Campaign Crawlers
Marco’s Million-Dollar Mo
Game on in Florida Senate race — and Charlie Crist knows it.
TAMPA — OK, Charlie doesn’t have to declare a mayday yet. But it’s probably time for him to start worrying. Mr. Inevitable is beginning to look like just another Senate candidate. A candidate fully capable of blowing a large lead by next August.
Charlie is Florida’s mercurial populist governor, Charlie Crist, a registered Republican but an enabler of some of the left’s worst impulses. Charlie puts the RINO in RINO.
Crist has been the overwhelming favorite over conservative former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio in a race for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat Mel Martinez recently resigned from. Polls, the last public one in August, have shown Crist ahead by more than 20 points. The lead mainly reflects the governor’s higher name recognition. The same polls show that between voters who know about both candidates the race is essentially a dead heat.
As damning for Rubio as the polls was the dialing-for-dollars score. In the second quarter Rubio collected a feeble $340K to Crist’s gaudy $4.3 million. The “experts” said Rubio couldn’t be taken seriously until he started bringing in enough money to run a statewide campaign in Florida, a large, diverse, ten-media-market state.
Well, now he has. In the third quarter Rubio collected right at a million dollars. Serious money for a candidate more and more people, both in Florida and nationwide, are taking seriously. A real race is on now between a man who has consistently walked the conservative walk and a man who has hardly been consistent about anything, except his desire to hold public office, for the whole of his political career.
Crist reports bringing in $2.4 million this cycle, but this doesn’t deter the Rubio campaign, which all along has said it doesn’t need to match the governor dollar for dollar. It only needs to bring in enough to get Rubio’s conservative story before Florida voters. Any sitting governor can be a contribution-magnet. But Crist’s connections with big money from such as plaintiffs’ lawyers, corporate executives, and New York socialites (this last group greased by Crist’s newly acquired New York socialite bride) has helped him achieve the outlandish amount his campaign has collected so far. And Crist may be reaching the point of diminishing returns in campaign money. How many ads featuring a smiling Charlie can Floridians watch between now and the August primary?
The larger fraction of Rubio’s contributions has come from individuals in Florida, but his campaign has been attracting attention from national conservatives, including favorable coverage from many of the country’s conservative publications and pundits. After the million-dollar quarter was announced, Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist told the St. Petersburg Times that Rubio will surely generate interest because “This is the only race in a major state that has a clear-cut campaign for the future of the Republican Party…. It may be the Reaganite candidate vs. the sort of John McCain candidate.”
Apt comparison. Crist is every bit as erratic and as inclined to stiff conservatives in the name of some trendy, liberal nonsense as McCain has been.
Rubio’s recent financial success has also attracted the attention of Club for Growth executive director David Keating, who said if a close examination of Rubio’s financial performance shows he has a chance to prevail, donations from his members could reach as high as seven figures. He said Rubio’s campaign is looking like the real deal now.
Since running for governor in 2006 as a Jeb Bush conservative (Bush preceded Crist in the governor’s mansion in Florida), Crist has been a political chameleon, occasionally using conservative rhetoric about keeping taxes and government regulation low while at the same time supporting some very un-conservative things.
The list of charges and specifications against Crist in the Court of Conservative Opinion is long. He’s supported Obama’s $787 billion deficit stimulator and has whooped up the horrible idea of a carbon cap and trade program. He’s tried to curry favor with environmentalists in various costly ways, including trying to oblige Florida’s utilities to generate 20 percent of their electric power using the boutique fuels that generate heat in the hearts of environmentalists but very little light. He recently appointed a liberal justice to the Florida Supreme Court.
Crist has lately been singing a more conservative tune, including talking of Obama as a one-term president. But as he’s been all over the political map — left, right, and center — over the past two years, no one much is listening, least of all conservative Republicans who dominate Republican primary elections (especially off-years one like 2010 will be).
More alarming to Crist supporters than the opinion of the likes of Norquist and George Will (who in a recent column flatly predicted Rubio would win and enumerated why he should), is the wholesale desertion of Crist by the conservative base of the party, including many who supported Crist when he ran for governor in 2006. The mutineers are active even in Crist’s home county of Pinellas (St. Petersburg-Clearwater).
