I think one of the most important lessons here is: follow someone's track record, not the (R) or (D) behind their name! I'll be that many of those Floridians voted for Greer solely on that basis.. How many times have we done that ourselves, only to be sorry afterwards..
George W. Greer, though a "Republican" member of the Pinellas County Commission in the 1980s, was elected on a nonpartisan ballot for judge in 1992, 1998, and 2004. People in the county admire him. Many voted for him to kill Terri or just because they had heard of him and did not recognize his conservative opponent.