Split in Haitian vote lifted Frederica Wilson to congressional win

[ccharles000]

In the end, the chance to make history by sending the nation's first Haitian American to Congress came down to numbers in the hard-fought and crowded field of candidates in the 17th Congressional District.

The unofficial results released Wednesday show that the four Haitian American candidates collectively got almost 20,000 votes in the Democratic primary -- enough to defeat the winning candidate, state Sen. Frederica Wilson, a popular African American lawmaker. She garnered more than 16,500 votes in the safe Democratic seat held by Rep. Kendrick Meek, who won his party's U.S. Senate nomination by trouncing real estate tycoon Jeff Greene.

Now Wilson is widely expected to defeat lawyer Roderick Vereen, who is running without party affiliation, in the Nov. 2 general election.

Haitian-American community leaders and others said the opportunity to make history unraveled months earlier when the four Haitian-American candidates could not agree on backing out and tossing their support behind a single candidate.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/08/26/1792632/split-in-haitian-vote-lifted-wilson.html