby International	October 31	600	± 4.0%	46%	46%	7%
Quinnipiac University	October 31	1098	± 3.0%	49%	44%	6%
CNN/USA Today/Gallup	October 28	1138	± 4.0%	46%	48%	5%
Mason Dixon	October 26	625	± 4.0%	47%	46%	6%
New York Times	October 23	802	± 3.0%	44%	47%	10%
Quinnipiac University	October 22	944	± 3.2%	49%	46%	5%
Insider Advantage	October 22	400	± 5.0%	46%	44%	4%
Survey USA	October 22	741	± 3.7%	47%	50%	12%
Miami Herald	October 19	800	± 3.5%	44%	44%	-
Research 2000	October 18	600	± 4.0%	48%	48%	4%
Quinnipiac University	October 15	808	± 3.5%	47%	47%	5%
Survey USA	October 15	596	± 4.1%	49%	47%	1%
Mason-Dixon	October 14	625	± 4.0%	45%	45%	9%
UNF	October 10	641	± 4.0%	35%	38%	12%
Mason-Dixon	October 4	625	± 4.0%	46%	41%	12%
Mason-Dixon	October 4	625	± 4.0%	46%	41%	12%
Quinnipiac University	October 1	706	± 3.8%	48%	47%	5%
Survey USA	October 1	706	± 3.8%	50%	46%	1%
Gallup	Sept. 18	674	± 4.0%	45%	51%	4%
Quinnipiac University	Sept. 18	819	± 3.4%	42%	43%	13%
Survey USA	Sept. 12	602	± 4.1%	45%	49%	1%
Rasmussen Reports	August 24	500	± 4.5%	44%	44%	-

Results

United States Senate election in Florida, 2004
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Mel Martinez	3,672,864	49.4%	+11.9%
	Democratic	Betty Castor	3,590,201	48.3%	-14.2%
	Veterans	Dennis F. Bradley	166,642	2.2%	+2.2%
	Write-ins		187	0.00%
Majority			82,663	1.1%
Total votes			7,429,894	100%
	Republican hold		Swing

References

• WTSP-TV (Tampa Bay) website
• WKMG-TV (Orlando) website