After Clamoring for Recount, Allen West Losing Harder

It looks pretty clear at this point that Tea Party favorite Allen West did not win re-election to his House seat in Florida, but he's not giving up—and now, Democrats say, even Gov. Rick Scott has interfered in the race, WPTV reports. The Florida secretary of state—who was appointed by Scott—ordered an audit of the results from St. Lucie County. Or, as Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz put it: "In a clear effort to overturn an election result after having lost at the ballot box, Allen West has now run to Governor Rick Scott to needlessly interfere with and politicize a non-partisan election process."

The West campaign alleges "irregularities" in the county, but Wasserman Schultz says West lost "beyond the mandatory recount range," thus making Scott's apparent intervention "outrageous and inappropriate," not to mention an insult to the St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections. Nonetheless, the recount was carried out this weekend, and West challenger Patrick Murphy remains the unofficial winner, WPTV reports. In fact, Murphy actually picked up more votes in the recount (an additional 274, to West's gain of 32), widening the gap when West had hoped to narrow it and trigger an automatic recount of all votes. (More Allen West stories.)