Campaign '12, Congress

Nelson to win third term in Senate

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL), running in perhaps the biggest space-related Congressional race in this campaign, appears to be cruising to victory tonight. With a little over 50% of the votes tallied, Nelson had a 57-41% lead over Rep. Connie Mack IV (R-FL), his Republican challenger. CNN has already declared him the winner, as has the Tampa Bay Times. With the retirement of Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), with whom Nelson had worked on a variety of space policy issues, Nelson will effectively be the leading voice on space issues in the Senate in the next Congress.

13 comments to Nelson to win third term in Senate

  • This clearly shows that being Pro-NASA can be a significant advantage for Democrats in the State of Florida.

    • Jeff Foust

      Mr. Williams: I have not seen any evidence that Nelson’s “pro-NASA” stance provided any electoral advantage. In fact, Nelson is polling several percentage points lower in Brevard County (the heart of the Space Coast but also a more Republican county) than in the state overall.

  • DCSCA

    Well, that’s one for the team.

  • Bill Nelson is carrying Brevard County about 50%-45% with about 90% of the local vote counted.

  • Robert G. Oler

    President Obama will leave The White House on Jan 20,2017.

    Long Live The Republic…

    Mike Griffin and Scott Pace and Eric and the rest of the gang fade away RGO

  • common sense

    Darn the President won the election and all despite the FL vote on the Space Coast! Just can’t believe it. Unbelievable.

    Oh well.

  • Vladislaw

    What does this mean for Nelson? Four more years of SLS funding from President Obama?

  • Bill Nelson beat Connie Mack IV in Brevard County 51%-46%. Obama lost to Romney 56%-43% so it shows Nelson appeals to some Republicans, and he’s also a Brevard County native.

    In 2008, Obama lost Brevard County to McCain 54.5%-44.1%. In 2012 Obama lost to Romney in Brevard County 55.6%-42.9%. Not much difference. So all the fuss about the administration’s space policy somehow costing him the election turned out to be hot air, as I’ve said all along.

    And Bill Posey beat Shannon Roberts, so we’re stuck with Mr. Chinese-Lunar-Fortress for the next two years.

  • E.P. Grondine

    AW –

    Is Ares 1 finally dead?

    Do you think that perhaps in the next four years we’ll actually learn what the hell Griffin was thinking about then?

    Aside from that, once Sandy and the election celebration winds down, OSTP still has a report on the contingency plans for dealing with a comet or asteroid impact which is past due.

    And 73P is still due in our vicinity in 2022.

    Is it too early to begin the discussion of sequestration?

  • E.P. Grondine

    Also, now that the political fund raising is over, B612 fund raising goes back into gear.

  • Jeff Foust
    November 6, 2012 at 10:04 pm · Reply

    “Mr. Williams: I have not seen any evidence that Nelson’s “pro-NASA” stance provided any electoral advantage. In fact, Nelson is polling several percentage points lower in Brevard County (the heart of the Space Coast but also a more Republican county) than in the state overall.”

    I bet Nelson did a lot better in Brevard County than Obama did.

    But there is absolutely no evidence that the Space Coast and Republicans are the only folks in Florida who are pro-NASA. Believe it or not, there are a lot of Democrats and Independents who are pro-NASA in Florida!

    Marcel F. Williams

  • @Marcel Williams
    I am pro-NASA and so are a number of others with different opinions from yours. Your idea of what is “pro-NASA” may not be the same as someone else’s. Any position that harms NASA’s ability to make itself viable in the cause of actually advancing the Republic’s dominance in spaceflight is not pro-NASA, even if NASA is being forced by political figures to do it. In the long run, such positions (such as pushing SLS) can only provide an excuse to anti-spaceflight Luddites that may want to abolish NASA. For NASA’s sake as well as the future of American human spaceflight, the sooner SLS is abolished the better.

  • Nixon terminated NASA’s ability to travel beyond LEO back in the early 1970s. And Obama attempted to terminate NASA’s ability to travel beyond LEO in the near future. Neither were pro-NASA policies!

    Fortunately, both Democrats and Republicans in Congress (led by Nelson and Hutchison), refused to allow President Obama to do that!

    Continuing the $3 billion a year ISS (LEO on steroids) program is what’s keeping NASA from rapidly moving forward– not NASA’s beyond LEO program.

    And there are far more efficient ways for the Federal government to subsidize the emerging Commercial Crew industry than the– extremely inefficient– ISS work-fare program.

    Marcel F. Williams

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