There are already predictions among journalists that Florida Gov. Charlie Crist won’t have a cakewalk in his bid for the Republican nomination to run for Senate because conservatives — particularly those plugged into the party’s talk radio political culture base — won’t consider him “pure” enough. The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room offers this item that puts Crist’s run in a larger, more politically intriguing context:
Sen. John McCain on Tuesday acknowledged he is trying to persuade Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del.) into running for the Senate, saying he has had informal conversations about the possibility of Castle running for Vice President Joseph Biden’s former seat.
“He’s had an outstanding record of service, and I told him someone with his background and experience would have an immediate impact in the Senate,” McCain said of Castle. “He has a very good record that I
think is distinctive for Delaware.”McCain also said he advised Florida Gov. Charlie Crist into making the choice he announced Tuesday, that he will run for Sen. Mel Martinez’s seat.
McCain and Crist have a noteworthy history–Crist’s endorsement helped put McCain over the top in last year’s GOP presidential primary in Florida, and Crist made the short list of vice presidential prospects for McCain later in the year.
So it looks like another case of the GOP’s ongoing internal struggle between those who want a more doctrinaire and exclusive party and those who seek to cast a wider net for votes. Look for Crist to be blasted by conservative talk show hosts, particularly now that McCain’s role in getting him to run comes to light. McCain isn’t the kind of Republican most talk show hosts and conservatives want to see exert influence in their party — although Dick Cheney has not yet read McCain out of the GOP as he did Colin Powell…
The Crist nomination race may give a clue as to whether those seeking a bigger tent have a chance of doing so when they have to run in primaries where the conservative part of the party’s base is purportedly strongest. Big question: Will Crist keep doing what he has been doing or will he change his message and tone in his nomination battle to pander to conservative talk show political culture Republicans — perhaps leaving himself open to some attacks from a Democrat who runs against him?
Marc Ambinder (one of the best bloggers who offers solid original reporting) offers an answer:
The knock on Gov. Charlie Crist (R-FL), who today announced that he’s running for Senate in 2010, is that he’s governing like a Democrat and is therefore unpopular with Republican primary voters. CW is just wrong in this case; the best Florida polling shows that Republicans approve of Crist’s job performance, they like him, and they’d support him for Senate. Crist does have a problem with the conservative establishment in Florida, which shows that you can’t conflate the establishment with the base, a crime of which journalists are frequently guilty. So far, Crist is showing no signs that he will pander to the right in his Senate run, hoping that outside pressure on Speaker Marco Rubio will prevent Rubio from becoming a serious challenger to Crist.
Journalists (new and old media) oversimplifying? Whoever heard of such a thing?
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.