Pinellas Republican state committeeman Tony DiMatteo told me the members of his executive committee “don’t want to see another Arlen Specter in the Senate.” He said in 2006 when Crist ran for governor as a conservative the Pinellas Republican Party worked hard for him and contributed $50K to his campaign.
But in office Crist has not governed in a manner DiMatteo or his colleagues recognize as conservative. It was a kind of bait and switch. Buyers’ remorse set in as DiMatteo et al. watched Crist go on stage with Obama in Florida to help sell our rookie president’s “stimulus” slush fund. For many, buyers’ remorse morphed into anger and resentment. DiMatteo declines to talk percentages, but he does predict that when his committee holds a straw vote in January, he likes Rubio’s chances.
Rubio has already has done extraordinarily well with the Republican base, winning eight county executive committee straw votes by a combined 358-32, including a 73-9 win in Pasco County, which borders Pinellas. But a win for Rubio in Crist’s home county would be huge for the Rubio campaign. What Republicans know Charlie better?
After Rubio’s fundraising success, even the distinctly un-conservative Washington Post, in its political feature “The Fix,” called Rubio’s million dollars “The Most Important Number in Politics Today.” This might overstate things a bit. But Rubio’s respectable haul gives a genuinely conservative candidate the resources to run a real campaign against a big-government, establishment Republican. The numbers in Las Vegas are being re-calculated as we speak. Stay tuned. This one will be lively, fun, and important.
About the Author
Larry Thornberry is a writer in Tampa.
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Deborah D | 10.9.09 @ 6:35AM
Thanks for this, Mr. Thornberry. I've been watching Rubio for some time, and he's the real deal. Boy, how I'd love for him to bury Crist, nothing but a finger-in-the-wind RINO, an emblem of the biggest problem the GOP has right now. Rubio is the candidate that most emulates Reagan. What a breath of missing fresh air!
Besides, and this is me being my feminine self, he's as handsome as he can be!! We can all use a handsome Republican! :) Check him out here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Rubio
Randy | 10.9.09 @ 10:22AM
Crist leads in "public" polling. "Obama Fans of Charlie" unfortunately for him, do not get to vote in primary. Primary will be decided by GOP unless he can convince people to abandon voting in Dem primary to switch registrations. Crist is Obamas favorite Republican and:
Will vote for higher taxes (as in Florida)
Strong believer in "public options" - destroying homeowners insurance in Florida with "Public Option"
Will vote for Cap & Tax (His words)
Had his sock puppet appointee (LeMieux) block legislation to approve off-shore drilling.
Regularly channels Ahnold Schwarzenegger.
Pingback| 10.9.09 @ 6:46AM
Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : Marco's Million-Dollar Mo [spectator links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Jim O'Brien| 10.9.09 @ 7:16AM
Rubio supports the Fair Tax = elimination of the federal income tax and the IRS. All Democrats and most Republicans are opposed to the Fair Tax, since it would take away much of their power to manipulate our lives.
Go to www.fairtax.org and donate $$$
LQQKY| 10.9.09 @ 8:05AM
The only people who want Crist are inside the beltway with the possible exception of the georgiahassee crowd in the panhandle. We, the hoi polloi, know him better and a rich trophy wife and a great tan ain't gonna change nuthin. I do not know of anyone in my part of the woods who want the idiot for senator and if the GOP keeps pushing the RINO they are going to lose the seat. I and my wife have already stopped contributing (albeit small amounts) to the party and will continue to do so until they decide to represent us, not the DC crowd in washington. A senate seat filled by a RINO is worthless and Crist, more than most, will bend with the smallest breeze since he has no backbone.
Cathy Christodoulou| 10.17.09 @ 11:15PM
Don't donate to the Republican party. Donate to Marco Rubio's campaign directly. Then, talk to your friends and get them to do the same. Go to his events and volunteer to help him win the seat. Become a part of the grass roots movement like I have done. It won't happen without support from you and me!
