bobbyw24
05-02-2010, 12:01 PM
By Matt Towery
Over a week ago, I reported in the Southern Political Report, a D.C.-based political website, that Republican Florida Gov. Charlie Crist definitely would run for U.S. Senate as an independent.
Many had speculated the same, but no one else in the media that I know of said it was a done deal.
Yet, most observers have understood for a while that with GOP luminaries endorsing former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio for the Republican nomination, it would prove nearly impossible for Crist to climb out of his enormous polling deficit to win the GOP primary.
Interestingly, the concept of independent candidacies this year isn’t confined to Florida. Georgia voters in November will select a replacement for term-limited Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue.
In that race, a successful businessman with no previous political resume has vowed to plunk down $2 million of his own money.
At first, he said he’d run as a Republican, but he changed his mind when he discovered that he had to sign a loyalty oath in which he’d pledge to support the party and its slate of candidates.
Now he may run as an independent.
In Britain, a quickly tumbling Labor Party and a lifeless Conservative Party are now facing a serious challenge from a third party.
It’s led by a dynamic rising star, Nick Clegg, who took command of the first major televised debate among the candidates.
We all know this will be a topsy-turvy political year. As I study my polling from across America, it appears that voter turnout is going to be very brisk, especially in Republican primaries.
As for Crist, the necessity of his running as an independent was less because of circumstances beyond his control and more a matter of his own making. When the tea party movement emerged about a year ago, Crist failed to understand its significance.
Potentially, he could have leveraged it to try to recapture support from the Florida GOP’s conservative wing.
And in recent weeks, he could have made a comeback attempt to win some of that vote by signing a bill that, among other things, would have provided more latitude to reward effective teachers and to cull the bad ones.
That was the moment of permanent separation between Crist and the Republicans.
Some polls have indicated that Crist as an independent candidate for Senate is at least within striking distance of perceived frontrunner Rubio — and may be ahead of him. But the ultimate outcome, as in Britain, likely will depend on voter intensity.
http://jacksonville.com/opinion/columnists/matt-towery/2010-05-02/story/crist-failed-understand-tea-partys-significance
Over a week ago, I reported in the Southern Political Report, a D.C.-based political website, that Republican Florida Gov. Charlie Crist definitely would run for U.S. Senate as an independent.
Many had speculated the same, but no one else in the media that I know of said it was a done deal.
Yet, most observers have understood for a while that with GOP luminaries endorsing former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio for the Republican nomination, it would prove nearly impossible for Crist to climb out of his enormous polling deficit to win the GOP primary.
Interestingly, the concept of independent candidacies this year isn’t confined to Florida. Georgia voters in November will select a replacement for term-limited Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue.
In that race, a successful businessman with no previous political resume has vowed to plunk down $2 million of his own money.
At first, he said he’d run as a Republican, but he changed his mind when he discovered that he had to sign a loyalty oath in which he’d pledge to support the party and its slate of candidates.
Now he may run as an independent.
In Britain, a quickly tumbling Labor Party and a lifeless Conservative Party are now facing a serious challenge from a third party.
It’s led by a dynamic rising star, Nick Clegg, who took command of the first major televised debate among the candidates.
We all know this will be a topsy-turvy political year. As I study my polling from across America, it appears that voter turnout is going to be very brisk, especially in Republican primaries.
As for Crist, the necessity of his running as an independent was less because of circumstances beyond his control and more a matter of his own making. When the tea party movement emerged about a year ago, Crist failed to understand its significance.
Potentially, he could have leveraged it to try to recapture support from the Florida GOP’s conservative wing.
And in recent weeks, he could have made a comeback attempt to win some of that vote by signing a bill that, among other things, would have provided more latitude to reward effective teachers and to cull the bad ones.
That was the moment of permanent separation between Crist and the Republicans.
Some polls have indicated that Crist as an independent candidate for Senate is at least within striking distance of perceived frontrunner Rubio — and may be ahead of him. But the ultimate outcome, as in Britain, likely will depend on voter intensity.
http://jacksonville.com/opinion/columnists/matt-towery/2010-05-02/story/crist-failed-understand-tea-partys-significance