Florida decided its choice in the Presidential Preference Primary on Tuesday. We settled on Mitt Romney by a 14 point margin. That’s pretty big in a state like ours…or any state for that matter. And while the internet has leveled the playing field somewhat and candidates can get that message out to the voters in record time in record numbers of ways, it was the older, more established ways of campaigning that appear to have been successful for the former Massachusetts governor.

Romney blitzed the state with television and radio ads and he hit voters at home with mailers that spelled out his message. The message was NEWT BAD, ROMNEY GOOD. It worked and Romney rocked the ballot with a huge win.

And yet, this campaign is not over. Florida did not settle this matter and the primary season will roll on through February and March…and who knows? It may last to the convention. But what Florida has provided Mitt Romney is momentum and that is important. It is a story to build upon and a message to continue to deliver.

Another lesson out of this, and it’s one that has been proven time and time again, is that negative campaigning works. Tarnish the other guy enough and you look like gold. And that, my friends, has the electorate a bit uneasy. The media talks it, the talking heads talk it, we talk it and some of the powers that be worry about it. I don’t. And neither does RNC Chair Reince Priebus. In what may be the best commentary I have heard form the RNC in years, Priebus said on a Sunday show this week that this primary season will work to hone our eventual nominee into a better candidate. I believe that and certainly hope for that outcome.

We have four candidates standing as of this writing and each of them brings certain strengths to the campaign and viable ideas for the upcoming Republican Platform. If we can get away from that all too effective negative campaigning and get these candidates talking about the issues and policies important to the country, we could have a great discernment process ahead of us. And while that negative campaigning works, it isn’t telling us what we really want to know about these candidates and their plans for the country.

Until we have that discussion and these candidates can speak clearly on those important items, we will have that unsettled electorate.