Word: republicanize
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When Texas Governor Rick Perry scored a convincing win earlier this month over U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, his rival for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, talk of a possible 2012 Perry presidential push began. But before Perry can stride into the national arena, he must win re-election this fall in what some say will be his toughest face-off with a Democrat yet - against former Houston mayor Bill White. Indeed, political analyst Charlie Cook has moved the Texas governor's race from "leaning Republican" to "toss-up" status...
...longtime Texas observers are not buying into the rosy scenarios for Perry's challenger. "It is going to be uphill for White to win," says Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. "Texas is the largest red state in the country. It tends to vote Republican by an 8-, 9-, 10-point margin." That is in a normal year, Jillson says, not one in which the political mood is downright rebellious...
...probably not enough to tamp down the criticism Crist himself faces. By trying to convince the right that he's the true conservative - after spending four years as a moderate, Rockefeller-style Republican Governor - Crist has drawn accusations that he's more ambitious chameleon than judicious consensus builder. What's more, his massive state purchase of U.S. Sugar Corp. land to enhance Everglades restoration, touted last year as a landmark environmental triumph, is now under scrutiny as a sweeter deal for the sugar giant: the company was represented by a legal firm headed in part by Crist's former chief...
...Rubio, the U.S. Sugar "bailout" is another example of how Crist has forgotten the bedrock Republican ideal that "this country was built on the principles of limited government," he told TIME recently...
...desperate-looking attack ads, say many Florida political experts, Crist should emphasize a gubernatorial record that's more Republican-friendly than his foes admit. "Crist did preside over one of the largest tax reductions in Florida history," says Sean Foreman, a political scientist at Barry University in Miami, referring to Crist's multibillion-dollar property-tax cuts. "He needs to define Rubio, but he also needs to define himself better, especially his experience vs. Rubio's lack of it. If he does that, I still think Crist hasn't lost this...