If outnumbered Republicans in Palm Beach-Broward congressional District 19 were fired up by Republican Scott Brown’s upset victory in heavily Democratic Massachusetts, they didn’t show it Tuesday.

About 7.4 percent of Republican voters cast ballots in the special GOP congressional primary.

Democratic turnout was about 12 percent.

Democrats have more than a 2-to-1 registration edge in District 19, where “fire-breathing liberal” Robert Wexler’s resignation to head a Middle East think tank created the need for a special election to fill the seat. The general election is April 13.

Ed Lynch held a 0.4 percent lead over Republican primary rival Joe Budd before Palm Beach County counted provisional ballots from Tuesday’s special congressional District 19 primary. Lynch led by 37 votes out of 8,173 ballots counted.

While Broward County posted final numbers about 11 p.m. Tuesday for its 93 precincts, as of 6:45 a.m. the Palm Beach County elections office hadn’t posted results that include provisional ballots on its Web site.

Once Palm Beach County posts its final numbers, if the overall margin of the race remains closer than 0.5 percent, it would trigger an automatic recount.

Lynch declared himself the winner shortly before midnight.

The Democratic primary, meanwhile, had no drama, with state Sen. Ted Deutch racking up 85 percent of the vote.

Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor Susan Bucher said all the ballots have arrived at the elections tabulating center in Riviera Beach. As of 10:35 p.m., 40 of 263 Palm Beach County precincts remain uncounted for the congressional District 19 primary.

In the Republican race, Ed Lynch holds a 42-vote lead over Joe Budd. Ted Deutch handily won the Democratic primary.

Bucher also said electronic cartridges from seven precincts aren’t reading properly, so the paper ballots will have to be fed through a scanner at the elections office to be counted.

While the Democratic primary in congressional District 19 was a quick knockout for Ted Deutch, the GOP race remains too close to call with 62 of 356 precincts outstanding as of 10:20 p.m.

In the Republican race, Ed Lynch has 2,954 votes and Joe Budd has 2,907. Curt Price is in third place with 1,383 votes. The 62 precincts are all in Palm Beach County.

“We’ve got our first endorsement for the general election,” victorious Democrat Ted Deutch just told supporters after taking a concession call from primary rival Ben Graber.

Deutch appears headed to more than 80 percent of the vote in the Democratic congressional District 19 primary.

The GOP race is too close to call. With about two-thirds of Palm Beach County precincts still outstanding, Ed Lynch has a lead of 2,205 to 1,851 over Joe Budd.

Broward County results are complete. View them here.

The primary winners and no-party candidate Jim McCormick will appear on an April 13 general election ballot to replace retired U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler.

As early Democratic returns show Ted Deutch getting more than 80 percent of the primary vote over Ben Graber, Palm Beach County Commissioner Burt Aaronson just told a crowd at a Deutch election-night party: “Let’s be good winners.”

Deutch is speaking to the group now at a homeowner association clubhouse in West Boca. He was interrupted by a campaign aide who said the Associated Press has called the race for Deutch.

“This is an extraordinary evening,” Deutch said at the beginning of his remarks.

As of 8:50 p.m., 75 of 93 Broward County precincts have reported results and 0 of 263 Palm Beach County precincts are in for the congressional District 19 primaries.

Based on early and absentee ballots and the Broward precincts, Ted Deutch is running away with the Democratic primary.

On the Republican side, Ed Lynch has a lead of 1,518 to 1,180 over Joe Budd, with Curt Price trailing with 592 votes.

As early numbers come in from Palm Beach and Broward Counties, state Sen. Ted Deutch has opened up a 3,553-to-679 lead over Ben Graber in the Democratic congressional District 19 primary.

On the Republican side, Ed Lynch has 548 votes, Joe Budd has 481 and Curt Price 195.

The results are from early and absentee ballots. It’s not clear whether all of them have been counted. Results from precincts should come later this evening…..

