As if we needed further convincing. Anyone not envision Gov. Charlie Crist running for the U.S. Senate in 2010? Especially now that he’s appointed black Judge James E.C. Perry to the Florida Supreme Court?
Crist, who didn’t mind sharing that Fort Myers stimulus stage with President Obama, is the Democrats’ favorite Republican. He’s also lionized by lots of independents and increasingly popular with minorities. Remember, his previous Supreme Court appointment was Jorge Labarga, the lone Hispanic member.
And yet Crist can still claim enough Republican bona fides by his staunch stand against tax increases. That’s how the critical issue of revenue-reform is being framed in a state that desperately needs it. Crist would rather raise fees, raid trust funds and re-allocate stimulus money. And while nobody’s property taxes “dropped like a rock,” Crist really, really wanted it to happen. Close enough.
Don’t you get the sense that a state that won’t tax services or skybox tickets or charter-boat excursions is living on borrowed fiscal time? With flat-lined growth replacing go-go scenarios and hurricane bullets to be dodged annually, Crist might want to move on while he still has a record that’s toutable.
For Charlie Crist, whose political track record is a paean to opportunism, this is probably as good as it will get on his watch.