Becky| 10.9.09 @ 8:22AM
That's why Republicans have a harder time on the national scene than Democrats. We know that people need to be fired when they screw up. Crist needs to be fired.
Crist is well equated with McCain as an example of why, even though both are decent people, moderate politics is the weakest type there is. Two strong parties can and should keep the country in deadlock, which prevents government from getting too big.
I'm from Michigan and have been reading about Rubio and rooting for him.
Deborah D | 10.9.09 @ 9:21AM
Couldn't agree with you more, Becky, and we're in good company:
"Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice. "
Thomas Paine
Joellen| 10.9.09 @ 8:31AM
Here's a chance for true Conservatives to help another true Conservative. My check is in the mail. Look, if everyone sent Rubio whatever they can afford (like we did with Joe Wilson); this good man can be the start of the Revised Repulican Party. Let's Do it!
Michael L. Hauschild| 10.9.09 @ 8:52AM
Already did, and Wilson too.
Deborah D | 10.9.09 @ 9:22AM
Ditto!!
Czar of Defenestration| 10.9.09 @ 10:20AM
Another item in Mr. Crist's RINO crown is the state funded/covered home insurance deal for older homes few if any insurance companies (which, not coincidentally, left Florida after Crist's intervention) would touch.
mujalan| 10.9.09 @ 10:37AM
Let's not forget that this race has important implications for the rest of us in this Country and not just Floridians. The GOP big-shots in Washington have to learn a lesson. Sadly my own esteemed (?) Senator from Texas, John Cornyn, made the announcement that the NRSC is backing Crist. What a disgusting travesty!
Bannor| 10.9.09 @ 2:17PM
We here in FL will do our best to turn John Cornyn's NRSC endorsement into the kiss of death and if we get lucky that will happen nation wide.
rt| 10.9.09 @ 10:44AM
I'm rooting for Rubio too. I will contribute to his campaign as soon as I am employed again, hopefully soon....Here in CA we have Chuck DeVore trying to unseat Ultra libturd Boxer. The State GOP is rooting for Carly Fiorina fomer CEO of HP, another sorry a** RINO. Doesnt the GOP get it????We need more conservatives in the Senate and DAMN THE RINOS!!!!!!
Birdhunter| 10.9.09 @ 12:46PM
I'm moving to Florida at the end of the month and Rubio is getting both my donations and my vote.
annecarr| 10.9.09 @ 1:47PM
I have been declining to donate to the RNC and Republican senatorial campaign committee and have been telling them to butt out of the Republican primaries. I specifically mentioned the Rubio/Crist issue as well as the CA gubernatorial race since the RNC apparently told Larry Elder not to run against the woman they are backing...forget her name. There was a great article recently by Bay Buchanan about this very issue at Human Events.
The Republican party is in danger of completely alienating itself from the base of the party.
annecarr| 10.9.09 @ 1:51PM
Don't forget the NY-23 House race where the NRCC backed Scozzofava over a conservative Doug Hoffman. There is another article here today on Scozzafave/Hoffman as well and how some House conservative Republicans are unhappy the NRCC backed Scozzofava who had been previously backed by the Working Family Party which is affiliated with ACORN.
Pingback| 10.9.09 @ 5:22PM
The American Spectator : Marco's Million-Dollar Mo | Dollar car rental live today links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
jr| 10.9.09 @ 5:59PM
Nice work Larry Thornberry. Keep it up -- periodically with a nugget or two about the swaggering, elitist, tanned, grey haired switch hitter Crist. Crist had line item veto authority but chose to raise sin taxes, e.g., smokes -- rather than telling the Fla legislature to get smoking and reduce expenditures. Reduce expenditures. Cut the bloated Fla Education Department as one example. It is about as good as the Chicago school system where Obama's Arne dwelt. When the time is ripe, I will contribute to the previously little known Rubio.