Palm Beach County Democratic Chairman Mark Alan Siegel, based on reports from key precincts, is predicting that Ted Deutch will beat Ben Graber with “upwards of 80 percent” of the Democratic primary vote in congressional District 19.

Siegel told reporters at a Deutch election-night party they “won’t be embarrassed” if they print his prediction.

Ted Deutch has a 383-to-110 lead over Ben Graber in the first partial Democratic primary results from Broward County in the race for Palm Beach-Broward congressional District 19.

In the Republican primary, Joe Budd has 73 votes to 62 for Ed Lynch and 17 for Curt Price.

Palm Beach County early and absentee results should be posted soon. About 70 percent of the district is in Palm Beach County.

Stay tuned……

A bipartisan House panel rejected Gov. Charlie Crist’s budget proposals, telling his budget chief the governor’s plan was as sketchy as building a household budget on winning the Lottery.

“There’s nothing here that I can use,” House health care budget chief Denise Grimsley, R-Lake Placid, told Jerry McDaniel, Crist’s budget guru.

Democrats and Republicans alike peppered McDaniel about the assumptions built into Crist’s $69.2 billion budget, including $1.1 billion in Medicaid funding that Congress has not yet approved, $443 million for education spending in a gambling compact that the legislature last year rejected, $300 million in local property taxes that 24 counties have not yet levied, and the absence of $350 million to comply with constitutional class size requirements based on a measure that has not even gone on the ballot yet.

“The validity of any decision-making process is always based on the assumptions you make,” said Rep. Rich Glorioso, R-Plant City, chairman of the House transportation committee.

Crist’s assumptions are too iffy, Glorioso said.

“I can’t live with that. If I was doing this budget for myself with these assumptions I would be making a vast mistake. We need a better product soon. What if these things don’t come in? You always plan on a worst scenario…It’s always easier to add back into a budget than it is to come back six months out and do another cut. I’d like to see another proposal without all these basic assumptions in here,” he said.

McDaniel said the governor might offer a revised budget a week or two before the end of session if there was no chance a compact was going to pass. But that didn’t placate House budget chief David Rivera.

“I will tell you that as far as this committee is concerned, we need a budget. We have to work on a budget. I’m disappointed that we can’t start on that budget process together because our assumptions are so far apart,” Rivera, R-Miami, told McDaniel. “I hope that we will have other recommendations before the end of session thinking that it’s always better late than never. But this committee in the House of Representatives doesn’t have the luxury of waiting.”

Republican U.S. House candidate Allen West has been added to the lineup of speakers for the three-day Conservative Political Action Conference this month.

West, a retired U.S. Army colonel making his second attempt at unseating U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, will speak on the third day.

He’ll follow a panel discussion on “Saving Freedom from the Hoax of Global Warming” and precede the panel discussion on “Saving Freedom in 2010: A Conservative Comeback.”

Other Floridians at the conference include Republican U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio as a speaker; former Florida Republican Party Chairman Al Cardenas, who will moderate a panel on “Saving Freedom from Tyranny: Real Life Experiences”; and Palm Beach resident Ann Coulter, who is speaking once at the student’s reception and again to conference attendees.

The latest Rasmussen Reports poll shows Marco Rubio opening up a 12-point lead on Gov. Charlie Crist in the GOP Senate primary race. Rubio’s lead is beyond the poll’s 5 percent margin of error.

Rasmussen had Rubio and Crist tied at 43 percent in a poll last month. A Quinnipiac University poll last week showed Rubio with a small lead.

In hypothetical general election matchups, both Rubio and Crist beat Democratic Senate front-runner Kendrick Meek by double-digit margins.

In Rasmussen’s overall sample of 1,000 likely voters, which has a 3 percent margin of error, 58 percent of Floridians disapprove of President Obama’s job performance and 42 percent approve. Obama’s rating includes 47 percent who “strongly” disapprove and 25 percent who “strongly” approve.

