Governor Charlie “flip-flopper” Crist has changes his position on yet another issue in an attempt to pander to Florida progressives, this time on the always contentious issue of travel to Cuba:
As the Republican governor of Florida, Charlie Crist backed U.S. sanctions against Cuba and signed off on a state law hiking costs on agencies that book trips to the repressive regime.
But as a newly independent candidate for the U.S. Senate, Crist is slated to collect checks from some of the same people who successfully fought to overturn the law last year and who advocate opening a dialogue with Cuba.
Crist’s Cuba position is the latest example of his that-was-then, this-is-now political strategy as he tries to build a statewide campaign outside the traditional Republican Party. The heavily Republican Cuban exile community backs strict limits on travel and remittances to Cuba, which they see as financially propping up the communist dictatorship.
Crist’s new position is, of course, the more rational position. Restricting Cuban-American access to Cuba hurts families much more than it hurts the Communist regime. Further, trade with China and Vietnam clearly demonstrates that engagement and commerce are more effective than sanctions.
But Crist’s conversion on this and other issues is anything but sincere. Rather than being motivated by a desire to pursue good public policy, Governor Crist is involved in a cyncial and transparent attempt to fool Florida Democrats into voting for one of the two Republicans that will be on the ballot for Senate in November. Unfortunately, Crist has been quite successful so far at both raising money from Democrats and skimming Democratic and Democratic-leaning independent voters away from the defacto Democratic Senate nominee U.S. Representative Kendrick Meek. Crist would be better than Rubio, but Meek would be much better than both Crist and Rubio.
In the coming months the Crist campaign will do its best to push the narrative that the Florida Senate race is effectively a two-way race between the moderate Crist and the crazy, Club for Growth wingnut Rubio. Meek’s only chance rests in countering that narrative as much as possible. If Meek can keep this a three way race, with Crist taking a large chunk of unaffilited voters and a few Republicans and Democrats, he can hope to slide by with 35 or 36 percent.
Rubio’s camp has to be hoping that Meek is partially successful, with Crist getting a lot of Democrats but Meek capturing enough so that Rubio can score a minority victory. That kind of three-way race, where Crist is squeezed from both sides, offers Rubio his best path to victory in my estimate. Time will tell which narrative wins out with the voters.
