WASHINGTON -- Top Democratic strategists are abandoning their party's frontrunner in the Florida Senate race in favor of Independent Charlie Crist, who bolted the Republican party over the state party's rightward lurch toward the Tea Party.
SKDKnickerbocker, a leading Democratic political strategy and communications firm, has agreed to work on Crist's up-hill campaign as an independent for the U.S. Senate.
The decision will be widely viewed as a slap at Democratic frontrunner Rep. Kendrick Meek, who is trailing badly in the polls and many Democrats believe is hopeless for winning in November. Making it all the more ominous for Meek is that SKDKnickerbocker is helmed by Anita Dunn, who most recently served as senior advisor to President Obama and is one of the administration's most valued political operators outside the White House.
One Democrat familiar with the situation tamped down the notion that Democrats and the White House are walking away from Meek pointing out that N.Y. strategist Josh Isay, and not Dunn, will be working on the campaign.
But said another Democrat: "They never would have signed on to the Crist campaign unless it was okay at the highest levels."
There may be no love lost between Obama and Meek, who was among the few black politicians who supported and stuck with Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008. Also, former President Bill Clinton remains a close Meek ally and sup
I shocked the Dems are endorsing an ex-republican with a last name one letter shy of the Christian Savior. That's a dirty word within the Dem party ya know.
Charlie Crist Linked To Fraud, Money Laundering Crist Campaign Goes to Orange Alert Posted by streiff (Profile) Saturday, June 5th at 7:23PM EDT
Damn but I love schadenfreude.
Remember back earlier in the year when then-Republican Charlie Crist was pushing a story that Marco Rubio had misused an AmEx card issued to him by the Florida Republican Party. This was supposed to be a killer allegation. Like just about everything else Charlie Crist has touched that strategy has rapidly turned to crap.
On Wednesday of last week, former Florida GOP chair Jim Greer was arrested and charged with theft, fraud, and money laundering in connection with a diversion of at least $125,000 dollars from the Florida GOP to himself by the use of a shell company called Victory Strategies LLC.
Jim Greer has apparently decided that he has no intention of going down by alone and probably figures that Charlie Crist will adapt to life in the prison laundry room much easier than he will.
Gov. Charlie Crist personally signed off on his former Republican party chairman’s confidential fundraising role with the state party – according to Jim Greer’s attorney, whose allegation contradicts the governor’s statement that he “didn’t know anything” about the deal now part of a criminal investigation.
[...]
But Greer’s attorney, Damon Chase, said Saturday that the deal giving them a 10 percent cut of party donations was legal. What’s more, Chase said Crist’s former right-hand man, now U.S. Sen. George LeMieux, first proposed the idea that they earn a fundraising commission to save the party money and replace the $30,000-a-month contract with fundraiser Meredith O’Rourke.
“You guys work hard. You deserve it,” Chase said Greer was told by the governor as they played pool in February 2009 at a Palm Beach golf tournament.
So now we have the sitting governor and a sitting senator from Florida in danger of being indicted for theft, fraud, and money laundering. In addition, we have the spectacle of the national Democrat party apparently tossing their own candidate, Representative Kendrick Meek, an African American from a prominent Florida political family, under the bus in order to support the newly “independent” Charlie Crist.
Charlie Crist Removes Pro-Life Section of Campaign Web Site, Rubio Complains by Steven Ertelt LifeNews.com Editor June 8, 2010
Tallahassee, FL (LifeNews.com) -- In the latest development in the race for the open U.S. Senate seat in Florida, Governor Charlie Crist is coming under fire for removing the pro-life section of his campaign website. This comes on the day the legislature sent him a bill that would allow women to see an ultrasound of their baby before an abortion.
Crist has already hinted he will veto the legislation, which also allows Florida to opt out of some of the abortion funding under the new national health care law President Barack Obama signed.
That he would potentially veto a pro-life bill with broad support from voters is another indication of his strategy to leave the Republican Party and run as an independent.
Knowing he may veto the bill, the campaign of pro-life Republican candidate Marco Rubio informed LifeNews.com today that Crist's campaign scrubbed his web site of a section touting Crist as a supposedly pro-life candidate.
"Now that he has left the Republican Party in order to win an election and is trying to attract liberal votes, the Crist campaign yesterday removed the 'pro-life/family' issue page of its website," Rubio spokesman Alex Burgos told LifeNews.com today. "In doing so, Charlie Crist eliminated any reference to being 'pro-life' in a transparent attempt to hide his position in order to win an election."
"Crist is flip-flopping again," Burgos continued. "When he was a Republican trying to win the Republican primary, Crist repeatedly stated he was pro-life and even said he would 'fight for pro-life legislation if he’s elected to the Senate.'"
"Will Charlie Crist flip-flop further, no longer call himself 'pro-life' and revert back to his 1998 pro-choice position?" he asks.
The Rubio campaign made a screen shot of the pro-life section formerly appearing on the Crist web site..............>>>>.......>>>>...........http://lifenews.com/state5164.html
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