Word: crist
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This summer's record-breaking heat has put global warming at center stage - with the slew of Live Earth concerts and inescapable pontifications by Al Gore. Most Republicans, however, seem to be watching from the wings. But Florida's new G.O.P. Governor, Charlie Crist, hopes to erase that impression starting today with a major international summit in Miami on climate change, featuring California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Robert Kennedy...
...pols in Tallahassee, led by Republican state House Speaker Marco Rubio and popular new Republican Governor Charlie Crist, have been trying to mesh three reform plans since the legislature ended its regular session last month, with angry voters lighting up their switchboards. The House called for radical cuts of as much as $85 billion over the next five years, the Senate only $15 billion. Crist - whose conservative predecessor, Jeb Bush, was strangely tepid about property tax reform - has pledged to "make living in Florida more affordable" and has called for a $34 billion reduction as well as dramatic increases...
Over the weekend, legislators indicated they were moving closer to Crist's approach - a $31.6 billion reduction over the next five years. One sticking point: in exchange for the higher exemptions, it may do away with the caps, which are confusing but nonetheless popular with - if not financially necessary for - homeowners who currently benefit from them. But whatever deal is struck, it will probably have to be put to a constitutional voter referendum as part of Florida's presidential primary next January. Which is exactly how Californians voted on Prop...
...Still, Crist is learning that when you try to build bipartisan bridges, you can just as easily burn them. His $20 million stem-cell-research proposal, which he hoped would appease Democrats (by finally getting the effort moving in Florida) and conservative Republicans (by limiting embryonic-stem-cell research to the existing lines approved by President George W. Bush in 2001), has instead irked both. On other matters, such as Crist's support of gay civil unions, conservatives like his 2006 primary opponent, former state chief financial officer Tom Gallagher, have blasted him for "taking every opportunity to disagree with...
...that, Crist suggests, is precisely the point--pulling the G.O.P. mainstream back to "the more inclusive roots of the party of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan. It's important that our party grow," he says, noting that he won more of Florida's black vote (almost 20%) than any other Republican gubernatorial candidate in recent history. So far the Crist approach is working: his approval rating is at 73%. That's one more reason the presidential candidates from both parties will soon be showing up at Crist's door, where they will find a new power broker both...