Senate Guru:: FL-Sen: Marco Rubio Crushing Charlie Crist Among Florida Republican Grassroots
Polls show that Florida voters as a whole like Crist better than any other candidate currently in the race.
And I'll bet that's maybe even true of people who identify as being Republicans; but is it true of the sort of GOP faithful who vote in primaries?
Yes, it's another turnout primary. As Senate Guru says,
Overwhelmingly, Republican Party activists in Florida prefer Marco Rubio to Charlie Crist, with disapproval for Crist and his policies being so strong that motions to censure Crist either succeed or only narrowly fail by the smallest of margins. These are the voters that know both Crist and Rubio best. Do you wonder why the Rubio camp is able to proceed with optimism in the face of statewide polls currently giving Crist a clear advantage?
The only question is whether or not the Rubio camp's organization will be effective enough to translate this clear-cut support (and broad discontent with Crist) into a sufficiently strong grassroots army to counter Crist's fundraising advantage and Washington D.C. establishment support. If Rubio does (and I think he can), a major upset may be in the works.
Actually, there's one other question: if Rubio starts looking really threatening, will he drive Crist so far to the right that his general election chances are harmed even if he wins?
Question No. 2: If Rubio succeeds in the primary, will Crist pull a Lieberman and run as a [successful] independent in the general election?
That would be one heck of an interesting race. I’m not sure he could pull it off, though.
I listen to a little Radio Mambi to practice Spanish every day. Lately, much of the programming consists of rants bashing Zelaya and praising the coup criminals of Honduras. But there is also a lot of venom directed at Crist; most of the announcers speak about Cristy with as much venom as they do about Zelaya. They sure do love Rubio, though; he is god, like Michelleti.