Will Charlie Crist Run as an Independent?

CBS

Will Florida Gov. Charlie Crist ditch his state's Republican Party and run for the Senate as an independent?

Rumors along these lines have been circulating for months, despite the best efforts of Crist's campaign to snuff them out. Speculation has stemmed from the meteoric rise of rival Marco Rubio, who has become the frontrunner in the GOP primary.

Crist himself hasn't definitively ruled out the switch. And recent developments seem to indicate that the governor may be throwing in the towel on seeking the Republican nomination.

On Thursday, Crist vetoed a Republican-backed education bill that would have linked teacher pay and tenure to student test scores and make it easier to fire teachers from Florida schools.

The legislation was hailed by conservatives, so Crist's veto appears to be a decisive step away from Republican Party. It also seems to curry favor with Florida's statewide teachers union, a traditional Democratic constituency.

Prior to Crist's decision, Palm Beach County GOP chairman Sid Dinerstein had singled out the bill as a key signal of the governor's intentions. "If he vetoes it, he's got no support for him in the Republican Party, and he knows it," Dinerstein told Politico.

Yesterday, Crist's campaign chairman and political mentor, former Senator Connie Mack, resigned his post. According to the Associated Press, Mack did so to protest the governor's veto of the teacher tenure legislation.

Mack, an extremely popular figure in Florida politics, called Crist's veto "unsupportable and wrong."

"I can no longer serve as chair of your campaign for the United States Senate," Mack wrote in his letter of resignation.

Not too long ago, Crist was considered a shoe-in to become Florida's next senator. But now he finds himself lagging in the GOP primary polls and surrendering the spotlight to popular start-up Rubio.

Rubio, the former State House speaker, has been broadly supported by the Tea Party movement as the true conservative in a fierce Republican nominating contest. The Associated Press learned today that Mitt Romney plans to join Rudy Giuliani and Mike Huckabee in endorsing Rubio for senator.

Despite his sinking popularity among Republicans, a Quinnipiac poll released Thursday suggests that Governor Crist is still the overall front-runner in the Senate race. If the general election were held now, 32 percent of voters would favor Crist, compared with 30 percent for Rubio and 24 percent for Democratic candidate Rep. Kendrick Meek, according to the survey.

[Palin_for_Presidentess]

Will Charlie Crist Run as an Independent?

Anyone who know Florida politics knows that he will and that he will likely prevail.

[mars7578]

Charlie Crist did what no state democrat did. He publicly denounced this legislation and vetoed it on merit.Just like Scott Brown,who gives himself the option to make his own choiceS,Mr.Crist ,if he ran as an independent would give some of the scared republicans the strength to realize that their allegiance to the welfare of the country trumps the official party line of making the present majority fail which greatly affects ALL Americans .

[jg63]

go charlie,! if your party won't support you 100% go independent, we will be dumping all the political hacks that are not supporting the middle class in the next elections anyway. we are fed up with politicians who will not listen to the american people. this goes for both democrats and republicans alike.forget about voting along party lines,they both have lost touch with the american people,i think this the time to vote for the individual who works for hard working people no matter what his or her party affiliaten, and then they will be re-elected automaticaly for doing the job they we're elected for in the first place. we want people who will vote for the long neglected middle class,not just pass a bill and then exempt themselves from it, if i remember corectly we did not vote for any type of aristocristy in this country. so go charlie go we support you,

[starleo146]

The way the right wing in Florida, and believe me there are a lot of them in Florida, threw Charlie under the bus for a right wing Rubio is almost laughable, how the republican mind works these days, it is with Palin, Limbaugh, Fox Nooze and Glenn Beck. Dick Armey crowd who is head of the lobbyist group Freedom Works. I think Charlie is more qualified than that Rubio. We cannot keep electing more like Michelle Bachmann type politician, then go up and down the street complaining.

[babooph]

An independent ,or a real liberal ,or real conservative will get my vote[I have seen both with great ideas]-the repulicrats are mainly fakes.

[Palin_for_Presidentess]

I see. You're one of those "there both bad" people, which we know just means that you're a repugnitard operative.

[us_1776]

Rubio is nothing more than an empty-shell male version of Sarah Palin.

Charlie, if you run as an independent I think you'll sway a lot of voters in your direction. You are always very pragmatic and that is exactly the type of politician that we need in these difficult times.

[lakota2012]

AndyMaxo: "Charlie Crist is a good man and a moderate politician."
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Yep, and I truly think that the hard-core, rightwing conservitard teabaggin' KKKlan trying to move the republiCON party to the far right with the limprod dittoheads, will be very disappointed when America speaks this year and elects moderates instead of people like rubio.

Trying to purify the GOP by removing moderates alienates the majority of Americans, and just continues the highly-partisan, political rhetoric from the far-right, dividing America even further.

[formrusmcsgt]

by maistir April 16, 2010 9:05 PM EDT
Dear Sarge,

Your posts make me glad you are "former".

What do you think classroom sessions deliver? What do you think homework and tests handed back with corrections deliver? What do you think curriculum planning is designed to deliver? Maybe if we had had you come in for about 100 parent-teacher conferences, we might have gotten the point home.
---
I raised two sens and went to more conferences than Carter has little liver pills.

About half of their teachers were dedicated professionals, about half simply "clerked" it.

You may think all teachers are industrious, I know better.

[formrusmcsgt]

What really astounds me about the repubs is their purging of moderates from their party.

If what they want is a fringe party, they're on the right track....

[tinahbee]

Andy great post. I'm also a registered Florida Democrat and if Charlie runs as an Independent, I will vote for him in a heartbeat! He has proven time and again that he's for the citizens of Florida not the "partay". I loved it when he vetoed SB6. Rubio is a sleezy thug. YOU GO CHARLIE!!

[billpl-2009]

calling themselves the Tea Party is an insult to Boston and our founding fathers

but then calling themselves Christians is also an insult to Jesus

...I guess ignorance really is bliss

Go Charlie!