Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, flailing in his Senate primary against Marco Rubio, yesterday appeared to lay the groundwork for an independent run. His veto of a sweeping conservative education reform was a public poke in the eye to the Republican Party he claims to want to represent this fall, and is already losing him his last GOP support.
Crist campaign chairman, former Sen. Connie Mack, was so bitter over Mr. Crist's veto of a bill that would have made it easier to fire bad teachers, he quit the campaign. In a terse note, he informed Mr. Crist that his veto was "unsupportable and wrong," noting that it "undermines our education system in Florida and the principles for which I have always stood." The resignation loses Mr. Crist one his most respected backers.
Mr. Crist's decision to cave to teachers unions also earned him a stinging rebuke from former Gov. Jeb Bush, who supported the measure. "By taking this action, Gov. Crist has jeopardized the ability of Florida to build on the progress of the last decade," he said in a statement. Mr. Bush, who had so far kindly refrained from taking sides in the primary, may well now be moved to come out in favor of Mr. Rubio.
The question is whether Mr. Crist cares. Mr. Rubio is now beating him by double digits in the polls for the GOP primary and has raised three times as much money as Mr. Crist in the first quarter. A recent Quinnipiac poll suggested Mr. Crist had a better shot running as an independent in the general election against Mr. Rubio and Democrat Kendrick Meeks. Many therefore viewed yesterday's veto as little more than an opportunistic way for Mr. Crist to break with his party, with an eye to an outside run.
Less certain is whether that veto actually helps him as an independent. The governor's office made a big deal out of the number of comments that had poured in, and claimed the vast majority were opposed to the bill. Then again, the teachers unions had mobilized most of that response. The Florida electorate as a whole has been generally supportive of reform, one reason Mr. Bush was a popular governor. The perception that Mr. Crist's veto was nothing but political maneuvering, combined with a possible party switch, can't sit well with an electorate looking for strong leadership. We may be watching a political career go down in flames.
-- Kim Strassel
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