24Liberty.com: 24 Races For Liberty, Part IX: FL Senate (Open)

Florida held its primary on August 24. On the Democrat side Kendrick Meek beat out runner-up Jeff Greene by a stout 26 plus points. Where it gets interesting is on the Republican side. Interesting because Marco Rubio handily defeated William Billy Kogut…but this was not the race most Floridians had anticipated when Governor Charlie Crist-appointed Republican George LeMieux decided not to run for re-election to that Senate seat.

Prevailing wisdom at that time was that Crist and Rubio would be facing off against each other for that seat, until Crist saw he was going to have his butt handed to him and opted OUT of the primary… and the Republican party… altogether. A lot of angry Republicans were never given their donations back, and Crist currently enjoys a monstrous lead in donation dollars.

Crist has promised to caucus with the Dems should he pull this one off…but he seems more likely to tear off votes from the left (and Meek) than from the right, so he might never actually get the chance to stab his constituents and supporters in the back.

DC Political Report has a list of polls, each of which indicate Rubio is WAY out in front. CQ Politics has this one as a “Leans Republican” and suggests that Rubio has “a lock on Conservatives” there. Even Wiki has this race no worse (for Rubio) than “Leans Republican” which suggests this is Rubio’s to lose.

What will be more worth watching in the days after the General is not whether Rubio wins…but how Crist treats him, and his fellow Floridians, after the fact.

Far too many incumbents who have seen their “guaranteed wins” vanish before their very eyes have turned toward desperate acts in the name of retaining power at all costs…and have abandoned their values and their principles solely to keep that which their constituents no longer wish them to have. I think I know what Crist will do…but I hope for his sake, and the sake of the Republican detachment to Washington DC next January, that he disappoints me.

[Note: This article originates at Liberty.Com]