I’m Bringing the Butter. Charlie Crist Is Toast
Based on this Miami Herald article, I’m betting the ranch that Charlie Crist will soon exit the Florida GOP primary for the U.S. Senate seat. Here’s what makes me think that:
Republican activists in Gov. Charlie Crist’s home county voted 106-54 to support former House Speaker Marco Rubio in the U.S. Senate primary. Monday night’s straw poll was the 11th conducted by a county Republican committee and Rubio has won them all.
The Rubio campaign quickly sent out a list of their straw poll wins. Here’s the abridged version of their list:
Pasco County- Rubio 73, Crist 9
Lee County- Rubio 60, Crist 11
Highlands County- Rubio Won 75-1
Bay County-Rubio won 23-2
Jefferson County- Rubio won 39-6
Florida Federation Of College Republicans- Rubio won 19-6
Republican Women’s Club of Duval Federated- Rubio won 65-4
Gilchrist County- Rubio won 11-1
Hernando County- Rubio 46, Crist 0
Marion County- Rubio 40, Crist 8
Palm Beach County- Rubio 90, Crist 17
Okaloosa County- Rubio 86, Crist 4
South Sarasota County- Rubio 70, Crist 17
Orange County- Rubio 211, Crist 27
In polite society, that’s what you’d call a thumping. Thrashing works, too. The AP included this observation:
The fact that Crist lost in Pinellas County, which he represented in the state Senate and where he’s lived nearly all his life, can’t be a good sign for Crist.
Gee. Ya think? Crist’s campaign likely with spin it by saying that straw polls are largely symbolic, which is true to a point. They stop being symbolic when the man with the 100 percent name recognition gets thumped by a relative unknown time after time after time. Here’s what the Tamba Bay Times reported:
Rubio got 106 votes to 54 for Crist among the members of the county’s Republican executive committee; three other candidates got a total of 9 votes.
The committee is the governing body of the local party, including representatives from most voting precincts. Of its 240 members, 177 were present to vote.
It was only the latest in a series of more than a dozen straw polls won by Rubio, most by large margins, in county Republican parties or GOP clubs. Those voting are the party’s base supporters, people who attend party meetings, volunteer to work in campaign boiler rooms, and rarely vote across party lines.
TRANSLATION: Rubio is getting the support of the most reliable workers. If a campaign, like Gov. Crist’s, can’t outwork their opponents, they’re in trouble.
That’s why I think it’s probable that Crist will be forced to drop out before there’s a primary.
Technorati Tags: Primaries, Straw Polls, Marco Rubio, Conservatism, Charlie Crist, RINO, Florida, Pinellas County, Election 2010
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog