Charlie Crist
: Things are starting to get very interesting in Florida. While the Sunshine State has never been considered safe for the Republicans since Mel Martinez announced his retirement, the announcement of Governor Charlie Crist to run for the seat was supposed to put the state safely back in Republican hands. But things are starting to heat up and it isn’t just the weather. Some of Crist’s comments last winter and his support of the economic stimulus plan and cap-and-trade have caused a conservative backlash and is seriously boosting the candidacy of former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio.
Marco Rubio
Moderate Republicans argue that in order to become the party of the future it must broaden its appeal even though that means moving away from some of its bedrock principals. Conservatives feel betrayed by those who have supported bigger deficits and bigger government. The National Republican Senatorial Committee backs Crist, but a host of high profile conservatives have jumped on the Rubio bandwagon. It appears that the conservative wing of the party has decided to use Florida as a “line in the sand” for the future of the party. “Florida is a hill to die on for conservatives”, said RedState.com editor Erick Erickson. “This is the clearest example we have of these two competing concepts”. Well-known conservatives such as Mike Huckabee and Dick Armey have endorsed Rubio and George Will has written some very positive things about him. He is still way behind Crist in fundraising but is showing signs of being a powerful fund-raiser. He is moving up in the polls and it looks like he will make this race very, very interesting. However it turns out will be good for the Democrats since the Republicans will be beating up on each other and spending tons of cash in the primary.
Rick Perry
Kay Hutchison
: Senator Kay Hutchinson (R) has announced that she will keep her Senate seat until after the March gubernatorial primary pitting her against incumbent Republican Rick Perry. She says she is waiting because there are too many important issues facing Congress for her to quit this fall as she had originally announced. She further stated that win or lose in the primary she will definitely resign her Senate seat in 2010 sometime after the primary. Most of the speculation on her resignation date centers around when a special election would be held. If she resigns on or before April 2, a special election would be held on May 8. If she resigns on April 3 or after, the election would take place on the next regularly scheduled election date, November 2. Most Republications believe a November election would benefit them, so at this time, the smart money is predicting a November election. Many people however speculate that she may not resign at all and will finish her term. She is currently 11 points behind Perry.
