MIAMI (Reuters) - No longer a Republican and not yet a Democrat, former Florida Governor Charlie Crist will emerge from the political wilderness to address the Democratic Party convention in Charlotte on Thursday night in a bid to woo independent voters.
Crist's appearance could boost Obama's appeal in Florida, a crucial swing state where the president is in a statistical tie with Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and one voter in five has no party affiliation.
Obama won Florida in 2008 and its 29 electoral votes would go a long way toward helping him to a second term.
But Crist's uneven record as a one-term governor from 2007 to 2011 and his calamitous drop in popularity makes him a questionable asset to the Obama campaign. Several top Florida Democratic Party members have queried his convention invitation, recalling how Crist's past policy positions on issues such as healthcare were diametrically opposed to the party's platform.
The Republican Party of Florida compiled a 30-second mash-up of Crist's all-too-recent praise for former President George W. Bush, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and 2008 vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, conservative Republicans that his new friends regard as villains.
"I was impressed at Governor Palin being picked," Crist says in the ad airing statewide on cable television this week. "I'm a pro-life, pro-gun, anti-tax Republican. I'm about as conservative as you can get."
Crist bolted from the Republican Party in 2010, when polling suggested he would lose the nomination for U.S. Senate to Marco Rubio, a Tea Party favorite who had chipped away at Crist's conservative credentials. He ran as in independent and Rubio won with 49 percent to Crist's 30 percent in a three-way race.
After leaving the governor's mansion in January 2011, Crist joined Morgan & Morgan, a personal injury law firm whose slogan is "working for the people, against the powerful."
Trim, white-haired and perpetually tanned, he was a popular governor. Quinnipiac polled him at 68 percent favorable and 21 percent unfavorable in February 2009, and his support among Republicans regularly topped 80 percent.
Like many speakers at the Democratic convention, his family rose from humble beginnings.
Crist is the grandson of a Greek immigrant from Cyprus who came to the United States in 1912 and opened a shoeshine shop. His father became a doctor and shortened the family name from Christodoulos to Crist.
Crist became a lawyer, served in the Florida legislature, and was elected education commissioner and state attorney general before winning the governorship in 2006.
As a state senator, he was nicknamed "Chain Gang Charlie" for his tough stance on crime. As governor, he pushed through a law to automatically restore voting rights to felons who had finished their sentences.
Crist was a fiscal conservative who froze state salaries and cut property taxes, but hardly an ideologue. He vacillated on his support for abortion rights, but never supported outlawing abortion. He supported civil unions for same-sex couples but supported a state ban on gay marriage.
Crist supported cap-and-trade legislation aimed at cutting carbon emissions and convened a climate change summit to warn that Florida could be severely hurt by rising seas.
THE HUG
Crist endorsed John McCain in the Florida Republican Primary in 2008. But he embraced Obama - literally - as the president campaigned for his stimulus bill in Florida in 2009, giving him a big hug that was photographed and videotaped and replayed endlessly. It reinforced Republican suspicions that Crist was not a true conservative.
On the night before the Republicans opened their convention in Tampa, Crist wrote an editorial for the Tampa Bay Times endorsing Obama and praising his "willingness to navigate a realistic path to prosperity."
Crist said part of the Republican Party had "pitched so far to the extreme right on issues important to women, immigrants, seniors and students that they've proven incapable of governing for the people."
Florida Republicans responded by painting Crist as an opportunist who may be paving the way to run for governor again in 2014, as a Democrat.
"This is Charlie Crist trying to shed his skin for a political comeback," Florida Republican Party Chairman Lenny Curry wrote in an e-mail.
Crist's popularity has waned. After his endorsement of Obama only 36 percent of Florida voters had a positive opinion of him, to 44 percent with a negative one, Public Policy Polling found.
Crist's standing with Republicans plummeted, while Democrats remain skeptical, noted Public Policy Polling Director Tom Jensen. "Independents I think like him better than everybody else," he said.
Florida Democrats made it clear that it was the Obama campaign's decision to put Crist on the podium, and that it did not signal their support for another gubernatorial run.
"I'm one of those believers that if you want to join our church you're always welcome in the congregation. That doesn't necessarily mean I'm going to make you a preacher," ABC television affiliate WZVN quoted Florida Democratic Party Chairman Rod Smith as saying after a delegation breakfast in Charlotte on Tuesday.
(Editing by Alistair Bell and Doina Chiacu)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/party-hopper-crist-aims-woo-florida-independents-obama-211142401.html
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