The GOP primary poll of 449 likely voters show 67 percent have a very or somewhat favorable view of Rubio and 62 have a very or somewhat favorable view of Crist. Crist’s approval rating as governor is 56 percent among GOP voters.

More than 5,000 Democrats and 1,900 Republicans have turned in absentee ballots so far for Tuesday’s special primaries in congressional District 19, according to elections officials in Palm Beach and Broward counties.

Even allowing for the district’s overall Democratic tilt, the figures suggest more interest among Democrats than Republicans in the primaries. Democrats outnumber Republicans by a ratio of 2.1-to-1 in the district. Through this morning, returned Democratic absentee ballots outnumbered GOP ballots by a ratio of about 2.6-to-1.

Another 3,479 voters cast primary ballots at early voting sites between Jan. 25 and Sunday. Those figures aren’t broken down by party.

Democrats Ben Graber and Ted Deutch are running in the Democratic primary. Republicans Joe Budd, Curt Price and Ed Lynch are running in the Republican primary. The primary winners and no-party candidate Jim McCormick will run in an April 13 special election to replace U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler.

Legislative leaders-in-waiting Sen. Don Gaetz and Rep. Will Weatherford are heading up a GOP initiative to water down constitutional class size limits approved by voters.

Gaetz, R-Destin, and Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, sponsored a constitutional amendment lawmakers are expected to put on the ballot this year that would undo some of the class size restrictions voters approved in 2002.

Floridians have already spent $16 billion to shrink class sizes but plummeting property tax collections – which pay for public schools – have sent lawmakers scrambling to foot the $22 billion-a-year tab for education.

Gaetz and Weatherford, who are expected to lead their chambers in 2012, will reveal details of their proposal at a press conference tomorrow morning.

Gov. Charlie Crist, who is running for U.S. Senate, recently said that he supports undoing the class size restrictions, which have been been introduced gradually and which school officials say costs too much and doesn’t benefit student achievement.

U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, a Democrat is also running for the U.S. Senate seat Crist seeks, was the force behind the class size amendment in 2002 while he was in the state Senate.

He isn’t backing down from the limits, which are set to go into full effect by the end of this year.

“Eight years later, Tallahassee officials have not relented in trying to water down hard-fought class size limits while refusing to tackle the special interest bidding that is alive and well in the state capital, ” said Kendrick Meek, who served as Chairman of Florida’s Coalition to Reduce Class Size in 2002.

“Florida families cannot be shortchanged. They simply ask that their children not be packed into overcrowded classrooms. Instead of focusing on misguided priorities, Florida needs a long-term perspective to secure a better future for our children. Implementing the class size limits without delay is critical so our teachers can teach in classrooms where our students can learn. Moreover, it is important to note that our state needs to invest now in its human capital in order to reverse the tide of joblessness for tomorrow’s workers,” Meek said in press release.

Democrat Robert Wexler announced in October that he was leaving Congress. But his congressional campaign committee still spent $346,998 during the fourth quarter of 2009, a new report shows.

The Wexler campaign paid more than $120,000 in “end-of-career bonuses” to Wexler congressional staffers who doubled as campaign workers and spent more than $87,000 on mailings. Wexler sent a 150,000-piece thank-you mailing to voters in Palm Beach-Broward congressional District 19 who elected the self-described “fire-breathing liberal” seven times.

Wexler left office Jan. 3 to head the nonprofit Center for Middle East Peace and Economic Cooperation.

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Undeterred by polls or Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts, Democratic congressional challenger Chris Craft says Congress should press ahead with health care reform.

Craft, hoping to unseat freshman GOP Rep. Tom Rooney of Tequesta in a Republican-leaning district, supported the health care bill that passed the House last year on a 220-to-215 vote with Rooney opposed.

Read about it in this week’s Politics column.

As noted over the weekend, Rooney began 2010 with more than a 7-to-1 financial advantage over Craft. Craft is listed as one of the Democrats’ “recruiting duds” in a campaign money round-up by Politico.com