|
 Sink, the state's former chief financial officer, confirmed her
decision on Twitter and in a statement quoted by media outlets.
"While I am not running for office in 2014, I will keep an open
dialogue with all of you and continue to seek new ways to serve,"
she said on Twitter. She could not be immediately reached for
comment.
Sink lost the special election in Florida's 13th Congressional
District by less than 2 percent of the vote to David Jolly, a former
Republican lobbyist in Washington, D.C. Jolly once worked for the
Representative C.W. Bill Young, whose death forced the special
election in March.
The seat is back up for grabs in the November midterm elections,
along with all 434 other congressional seats.
Steve Israel, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign
Committee, said the party remained confident its nominee could win
Young's former seat in November. It was not immediately clear who
that candidate would be.
Republicans said Sink's decision to forgo a rematch was a
recruitment failure for Democrats.
"It's obvious that Alex Sink stood zero chance of beating David
Jolly this November, and her decision not to run only proves that
the 2014 midterm elections are going to be extremely rough for
Democrats across the country," said National Republican
Congressional Committee spokeswoman Katie Prill.
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The special election was considered a test of national political
tactics to be used in the fall, particularly of whether antipathy
toward President Barack Obama's Affordable Healthcare Act could be a
winning strategy for Republicans.
However, analysts said afterward that the vote tended to fall along
party lines in Pinellas County, where Republicans outnumber
Democrats.
It was the second defeat by a slim margin in recent years for Sink,
who in 2010 narrowly lost the election for state governor against
Republican Rick Scott.
(Additional reporting by Colleen Jenkins;
editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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