Former Governor Charlie Crist Switches To Democrat
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (CBSMiami/AP) — After months of speculation, former Florida Gov. Charlie Christ ended it all Friday night by tweeting, "Proud and honored to join the Democratic Party in the home of President @BarackObama!"
The tweet included a photo of a smiling Crist and his wife Carole as he held up a Florida voter registration application.
Crist was elected the state's chief executive as a Republican and then ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate as an independent.
Crist's Twitter announcement fanned speculation that he would seek to regain his old job from Republican Gov. Rick Scott in 2014.
Scott refused to discuss Crist after speaking to party leaders Saturday, saying he's focused on doing his job.
The Tampa Bay Times reports that Crist signed the papers changing his affiliation from independent to Democrat at a Christmas reception at the White House. President Barack Obama greeted the news with a fist bump.
"I've had friends for years tell me, 'You know Charlie, you're a Democrat and you don't know it,'" Crist told the newspaper Friday night.
He cited the Republican Party's shift to the right on a range of issues, including immigration, education and the environment.
Messages left for Crist by The Associated Press weren't immediately returned Friday night.
The state GOP was holding a quarterly meeting when news spread about Crist finally becoming a Democrat after more than two years without a party.
Crist was elected Florida governor in 2006 while in the GOP. As he moved to run for the U.S. Senate in 2010, he faced a tough primary challenge from the right and bolted the GOP to run as an independent. He lost a three-way Senate contest in 2010 to Republican Marco Rubio.
Crist, 56, spoke at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., that nominated Obama for a second term and campaigned for his re-election.
Crist's decision to switch to a Democrat will increase speculation that he intends to challenge Scott, a former hospital chain CEO who has struggled with low favorability ratings since taking office. Crist has already criticized Scott for refusing to extend early voting despite pleas from U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and other Democrats.
But it is unlikely that Crist would get a clear path to the Democratic nomination.
Former State Sen. Nan Rich, D-Weston, has already jumped into the race and former Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink could run. Sink barely lost the 2010 governor's race to Scott.
Some Democrats remain wary of Crist and even outgoing Florida Democratic Party chairman Rod Smith has joked that just because someone joins the congregation, "you don't make them the preacher."
Steve Schale, a Democratic political consultant who worked on Obama's Florida campaign, called a Crist a "viable Democrat."
"He earned his stripes when he supported the president," Schale said.
But Schale predicted that if Crist runs for governor, he would likely get a challenge from Sink and other Democrats and would have to endure a hard-fought primary.
Republicans in recent weeks have already ramped up their criticism of Crist and have pointed out that in the past he was critical of Obama and once described himself as a Republican in the mold of President Ronald Reagan and Crist's predecessor as governor, Jeb Bush.
"Charlie Crist's first official act as a Democrat was to tell a lie about why he is now pretending to be one," the Florida GOP said in a statement early Saturday.
"The truth is that this self-professed, Ronald-Reagan Republican only abandoned his pro-life, pro-gun, conservative principles in 2010 after he realized that Republicans didn't want to send him to Washington D.C. as a senator, especially after he proved he couldn't do the job as governor," the statement continued.
Rick Wilson, a Florida-based Republican consultant, predicted that Crist would have to spend the next 14 months explaining how his switch to Democrat was something beyond just his own political ambitions.
(TM and © Copyright 2012 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2012 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
