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Both Gary Fineout and Talking Points Memo are reporting that the Crist campaign denies that he is going to leave the Republican primary. Update by FP: Before the Fineout and TPM stories, The Miami New Times' Erik Maza snagged this: As for the Governor ... "there's absolutely no truth to the rumor the Governor is changing party affiliation," Sterling Ivey barked, ... . |
| First TPM: Gov. Charlie Crist's (R-FL) Senate campaign is firing back at the latest round of rumors that he might be about to leave the Republican Party and run for Senate as an independent. "This is patently false," said Crist communications director Andrea Saul, in an interview with TPMDC. Then Gary: Gov. Charlie Crist on Thursday evening shot down - again - the notion that his competitive race against former House Speaker Marco Rubio will prompt him to switch from running as a Republican to an independent in the U.S. Senate election. [snip] Crist said any talk about party-switching "probably comes from my opponents. It's the silly season." When asked about whether he plans to switch parties, he replied: "I sure don't. I'm happy where I am and how things are going." Gary also included the valuable information that election law would require any decision to be made by the end of April. So, two more months until the speculation ends. But I really liked this excerpt from an earlier TPM piece: I asked Rick Wilson, a Republican political consultant in Florida, how dirty and personal he thinks the campaign could get, with six months still left to go in the primary. "I expect a scorched earth, smoking, radioactive wasteland, a postapocalypic Mad Max hellscape. That's what I expect," Wilson said with a laugh. "It's a big job in the third largest state. Stakes are high." Wilson doesn't think the story will help Crist. "There are two large competing narratives right now in this race. And one narrative is Charlie Crist is seen by many Republicans, and if you look at any of the survey information coming out of Florida by rather substantial numbers these days, as having embraced Barack Obama's stimulus program both figuratively and having literally embraced Barack Obama, and he represents a direction in the Republican party that nobody else is moving," said Wilson. "Everybody else is moving significantly to the right on fiscal matters and is strongly rejecting the Obama economic model. And that's where the strength that has lifted Marco Rubio politically has come from. It's not just the Tea Party movement, it's that Republicans and independents who have come back to the Republican party have done so because they strongly object to the Obama economic model. "The second narrative is the insider narrative," Wilson continued. "Let's throw all our dirty laundry out there, let's play the Tallahassee game of, 'I've got the paperwork,' and try to take a $100,000 AmEx bill over two years and turn it into a scandal. You know when you spend $100,000 to raise $12 million, most people look at that as a good R.O.I. [return on investment]." In summary, Wilson said: "There's a big narrative and a little narrative. The Crist campaign is trying to fight the little narrative." This is the point I've been trying to make. Crist is crazy if he thinks the penny-ante crap he's been throwing out is going to win him the Republican primary. But, the guy does have a LOT of political experience and a boatload of money, so maybe he knows something the rest of us don't. We'll see. |
