Word: gop
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Florida's controversial 2000 presidential vote recount. But in 2008, women like Joan Smith Geyer may decide Sarasota's outcome. Geyer, 62, is among a growing number of Sarasota Republicans voting for Barack Obama. A big reason, she says, is that John McCain hasn't proved to be the GOP moderate that Floridians thought their moderate GOP governor, Charlie Crist, was endorsing during the state's primary race in January. "I don't agree with the fear tactics the McCain campaign has been using here," says Geyer, who has even offered one of her empty rental properties as an Obama...
...fact that McCain passed him over for the vice-presidential slot that many Floridians thought he should get, seems to have made Crist a less than ardent McCain campaigner this fall. By most accounts, McCain's national campaign staff has done a dismal job coordinating with the usually potent GOP machine on the ground in Florida. "This is a Florida campaign being run out of Washington," says a concerned GOP official in Tallahassee, "and it's remarkable how little it has its finger on the pulse of this state...
...starters, many Florida Republicans grouse privately, McCain's national campaign could start listening to current state GOP leaders. The last time Beltway Republicans really had to break a sweat in Florida was during the fierce 2000 recount battle, and many have come to take the state for granted since then - assuming, for instance, that their previously superior ground game will once again prove decisive. One result is that they may not be lending enough of an ear to people like McCain's Florida campaign director, Arlene DiBenigno, another top Crist aide, who can counsel them on Florida's new political...
...state GOP gathering over the weekend, a county party official asked Crist why he hadn't yet appeared in any ads in support of McCain. "I haven't been asked," Crist said, before stressing that he would "do anything they ask me to." It's not as if McCain's campaign doesn't have recent examples of how the Crist-Florida bond works. Last summer, pundits predicted that McCain's call for oil-drilling off Florida's coast would alienate huge swaths of the state's generally eco-conscious electorate. But after Crist backed McCain on the subject, a majority...
...Either way, Florida Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer felt compelled to convene a meeting of the party's state leadership in Tallahassee earlier this month to regroup. Sources say it yielded few solutions. A big GOP headache is Florida's ultra-fluid demographics. The state has one of the nation's largest hoards of independent voters, almost one-fifth of the electorate, EMS, and the centrist trend is creeping into once solid GOP bastions like Sarasota. Crossover Republicans like Geyer are news; but Sarasota Democrats can be just as averse to straight-ticket life. David Grain, 46, an African-American...