Charlie Crist is a Democrat congressman from Florida. He now intends to run for governor. On the surface that seems like a typical political ambition – but Crist is not a typical politician. In fact, following his political career is like tracking a Pachinko ball.
Crist actually WAS the governor of Florida from 2007 to 2011 – a Republican governor – before now-Senator Rick Scott took over the Governor’s Mansion in Tallahassee. Crist tried to make the same move from Tallahassee to the United States Senate, but when polls showed the Speaker of the Florida House, Marco Rubio, was taking a significant lead in the polls, the insatiably ambitious Crist dropped out of the race and the Republican Party to run as an independent in a three-way General Election race. He lost to Rubio.
Crist did not remain an independent very long. In 2012, he switched to the Democratic Party after endorsing President Obama’s re-election bid. Crist made yet another attempt to return to the Governor’s Mansion in 2014 as a Democrat. He lost to Scott.
Crist has been an obsessive candidate. He served in the Florida State Senate. Made a run for U.S. Senate in 1998 and lost. He was elected as the State’s Education Commissioner and Attorney General.
For almost three decades, the guy has popped up like a political Whack-A-Mole only to be hammered back into some obscure political hole. Now he plans to give up an office he finally won to go for another statewide office.
This time he will face one of the most popular Florida governors of recent years. Governor Ron DeSantis is so popular that the Democrats and the liberal media are mounting pre-emptive attacks on him because of his rise into the ranks of presidential contenders.
It is hard to imagine that the sunbaked Charlie Crist could even come close to DeSantis in the 2022 General Election. It is hard to imagine that the Florida Democrats would even make him their standard-bearer. But politics is a profession of surprises.
So, there ‘tis.