State Sen. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen won the Republican primary while two Democrats headed into a runoff Tuesday in contests to choose nominees to succeed the late Rep. Claude Pepper, D-Fla., in an election that could produce the first Cuban-American member of Congress.
With all the Republican votes counted, Ros-Lehtinen swept to an easy victory with 16,952 votes, or 82.7 percent of the total ballots cast.Businessman Carlos Perez was next in the Republican contest with 2,261, or 11 percent; trailing were insurance broker David Fleischer with 698 votes, or 3.4 percent, and minister John Stembridge with 571 votes, or 2.7 percent.
In the Democratic contest, former Miami City Commissioner Rosario Kennedy and former Florida Bar president Gerald Richman qualified for an Aug. 15 runoff.
With 98 percent of the Democratic votes counted, Richman had 5,595 votes, or 28.1 percent. Kennedy was next with 5,438 votes, or 27.3 percent.