The Resurrection of Crist

Mixed Signals

Crist began his political career in 1992, when he was elected to the Florida Senate from St. Petersburg. As State Senator, Crist gained a reputation for taking a hardline on crime, earning the nickname “Chain Gang Charlie.” After losing in the 1998 US Senate election, Crist served two years as Florida Education Commissioner, followed by three years as attorney general under Governor Jeb Bush. His constant movement led some even then to regard him as an overly ambitious political opportunist, always looking for the next rung on the ladder.  In 2006, Crist, still firmly a Republican, was elected governor of Florida — he had, ironically, based his primary campaign on his opponent’s shaky track record as a conservative.

Despite supporting the necessary GOP platform positions, as Florida governor Charlie Crist was not a conventional Republican and he made a number of decisions that broke with the party’s orthodoxy.  Crist appointed judges thought to be too liberal by many Republicans and bragged about being a “life member” of the NAACP. He supported embryonic stem cell research and vetoed a key Republican anti-abortion bill. Crist also touted his environmental credentials and was open to carbon emission reducing cap-and-trade programs. Under Crist’s leadership, the State of Florida bought back thousands of acres of wetlands from sugar companies to help preserve the Florida Everglades. However, he was a strong supporter of gun rights, the death penalty and tax cuts — keeping in line with some Republican positions. Nevertheless he was far more centrist than his predecessor and former boss, Jeb Bush.

As a Republican governor, Crist markedly liberalized voting laws, a campaign promise he had made during his first run as governor. Crist expanded early voting in 2008, leading one of John McCain’s advisers to scathingly berate him for “handing the election to Obama.” When the long lines at Florida polls made national news on Election Day, Crist hastily signed an executive order to keep polling stations open later. Most importantly, Crist restored voting rights to the majority of Florida’s released felons. The plan added 950,000 new voters to Florida’s rolls, most of who came from Democratic-leaning demographic groups. In fact, many political scientists believe that if felons had been allowed to vote in previous Florida elections, the results of the 2000 presidential election, in which Florida was a key swing state, may have been different.

The Downfall

The defining moment of Charlie Crist’s political career and the beginning of its decline was a simple hug. The “terrorist nipple bump,” as Stephen Colbert called it, came in February 2009, at the high point of Crist’s term as governor. Crist’s approval ratings were through the roof, and most pundits expected him to easily win re-election as governor or a seat in the Senate.

Several weeks after his inauguration, President Obama came to Florida to drum up support for his economic stimulus package. Crist introduced Obama, and called on his fellow politicians to rise above partisanship and help fix the economy. Then as Obama came to the podium, the Democratic president and the Republican governor briefly embraced. Images of “The Hug” would prove excellent campaign fodder for later Republican opponents.

Detractors claim that Crist’s support for the stimulus was only political. Crist had managed to significantly increase Florida’s spending without ever raising taxes. The Obama stimulus would allow Florida to keep its budget solvent for longer. The same detractors also claimed that Crist was running for Senate to avoid the consequences of Florida’s unsustainable fiscal policy. He would rather have someone else face the fire. Still, his support for the stimulus itself never became a main issue. Rather, it was the images of “The Hug,” shown ad nauseam in opponents’ ads, which were used to questions Crist’s commitment to conservatism and the Republican Party. Crist’s downfall did not begin right away. When he declared his candidacy for Senator several months later, pundits still predicted a cakewalk. A perfect storm was needed to drown Crist’s campaign.

The Storm

The Florida Senate race became the battleground for the bubbling civil war within the Republican Party. After the crushing defeat in the 2008 elections, many Republican leaders called on the party to move toward the pragmatic center. They used examples of the power of moderate governors to resurrect parties in tough times — Bill Clinton for the Democrats and George Bush for the Republicans. National GOP leaders like Mitch McConnell, John McCain and John Cornyn hailed Crist as a key to the future of the party.

At the same time, a hardline grassroots movement — now the Tea Party — was emerging. The members of this movement were staunchly conservative, angry and rejected any form of compromise. The movement found a home amongst Floridians and a poster boy in a young, deeply conservative Florida legislator named Marco Rubio. The son of Cuban exiles, Rubio centered his campaign on the greatness of American opportunity — greatness, Rubio argued, created by small government. Rubio framed the race as a debate over “the essence of what government should be and what role it should play.” Rubio quickly won endorsements from George Will, Karl Rove and Rush Limbaugh. South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint supported Rubio and said “voters are going to weed out these Republicans who no longer share the core principles that make our country great.” Rubio went on an attack against Crist as a Republican In Name Only (RINO). At many Florida Tea Party rallies, only President Obama drew more hatred than Crist, and, unfortunately for Crist, images of “The Hug” often connected the two.

