Atwater wins Florida CFO race over Ausley

Nov 2, 2010 1 min read

PENSACOLA (AP) — Florida Senate President Jeff Atwater has been elected the state’s next chief financial officer.
The Republican defeated former State Rep. Loranne Ausley in Tuesday’s election. With 39 percent of the expected vote counted, Atwater led his Democratic opponent 59 percent to 37 percent.
Atwater is a banker from North Palm Beach.
Many consider CFO the state’s second most important job.
Atwater will replace Democrat Alex Sink, who is running for governor.
He will run a 2,000-employee agency that has a $200-million annual budget. It oversees the state’s treasury, insurance department, fire marshal’s office and department of banking and finance.
The CFO is part of the Cabinet and has a vote on pardons and serves on the board of several state agencies.