Republican Vern Buchanan won two major victories on Friday, removing key barriers that had stood in the way of him representing the 13th District in Congress.

Hours after Democrats announced they would seat Buchanan next week when Congress will swear in its new members, a Florida court threw out Democrat Christine Jennings' legal challenge to the Nov. 7 election results.

Circuit Judge William Gary ruled that Jennings' case was based on conjecture and speculation, and denied her request to see the source codes in the software that helps run Sarasota County's touch-screen voting machines. Gary ruled that he wouldn't open up the source codes, which would reveal trade secrets of the voting machine company Election Systems & Software Inc.

The source codes are a key in helping Jennings make her case that voting machines may have malfunctioned.

The combination of the political decision by Democrats in Congress and the legal decision in Tallahassee makes certain Buchanan will take his seat in Congress on Thursday.

"I am looking forward to taking office next week," said Buchanan, R-Longboat Key. "I have assembled my staff, and I am ready to get to work on behalf of the people of Florida's 13th Congressional District."

Although Jennings said she will press forward by challenging the election results in Congress -- her last hope -- she'll have to do it with Buchanan sitting in Congress.

A spokesman for incoming Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said it is in the best interest of voters in the 13th District that Buchanan be seated in Congress, despite Jennings' ongoing challenge.

"We see this as the best way to have continuing representation for the people of that district," Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said.

The decision removes a significant political distraction as the Democratic Party ascends to power in the House for the first time in a dozen years.

Buchanan never expected to have any trouble being seated, said his spokeswoman, Sally Tibbetts.

"This confirms what the people of Florida's 13th District already know, that Vern Buchanan is the certified winner of the election and that he will be seated," Tibbetts said.

At a hastily called press conference on Friday morning in front of her Sarasota campaign headquarters, Jennings gave her blessing to seating Buchanan, but insisted it wasn't a signal that she will give up on her call for a new election.

"I am going to keep fighting until we get answers about what happened to our voting system in Sarasota County," she said.

Jennings has filed a formal inquiry with the House, hoping to get Congress to order a new election.

Buchanan was certified the winner of the election by 369 votes, but Jennings' attorneys argue that touch-screen electronic voting machines lost enough votes for Jennings to cost her the race.

About 18,000 voters in Sarasota County who showed up to vote on Nov. 7 did not have a vote recorded in the 13th District race.

The 13 percent undervote is substantially higher than in any other top-of-ticket race in Sarasota County, and far higher than the undervote in any of the other four counties that make up the 13th District.

Although factions within the Democratic Party wanted Pelosi to refuse to seat Buchanan, it would have set off a partisan war with Republicans that would have cost the Democrats dearly as they push their agenda in Congress, said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

Sabato said Democrats simply don't need the seat enough. Democrats hold 233 seats, and Republicans will hold 202 in the new House. Regardless of the 13th District, Democrats have a healthy majority to push their agenda.

Sabato said Jennings, more than giving her blessing to the idea, is really acknowledging what key players on the inside already knew.

"Everyone knew he was going to be seated," Sabato said. "She's simply accepting reality."

Other Democrats in Congress vow that the question of what happened to 18,000 votes won't be forgotten.

Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., announced Friday he will make a motion on the House floor on Thursday that Buchanan being seated will have no bearing on the House Administration Committee's investigation into the matter.

"I want to make sure that the House makes the decision based on evidence, not on partisan power play," Holt said. "Each of us serves provisionally or conditionally. If it is determined that any of us doesn't meet the qualifications or wasn't duly elected, we're out of there."

Seating Buchanan will not give him the advantage of incumbency in the event of a revote, Holt said.

"Ultimately, it will be decided not by who has a foot in the door but by the evidence," Holt said.

"I think the evidence will show that the certification didn't reflect the will of the voters and that a revote is necessary."

Jennings said she feared residents having trouble with their Social Security checks or with veterans benefits would not have a member of Congress to turn to for help had the seat been declared vacant.

"I think this is truly the right thing to do for the people of this district," she said. "There has to be someone to go to."

Christine Jennings says during a press conference Friday in Sarasota that Vern Buchanan should be seated temporarily as the 13th Congressional District representative as she continues to seek a revote.

Democrats announced they will seat Republican Vern Buchanan when the new Congress convenes on Thursday.

A judge in Tallahassee dismissed Christine Jennings' lawsuit seeking computer source code related to voting machines used in the Nov. 7 election. The judge described Jennings' case as built on speculation.

Jennings vowed to continue her challenge in Congress, which has the power to order a new election.

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