The antipathy towards Crist grew after his endorsement of John McCain several days before Florida’s 2008 Republican primary. Many conservatives who saw McCain as far too moderate attributed his victory to Crist’s endorsement. Furthermore, there seemed to be confusion on who had been promised endorsements: Rudy Giuliani also believed he had been promised Crist’s endorsement while Mitt Romney claimed Crist had promised him he would be neutral. Epitomizing the feelings of many staunch conservatives, Romney would later say in reference to Crist, “There are some people that you can’t trust.”

Crist didn’t realize the threat until it was too late. He condescendingly depicted his Tea Party opponents as being in the “cheap seats.” Finally seeing the tide turn against him, Crist attempted to reaffirm his conservative credentials. He touted his vetoes on earmarks, his frugality and his love for Ronald Reagan. However, Crist’s long, moderate track record didn’t lie and Florida’s economy wasn’t helping.  In March 2010, Florida’s unemployment rate was at 12 percent and the state had the third highest foreclosure rate in the country. In addition, Florida’s population was decreasing for the first time in 60 years. With the Tea Party calling for a push to the right and the ongoing effects of the Great Recession, Crist was caught between Scylla and Charybdis.  The fact that Obama’s stimulus plan, which Crist had supported and which had led to “The Hug”, didn’t seem to be helping increased the conservative ire against him. In November, talking to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Crist denied ever supporting it and railed against Obama’s excessive spending. It was too little, too late.

Crist’s lead steadily dropped over the course of the fall. In January, polls showed Rubio in the lead for the first time. Finally, on April 28, far behind and seemingly out of the race for the Republican nomination, Crist dropped out and became an independent. Most of his staff resigned, and almost all the endorsements he had received were pulled. Crist attempted to convince the Democratic candidate Kendrick Meek to drop out of the race, but his efforts were in vain. With most of his monetary support dried up, Crist ended up finishing a distant second in the general election with only 30 percent of the vote to Rubio’s 50 percent.

Crist insists he did not leave the Republican Party; rather, the party left him. Quoting Reagan, Crist claimed the “big tent” of the Republican Party had narrowed, excluding women, minorities, immigrants and now moderates. Rubio was right for the most part when he accused Crist of being a RINO: Many of Crist’s views no longer fit into the new Republican Party. The push for voter ID laws, the backlash against environmentalism and the vehement denial of rights for same-sex couples (as early as 2006, Crist had declared support for civil unions, if not marriage) clashed with Crist’s voting history.

Road to the Governor’s Mansion: Round Two

After quietly working at a friend’s law firm and backing Democrats in a number of races, Charlie Crist burst back into the spotlight in December 2012, announcing that he was now officially a Democrat. President Obama welcomed him at a White House Christmas reception shortly after. Florida’s Democratic leaders quickly rallied around him, hoping that his centrist positions could help them take back control over Florida after two decades on the sidelines. They hoped that the rise of the independent voter would mesh with Crist’s constant declarations that he was for the “people” and working for consensus.

Crist claims that above all he stands for “fairness and treating people right.” Subtly acknowledging his past flip-flops, he references his open mind and the fact that ultimately, the “voters are his boss.” He argues that people should be happy to have their leaders evolve, and not be dogmatically stubborn. At the same time, he claims he should “never have been a Republican.” That statement is particularly doubtful considering his past stances on a number of issues, and his self-proclaimed identity as a Reagan devotee in the heat of the 2010 Republican primary.

Shortly after, Crist announced he was set on getting his old job back and would challenge Republican incumbent Rick Scott in the 2014 gubernatorial election. His prolific fundraising skills gave him a strong start early on. In August 2014, Crist won the Democratic primary with a resounding 50 percent more votes than his nearest challenger. However, the primary was marred by low turnout and a lack of enthusiasm. Since then, Democratic leaders have scrambled to rally the party base behind Crist, promoting statewide “unity” tours. They have filled his staff with advisers from Obama’s 2012 campaign. Democratic turnout will be pivotal for Crist as he faces the real challenge in his bid for governor: Rick Scott.

Rick Scott, a former health care executive whose company paid the largest Medicare and Medicaid fraud settlement in history, spent over $70 million of his own money in the 2010 race and has planned a $100 million campaign to defeat Crist. He has had little problem fundraising given the extreme hatred that Crist now inspires in many Republicans. Scott’s campaign is centered on Charlie Crist lack of true ideology.

Perhaps in a repeat of 2008, the Republican attacks seem to be working. Scott, beleaguered by low approval ratings, started behind in the polls but has slowly climbed back. The race is even in most polls now. If Crist is to win he has to show voters the merits of his centrism and that he cares about more than winning. The future of the “people’s governor” now rests on convincing the people that he’s genuine — or at least not as bad as Scott.