He’s No Jeb Bush. Charlie Crist, ambiguous conservative, potential VP candidate

[Wretched Excess]

‘He’s No Jeb Bush’
Charlie Crist — ambiguous conservative, potential vice president

When the Florida legislature finished its spring session last year, Republican governor Charlie Crist hailed lawmakers for what he considered their most important accomplishment: “You put the nail in the coffin this afternoon on the industry that was hurting our people.”

He was talking about the insurance industry, which seems to have chosen an odd way to hurt Floridians. It spent more than $30 billion to meet its policy obligations and help rebuild the Sunshine State, in the wake of seven big hurricanes that smashed the state’s shores in 2004 and 2005.

Anybody who has dealt with claims adjusters knows they can be unpleasant. Crist, however, didn’t merely express frustration with insurance companies — he decided to give John Edwards a run for his money in the contest for the year’s most flamboyantly anti-business rhetoric. “I am amazed at their level of greed and I am amazed at the callous nature of their corporate decisions,” he told the St. Petersburg Times last summer.

Coming from a guy who’s normally smiling and upbeat, these were harsh words. Yet they’ve struck a populist chord and today, a little more than a year into his first term as Jeb Bush’s successor, Crist enjoys sky-high approval ratings: 71 percent, according to a February poll. He finds himself on the verge of national prominence, as a possible running mate for John McCain.

“I don’t have an interest in the vice presidency,” he told me on February 13, but he’s bound to make McCain’s short list anyway. Many Republicans believe that Crist’s last-minute endorsement allowed McCain to nip Mitt Romney in Florida, putting the Arizona senator on a glide path to the GOP nomination.

In some ways, Crist’s candidacy would make a lot of sense: He’d all but lock up Florida, a state McCain can’t afford to lose in November. He also has a strong record on crime, taxes, and spending. But is he the battle-tested conservative that so many in the Republican base believe McCain ought to pick?

The 51-year-old Crist is of Greek ancestry — the family name was Christodoulos before his father shortened it. He’s bronze-skinned, silver-haired, and wafer-thin. A Pennsylvania native, he grew up in Florida and left for Wake Forest, where he played on the football team’s practice squad for two years. Crist finished his degree at Florida State and attended the Cumberland School of Law in Alabama. He flunked the bar twice before passing it (as smirking rivals like to mention). Around this time, he married his college girlfriend. They divorced half a year later, and he’s been single ever since.

In the art of retail politics, Crist is a grand master. He’s warm and affable in person. He likes to listen as much as he likes to talk, and he’s been known to give out his cellphone number to constituents he’s just met. “He’s probably the most brilliant campaigner I’ve ever been around,” says congressman Tom Feeney, a Florida Republican. “He remembers names like nobody else.”

The governor also has a nose for feel-good publicity. A few weeks before he was sworn in, he read a story in the Miami Herald about Kevin Estinfil, a disabled twelve-year-old who needs special thermal blankets to stay alive because his body can’t regulate its own temperature. A state office had spent thousands of dollars in legal fees to deny a claim for the blankets, which would have cost $360 per year. Crist cut a personal check for that amount and visited the boy. When the head of the tight-fisted agency announced her resignation, it hardly seemed like a coincidence — and Crist came off as “the people’s governor,” as he likes to call himself.

Crist first eyed public office more than two decades ago. In 1986, he ran for the state senate and lost. Not long after, a newspaper published his letter to the editor urging Republicans to unite behind Connie Mack, a conservative who was running for the U.S. Senate. “We read the letter but had no idea who Charlie was,” says Mitch Bainwol, who was Mack’s campaign manager at the time. Bainwol tracked down Crist and persuaded him to join the cause. After Mack triumphed, Crist was his state director.

Yet he still wanted to win his own election. His next foray was more successful: He captured a state-senate seat in 1992 and was re-elected to a new term. Since then, he’s sought one statewide office after another. In 1998, he ran a kamikaze campaign against Democratic senator Bob Graham. Crist lost badly, but increased his name recognition among Republicans. Then came a string of victories — for state education commissioner in 2000, attorney general in 2002, and, finally, governor in 2006. Conveniently, the state legislature recently repealed a resign-to-run law that would have required Crist to quit his job in Tallahassee to seek a federal office. Now he can legally serve as governor and as the Republican nominee for vice president at the same time.

Throughout his career, Crist has demonstrated a talent for spotting and exploiting niche issues. As a state senator, he proposed that prisoners work in shackled crews. Opponents mocked him as “Chain Gang Charlie.” Their name-calling backfired, however, as Crist embraced the term and even used it in campaign ads. Later, he criticized Florida Atlantic University for sponsoring a play that depicts Jesus as a gay man. As attorney general he blasted Medicaid for letting sex offenders acquire Viagra, and his complaints prompted a change in federal policy. In each case, he earned headlines and conservative approval.

Despite these gestures, many conservatives have harbored doubts about Crist. “He’s no Jeb Bush,” says one Republican congressman who isn’t from Florida. “There’s no way you can be as popular as he is and be doing anything hard.” Some of Crist’s biggest fans don’t belong to his party. Democratic state senator Dave Aronberg has called him “one of the best Democratic governors Florida has ever had,” according to the St. Petersburg Times. Last year, at a gala sponsored by the legislature’s black caucus, state representative Terry Fields exalted Crist with language that echoed a phrase often used to describe Bill Clinton: “Don’t you think he’s Florida’s first black governor?” The Associated Press reported that “the crowd erupted in applause.”

A main reason for this left-leaning group’s celebration of Crist was his support for what was one of its top legislative priorities: the restoration of voting rights for felons. During the recount controversy of 2000, many liberal civil-rights organizations argued that a law denying the vote to ex-cons was discriminatory, in that it disproportionately affected blacks (and perhaps even played a decisive role in George W. Bush’s defeat of Al Gore). Restoration of voting rights was possible for non-violent offenders by a special process of petition. Democrats, however, sought to make it more or less automatic, and Crist helped them meet their goal. “I believe in forgiveness and atonement,” he says. Polls suggest that most of the public opposed the reform. “I don’t know many people who would say that the problem with our democracy is that there aren’t enough ex-criminals voting,” says a major Florida conservative.

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I mentioned christ when the subject of mccain's running mate came up in another thread last
month.  let me take this opportunity to say, "oops, never mind".   other than being strong on
budget issues, he sounds  like he may as well a democrat.

[franksolich]

I dunno.

I'm still holding out for Duncan Hunter for vice-president, myself.

I never thought Crist was a serious contender.

The problem is, I have no idea who might be considered a serious contender, but I have no doubt John McCain's going to pick someone more conservative than himself, a Richard Cheney type.

[Tess Anderson]

Yes, Crist looks much better on paper than in person - I've heard he's a typical Florida RINO. He's not the absolute worse pick Juan could make for a Veep, but he's far from the best candidate out there. Too tan, too bland.