It’s a testament to the institutional power of the Republican Party that not even the man Charlie Crist appointed to the US Senate, his former chief of staff, would follow him to an independent bid if Crist decided on that option. But LeMieux now has a choice to make: If Crist bolts the GOP and [...]

The Florida Republican Party faces a criminal investigation from the IRS, FBI and the US Attorney’s office over party-issued American Express card spending. And among the members of the state GOP implicated is none other than Marco Rubio. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Tallahassee, the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service are all involved in [...]

Charlie Crist admitted to a local station yesterday that he was considering running for US Senate in Florida as an independent. “I can tell you I’m getting a lot of advice in that direction. I’m a listener and so I’m certainly listening to it,” said Crist. He also talked about the decision to pull all [...]

Reid Wilson, who’s pretty plugged in with the GOP establishment, finds them resigned to the fact that Charlie Crist will be on the ballot in Florida in November as an independent, opening up a three-way race and giving the Democrat, Kendrick Meek, a real chance at victory. Over the weekend, Crist pulled TV advertisements that [...]

A Quinnipiac poll shows that Charlie Crist still has no shot getting elected Senator as a Republican, but could do OK in a three-way race: Marco Rubio has opened up an elephant-sized 56 – 33 percent lead over Gov. Charlie Crist in Florida’s U.S. Senate Republican primary, but in a three-way general election with Rubio [...]

The Wall Street Journal reports today that Charlie Crist’s advisers are urging him to abandon the Republican primary for US Senate and take up an independent run. This is a decision Crist would not be able to make after losing the primary; he would have to drop out of the Republican race by the end [...]

Charlie Crist, tiring of rumors that he will switch parties and avoid what appears to be a losing battle in the Florida Senate primary against Marco Rubio, tried to dispel them this afternoon. This statement comes directly from the campaign: “To put these rumors to rest once and for all, as we have said countless [...]

I don’t know if this will derail Marco Rubio in the Republican primary – if I had to guess it won’t – but the biggest papers in Florida just looked back at his record and found a huge slush fund for both political and personal activities, maintained through special interest donations. Two newspapers did a [...]

Most people who focused on Charlie Crist’s self-immolation in the Republican primary figured that the next best option for a contested race in November would be if Crist switched to an independent or a Democrat. Kendrick Meek, the Congressman running unopposed in the Democratic primary at the moment, has been given little chance to win [...]

Public Policy Polling previewed this yesterday, and today they drop the big number – Charlie Crist has absolutely no chance of winning a Republican primary in Florida. Support for Charlie Crist from conservative voters has pretty much evaporated, and that’s allowed Marco Rubio to build a 32 point lead in the Republican primary for Senate. [...]

Charlie Crist spent the past week defending his support of the stimulus, after having tried to move further and further to the right to hold off a challenge from conservative Marco Rubio in a Senate primary. With that looking futile, there’s a very real chance that Crist switches his party affiliation and runs for the [...]