Jim O'Brien| 10.9.09 @ 6:05PM
Crist appointed George LeMieux to take the place of Mel Martinez (RINO-FL), who resigned from the U.S. Senate last month. I have written to LeMieux about 6 times via email expressing concern about the various socialist initiatives in Congress. I have not received even an polite acknowledgement, much less a substantive reply from LeMieux. I suppose he is too busy, too new, or too out-of-touch with voters. Or perhaps he just doesn't give a hoot what his constituents think. At least Martinez, lame as he was, answered his mail. And Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) always answers. If anyone wants to try communicating with Senator LeMieux, the email address is info@lemieux.senate.gov
And the RNC wonders why a lot of us don't send a dime. The Democrats are Socialists, and the Republicans are Fake Capitalists. We have taxation without representation.
Jim O'Brien| 10.9.09 @ 6:22PM
Correction: Lemieux has now set up a web form. Maybe his staff will answer mail sent via
http://lemieux.senate.gov/publ.....torLeMieux
LQQKY| 10.11.09 @ 11:01AM
I have gotten a couple of LeMieux e-mails, probably got my address from Mel (vote from me, I'm a Cuban regugee) Martinez' senatorial mailing list. Le....'s name smacks too much of New Orleans and as I recall, he didn't do a whole lot here in Florida except carry Crist's water.
s
Brian| 10.9.09 @ 6:37PM
As a Florida resident in 2006 I got no less than 50 robo calls from McCain touting the conservative virtues of Crist. I'll not be fooled this time!
Richard Baker| 10.10.09 @ 5:10AM
Crist is just another political whore who can't get enough of office-holding. Charlie is tanned and photogenic but so what? He stands for Charlie-in-office and nothing else. As a Floridian, I personally will work for his defeat and a return to whatever career he has. Maybe his New York buddies will have a place for him.
James| 10.10.09 @ 8:07AM
Nice piece. As a Floridian I can tell you Crist has much larger issues to overcome with Republican voters in this state than the ones listed in the article. His ties to multiple convicted felons who were and are fundraisers is an emerging issue for conservatives as well. There are unreimbursed flights on donors jets and a 2 Billion dollar Big Sugar Bailout scheme that are not wearing well. The fact Jeb Bush hasnt endorsed him is telling. Crist recently tried to blame Bush for the Stanaki Land Scandal where a major republican donor and developer was paid 2.1 million more for land than the state appraised it at (using preservation funds no less) . Bush will probably end up supporting Rubio publicly if necessary close to primary time when the polls are closer.
Stuart| 10.10.09 @ 8:10AM
Christ is a classic RINO, an Obama a*s kisser, a global warming fanatic, and a plastic banana. He is truely an empty suit.
I hope Rubio mauls him. I live in FL, and Charlie the Camilion has done is raise taxes and fees massively, and has done NOTHING to alleviate unemployment.
ame| 10.10.09 @ 2:19PM
I not only hope Rubio mauls Crist, Mr. Flroida tan empty McCain suit - I have backed that "hope" up with donations.
GIVE TO RUBIO'S CAMPAIGN - we HAVE to get rid of RINOs NOW - Our country is in BAD shape with this prez and leftist ideology that Crist would only support like Snowe and Collins and Martinez.
Pingback| 10.11.09 @ 6:35PM
Socialist Rag USAToday, going down the tubes; Wall Street Journal takes the No 1 Spot links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 10.11.09 @ 6:39PM
USAToday, going down the tubes; Wall Street Journal takes the No 1 Spot « VotingFemal links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
james| 10.12.09 @ 10:15AM
Charlie Crist, our celebutard former governor, is rapidly losing steam, even here on the Upper West Side of Florida, Palm Beach County. If you want to know what kind of trouble he is really in, keep an eye on Allen West, an ultra-conservative running for Congress here against uber-leftist Ron Klein. Floridians, except for the catatonic Jewish retirees in Broward County, are reverting to type. Rubio - and West - are very much for real.
Cathy Christodoulou| 10.17.09 @ 11:19PM
If you are not registered as a Republican and want Marco to win this Senate seat, you MUST change your party affiliation to Republican in order for your vote to count! You must vote for him in the primary and then again in the general election. After that, if you feel you must change your status to something else, then fine. But, Marco needs your vote!!! Change to Republican status before the deadline if you want to do your part to change things in Washington!!!!!