The congressman from the 13th District is Vern Buchanan, a Republican elected in 2006. Buchanan grew up outside of Detroit, the eldest of six children and the son of a factory foreman. He joined the Michigan Air National Guard and worked his way through college as a tae kwon do instructor. He earned a business degree at Cleary University and later an M.B.A. at the University of Detroit. Buchanan founded American Speedy Printing Centers and made his fortune by selling 700 quick-printing franchises before his 40th birthday. In 1990, he moved his family to Florida, where he found new success as an automobile dealer with franchises throughout the Southeast. Buchanan became active in Republican Party politics, serving as a top fundraiser for Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Mel Martinez. In 2002, he wanted to run for the 13th District House seat, but stepped aside for then-Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, who had become a national Republican figure after her controversial role in the 2000 presidential vote recount.

Buchanan got his chance in 2006, when Harris ran for the Senate. His party connections and personal finances made him the front-runner. In the primary, he stressed his conservative credentials and challenged his chief rival, former Sarasota Republican Party Chairman Tramm Hudson, for his positions on abortion rights and immigration. Hudson claimed that Buchanan resigned from his printing company just days before it declared bankruptcy. But Hudson stumbled when, in telling a story about his Army days, asserted that black soldiers were poor swimmers. After spending more than $2 million of his own money, Buchanan won 32% victory in the five-way primary. Hudson and moderate state Rep. Nancy Detert finished next with 24% each. The bruising primary left Buchanan little time to recover before the general election.

The Democratic nominee was Christine Jennings, who like Buchanan, was a transplanted Midwesterner and a self-made business success. An Ohio native, she rose from bank teller to bank owner. National Democrats took an interest in the Jennings campaign and pummeled Buchanan through the fall for his business dealings. Buchanan responded by characterizing Jennings as a pro-tax liberal, a charge that was tough to stick on the former Republican with a business background. Despite the Republican advantage in the district, Buchanan was hurt by the attacks on his business dealings, the poor political environment for Republicans and late-breaking revelations about Florida GOP Rep. Mark Foley’s sexually explicit e-mails to congressional pages. But he was able to spend over $8 million on his campaign, including $5.5 million of his own money. Jennings spent $3 million, about $2 million out of her own pocket. This was the most expensive House race in 2006.

Buchanan prevailed on Election Day, but Democrats disputed the results for another year. After a recount, Republican election officials certified Buchanan as the winner by 369 votes out of nearly 240,000 votes cast. Jennings filed a lawsuit challenging the results, pointing to more than 18,000 “undervotes” on ballots that registered a vote for other offices but did not indicate a choice in the congressional race. She suggested that a software glitch on touch-screen voting machines in Sarasota County was to blame for the unusually high number of undervotes. But several rounds of testing were inconclusive, and in November 2007, Jennings dropped her lawsuit.

In the House, Buchanan softened his ideological positions. He had the most moderate voting record of all among the 16 Republicans elected in 2006. And he was one of 19 Republicans who supported most of the Democrats’ early legislative agenda when they took control of the House in 2007. He voted for raising the minimum wage, cutting subsidies to industries, and allowing the federal government to negotiate lower drug prices with pharmaceutical companies. “I ran as a conservative, but I also ran as someone who is going to be independent,” Buchanan told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

Later in 2007, Buchanan voted to override President Bush’s veto of the Democrats’ expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. He worked with Democrats on a bill to clean up the Gulf of Mexico, and on other environmental and consumer issues. The former car dealer voted against the bailout of Detroit automakers in 2008 because, he said, the companies “failed to develop viable restructuring proposals.” The industry problems led him to sell several of his dealerships. On the Small Business Committee, he became the ranking member on the Finance and Tax Subcommittee.

In 2008, Jennings was back for a rematch. Though not as costly as the 2006 race, the contest was similarly bitter and expensive, with a crossfire of accusations of business fraud, slander, and campaign finance violations. Buchanan sought to emphasize his bipartisanship. With help from EMILY’s List and other national Democratic groups, Jennings’s campaign ads focused on his earlier corporate dealings. But she may have paid a price for her extended challenge of the 2006 results, and the outcome this time was very different. Buchanan outpolled Republican presidential nominee John McCain, and returned this district to its familiar pattern with a 56%-37% win. A third-party candidate got 6% of the vote.