Gov. Charlie Crist's name wasn't on the ballot Tuesday, but his reputation was in backing a property-tax cut and John McCain's presidential candidacy. The result: Crist's a king maker, juggernaut, etc (for now). Full story here. Think of this: Crist was his own exit poll question, meaning the national yutzes and intelligentsia had a new story theme: The Might of the Silver-Haired One.
In some ways Crist, seemed to be campaigning against the wills of Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio and his predecessor Allan Bense.
Rubio all but refused to lend public support to the property-tax plan and on Tuesday was at a polling station in Miami-Dade gathering signatures to get a rival plan on the ballot. However, he did vote for it, and said others should to because it did something (though precious little).
And Bense dissed Crist (here and here) in a Sunday conference call where he suggested Crist wasn't conservative enough to help McCain in the Panhandle.
According to exit polls, that ain't quite the case. McCain won North Florida with 36 percent support, compared to Mitt Romney's 33.
This is so beautiful! Charlie just B slapped Marco.
Posted by: | January 30, 2008 at 08:30 AM
B slapped Marco? At least Rubio is trying to actually make an impact by lowering the rate to 1.35%. What did CC do, oh you will save 235.00 on your next property tax bill of 10K.
Oh yeah, I can totally see where Charlie b slapped him now.
Posted by: | January 30, 2008 at 08:46 AM
Classic Crist... Waits until three days before an election, makes sure the polling numbers are correct and then jumps on the leading bandwagon. This guy is fooling most Floridians. He's either crafty or 60% of floridians are idiots.
Posted by: | January 30, 2008 at 09:06 AM
Marco went down in flames.
Posted by: | January 30, 2008 at 09:41 AM
60% aren't idiots. It's the polititians. Charlie is just that good, preparing himself for the future to be able to say he lowered prop. taxes, when in reality this may generate more tax revenue when you consider they WILL use the full 10% on commercial and factoring in sales tax on the increased rents that will occur, the state should actually come out way ahead. What they don't care about is the next state recession due to the commercial sector. The non homestead increase should equal or surpass the amount saved by homestead. God they are good aren't they!
Posted by: Frank M | January 30, 2008 at 02:02 PM
no 9:41 our economy is going down in flames. There is a price for bad leadership and we are all about to pay it.
Posted by: | January 30, 2008 at 04:30 PM