sen. joe negron on the floor of the senate in tallahassee. | ap photo/phil sears by matt dixon 11/10/16 11:35 am est tallahassee <u+2014> candidate recruiting and record fundraising helped republicans pick up one state senate seat despite new democratic-friendly political lines, according to internal memos and emails outlining the caucus<u+2019> election night results. senate republican<u+2019>s efforts were led by incoming senate president joe negron through the florida republican senatorial campaign committee, the entity with which money was raised and spent for five priority state races. story continued below that effort, which also involved other top state senate republicans, raised more than $20 million, a record amount for republican senate races. <u+201c>these resources afforded us the tools <u+2014> research, polling, television, mail, and data <u+2014> needed to connect our candidates with voters,<u+201d> said erin isaac, a spokeswoman for the group. optimism abounded for democrats, who helped fund a 2010 constitutional amendment that ultimately led to redrawn maps friendly to the party after a three-year redistricting legal challenge. each of the priority races where negron spent money was won by democratic presidential candidate hillary clinton. the frscc<u+2019>s last round of polling, conducted between nov. 1-3, found four of their five priority candidates winning by roughly the margin as the final outcome. <u+201c>in all four districts, our final survey showed the republican nominee leading his/her democratic opponent,<u+201d> wrote matt mitchell of consulting firm data targeting, which was the lead pollster for four of the five races, in a post-election polling memo. those races included: negron<u+2019>s lone loss was in senated district 37, where democratic rep. jos<u+00e9> javier rodr<u+00ed>guez defeated miami republican sen. miguel d<u+00ed>az de la portilla, a race where data targeting was not the lead pollster. overall, republicans now have a 25-15 majority in the state senate. on election night, incoming senate minority leader oscar braynon, a miami democrat who coordinated his party<u+2019>s senate races, said a better than expected performance by republican donald trump and having fewer resources hurt his candidates, despite the new senate maps favoring democrats. "we were without question outspent a lot to a little," he said. because the senate democrats run their operation through the florida democratic party, it<u+2019>s unclear exactly how much was raised for senate races. braynon did not respond to requests asking how much money he brought in. but isaac said that trump actually performed poorly in most of the areas where there were targeted senate races, including miami-dade and alachua counties. <u+201c>donald trump lost or nearly lost almost all of the counties represented by our five target districts. that does not indicate a wave, but rather an additional hurdle we had to climb,<u+201d> she said. hillary clinton won alachua county, which includes nearly 70 percent of the votes in perry<u+2019>s seat, 59-36; she won democrat-heavy miami-dade county, where three of the targeted races were, 63-34 percent; and won hillsborough county, which includes young<u+2019>s seat, 51-44 percent. <u+201c>the clinton turnout machine targeted alachua, hillsborough and miami dade,<u+201d> isaac said. <u+201c>further adding to the advantage our opponents had on top of advantages created by redistricting.<u+201d> in an email to his members on wednesday morning, negron stressed the fact they overcame partisan disadvantages. <u+201c>despite the fact that all of our five targeted races were in democratic-leaning districts by both voter registration and performance, we were able to win four out of five seats,<u+201d> he wrote. he also thanked the frscc staff, which included consultants ashley ross, joel springer, kelly schmidt and heather manso barker, who were led by rich johnston. democrats picked up just one seat with democrat linda stewart's victory in a newly-drawn central florida seat that leans democratic. but negron did not spend money in that race. marc caputo's must-read briefing on what's hot, crazy or shady about politics in the sunshine state.
emails, memos reveal how republicans kept large majority in florida senate after election day
matt dixon