But saying that West is "new to St. Lucie County voters" is not exactly true, since he has a very high profile, especially for a freshman, with undoubtedly much exposure in local media there.
What is the racial/ethnic mix in St. Lucie County, if you happen to know? Also the percentage of active military and veterans - above, below, or close to the national average?
At first glance it would seem strange that Romney could hardly do better than McCain there in percentage terms and that West couldn't do better than McCain there as well.
St. Lucie County’s population is 20% black and 17% Hispanic, and it has a bit more veterans as a percentage of the population than FL as a whole. http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/12/12111.html
Romney got 45.44% in St. Lucie County, 2% better than McCain’s 43.41%. Romney only did 1% better than McCain in FL as a whole (49.1% instead of 48.1%), so his St. Lucie performance wasn’t unexpectedly bad.