50Seats.Com, The Series: Part XIII, FL Senate (Open)

The race for US Senate in Florida to replace Republican George LeMieux, appointed to that seat by then-Republican Governor Charlie Crist to replace Republican Mel Martinez, has gotten a fair amount of coverage in this space. LibertyFirstPAC has already endorsed Republican Marco Rubio (campaign website HERE), but there have been some interesting developments in this race that are worthy of being repeated and looked at a little more closely.

Gov. Crist (formerly known as a Republican) began his pursuit of this Senate seat vowing to run as a Republican…back when his upstart opponent in the primary (Marco Rubio) was at 4% in the polls. Even as his numbers were dropping Crist continued to insist that he was running as a Republican. Fast forward to an April 12 Rasmussen poll that had Crist WAY down in the polls with 28% to Rubio’s 57%…and Rubio climbing.

Seventeen days after that poll, Crist announced he’d run as an Independent-abandoning all pretense of staying loyal to his party and making it clear he cared more about his own personal political ambitions than he did about the needs of those constituents he means to serve and represent. Worse, in the eyes of some, was his recent refusal to return campaign donations he received while still running as a Republican. Rubio, for his part, had an interesting response to that decision:

“As Charlie Crist continually reinvents himself to do-say-be anything to win an election, he is now going back on his word to Floridians and is decidedly not listening to the people. It seems that Charlie Crist is only willing to listen to the people if they dont want a refund from his campaign.”

There is also a piece at 73Wire that reports on the latest Rubio ad called “Take The Money And Run”…go check it out.

More after the jump…

With Crist’s decision to go it alone, a May 4 poll from Rasmussen seems to indicate his decision was a wise one-for now-because he presently enjoys being on top of the other candidates Rubio, and Democrat hopeful Meek.

For now.

Crist is only up by 4 points, and the GOP primary isn’t until August. Much can happen between now and then. Rubio has 3 GOP challengers to contend with, and needs the support of Floridians to clear that hurdle before facing off against Crist and Meek (with 3 challengers of his own in HIS primary).

CQ Politics is calling this race “Leans Republican” and suggests this:

Faced with eroding support from the party faithful, Crist ended his GOP candidacy and announced April 29 that he would run as an independent candidate. The move sets up a three-way general election battle this fall.

Crist’s decision to run without party affiliation is a political long shot and Rubio, the likely GOP nominee, will continue to be favored in November. But the move by Crist has also given renewed hope to Democrats who think he and Rubio will split the GOP vote.

The bottom line here is this; Florida is not pleased with the Health Care package (among many other things the Democrats have done/are doing to this country) and Crist’s move to “NPA” does nothing more than improve the chances of a Democrat going to DC to do MORE to hurt America’s future. Rubio is the right man at the right time for a major cleanup in Washington…Crist only takes votes away from him, and makes it harder to un-do the mess Floridians want un-done. We know which side Crist is on…help Rubio make him a fading memory in November.

We’ll be watching this one VERY closely.

Note: This post originates at 73Wire.

[The Liberty First PAC has endorsed Marco Rubio in this race. Anyone interested in supporting the Liberty First PAC can go here to contribute, and help make a difference in these critical upcoming mid-term elections. Donate now, donate often!]