Word: florida
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...Florida voters knew Republican Governor Charlie Crist would go on the attack sooner or later this year to try to salvage his floundering campaign for the U.S. Senate. But they surely had no idea that his rival's grooming habits would become an issue. Last week on Fox News, Crist blasted his surging opponent in the August Republican primary election, former Florida house speaker Marco Rubio, for having used a GOP-issued American Express card for personal purchases, including $133.75 spent at a deluxe Miami barbershop. Rubio is "trying to pawn himself off as a fiscal conservative," Crist said...
...spirited swipe Crist backers had been waiting to hear. But it doesn't seem to be doing much damage to Rubio's surprising, and widening, lead in the polls. Before the relatively unknown 38-year-old Rubio became the darling of angry conservatives last summer, the race for the Florida Senate seat - one of the most important up for grabs in 2010, given the Sunshine State's bellwether status - looked like a walk on the beach for Crist, who led some polls by almost 30 points. Since then, Crist's bipartisan style, including his embrace of President Obama...
...That kind of buyer's remorse has Florida conservatives crowing. "The entire Crist operation appears to be in a death spiral," says GOP consultant Brett Doster, an ally of Crist's conservative predecessor, Jeb Bush, whose fans say Crist's centrist agenda has betrayed Bush's legacy. "It's hard to imagine at this point what he could possibly do to reverse this." And it will be even harder if Bush decides, as many think he'll do after the current Florida legislative session ends in May, to endorse Rubio. "Jeb," Doster adds, "is the 800-lb. gorilla...
...instead run in the November general election as an independent. Or perhaps even follow formerly Republican Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, who, facing a conservative revolt in his state, last year bolted the GOP to run as a Democrat in his re-election bid this year. But with even Florida's usually centrist independent voters appearing to shun Crist now, polls suggest Rubio could defeat him in November as well as the leading Democratic candidate, Congressman Kendrick Meek. Either way, Crist adamantly rejects the idea, and aides close to him insist he's not considering...
...Rubio insists he's repaid the party, but he's drawn snickers by arguing that airline tickets for his wife "to accompany me to official events and party functions" were a legitimate expense since she was "the First Lady of the Florida House of Representatives...