Republican Party of Florida? Or just of Crist?

As Gov. Charlie Crist prepares to shoot a TV commercial for John McCain, a few hardcore conservatives in his party are worried about the message it will send. Their beef isn't with the script. It's with Crist himself and what they see as endless self-promotion.

The Crist camp response: Crist is showing the party how to win when Democrats are on the rise. After all, he's one of only 3 Republican governors elected nationwide in contested 06 races. And he's in good shape for 2010, in part because he's a pragmatist and clearly no ideologue. But that bothers the ideologues who long for the Jeb Bush era of aggressive conservatism, especially now that Democrats have widened a 657,000 voter-registration edge over Republicans while attracting more blacks and Hispanics. That's despite Crist's touted minority-outreach programs.

"We're not building a Republican name brand in Florida. My concern is that no one is going to want to become a Republican because of Charlie Crist. He's not building the party. He's building his image. The party is a tool to build his operation. When he puts arms around Dems all the time, it hurts down ballot. It hurts the ticket. It sends the message that voting Democrat is ok. And we just don’t believe that. Don’t get me wrong, you can be bipartisan, but not like this."

The quote from a top Florida Republican is anonymous for an obvious reason: Crist controls the party, has the power of the veto pen and is immensely popular despite the bad economy tanking on his watch. But this isn't an isolated sentiment. And it began to explode out of conservatives for a trifecta of reasons yesterday:

1) Crist's camp leaked worked of his TV cameo just as some internal (secret) Republican polls showed the race tightening here - which is reflected in today's public Q poll. So Crist gets to boost his image as McCain-savior when McCain's camp might have been finally getting back on track without him.

2) Crist ordered that early voting sites be open longer. Republican legislative leaders had no clue this was coming. But Democratic minority leader Dan Gelber did. So some on the far-right are calling it a suck-up. Two Republican state legislators said McCain this morning should "kick Crist" for what he did, though most agree that the vast majority of early voters would've shown up at the polls one way or another because they're so dedicated. So it didn't really hurt McCain. Flip side: The absence of these hardcore early voters on Election Day will shorten lines and make it more attractive for wishy-washy Democratic-leaning and independent voters to show up Election Day.

3) Crist attended a $10,000-a-head Miami fundraiser for the Republican Party of Florida, rather than explicitly for candidates House and Senate candidates or for McCain. One McCain fundraiser saw it as a betrayal. Most say that's a stretch because the party has followed through on its commitment to help the candidate. Meantime, some legislative Republicans say Crist and RPOF chief Jim Greer have blocked some of their hard-hitting mail pieces too often, so they're raising money through committees outside the party.

Top Crist/McCain fundraiser Brian Ballard took issue with whomever is saying Crist isn't doing enough for the presidential nominee.

"He raised at least $30 million for McCain and tapped and hit up his donors hard. Anyone who is telling you anything else isn't just stupid, they're galactically stupid," Ballard said. "They need to stop complaining, shut up and pick up a sign and start waving it for McCain on a street corner. Because that's what we need."

Comments

[Disgusted Republican]

Can you say "one-term"?

[Disgusted Republican]

Can you say "one-term"?

[calfloridia]

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