Free Republic

This week, all across the state of Florida, absentee ballots are being distributed, signaling the beginning of voting for the 2014 elections. Obviously, the most closely watched race is the one for Florida governor between Republican incumbent Rick Scott and the Democratic challenger, former Gov. Charlie Crist.

Hillary Clinton will headline a fundraising dinner for Florida Democratic gubernatorial Charlie Crist next month, putting her in a key presidential state in the midterms battle, according to an invitation.

Mary Wilkerson is aware there's a governor's race on the November ballot, but "it's not on my radar,'' says the 60-year-old from Jacksonville. Wilkerson, a black Democrat and reliable supporter of Barack Obama, is the kind of voter who is pivotal to the candidacy of Charlie Crist, the former Republican governor turned Democrat. His campaign has put a premium on building a field operation aimed at turning out the vote in key communities and has crafted a careful message of inclusion that aims to avoid the mistakes that imperiled Alex Sink, the Democrat who lost to Gov. Rick Scott four...

...Crist spoke to over 1,000 voters on Saturday night, in Downtown Orlando about his faith and vision for the future of Florida.... The group in attendance came in the bus loads, and the venue was at capacity. They leaned to the left as they cheered Crist’s pledge to raise the minimum wage, healthcare, and supporting policies popular with the dreamers. “I did all of this as a Republican” Crist said “Imagine what I’ll do as a Democrat!”. "....I was raised a Methodist. Raised with three sisters. It makes you appreciate women more and their rights. This I know about God....

Charlie Crist is siding with the teachers union — not African-American ministers — over a new lawsuit that seeks to dismantle the state’s major school-choice program..... Crist made his choice clear Wednesday when he refused to heed the request of a major Panhandle civil-rights leader, the Rev. H.K. Matthews, who asked the Democrat to “publicly denounce” a new teacher union-led lawsuit that seeks to dismantle the major school-choice program. “You cannot stay silent on this lawsuit,” Matthews wrote. “These families deserve to know if you support or oppose the lawsuit to evict 70,000 poor — and mostly minority — children...

...Charlie Crist’s campaign has teamed up with Planned Parenthood to target Gov. Rick Scott over abortion, birth control and Medicaid expansion. On Tuesday, Crist’s campaign touted its newest TV ad that seeks to paint the Republican incumbent as “extreme” for signing multiple laws restricting abortion rights and for saying he opposes the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade ruling.

Republican Gov. Rick Scott has opened up a 5-point lead over Democratic rival Charlie Crist as a new Tampa Bay Times/Bay News 9/UF Bob Graham Center poll finds Florida voters mostly optimistic about the state's economic direction but decidedly sour on their gubernatorial choices.....

Former Republican Charlie Crist is pulling out the big guns, now that he is officially the Democratic nominee for governor. Former President Bill Clinton, widely considered the leading Democratic fundraiser, will visit Miami on Friday, September 6, to campaign for Crist.

JUST DAYS AFTER THE PRIMARY SOME BARE-KNUCKLE, HARD HITTING ADS ARE ALREADY HITTING THE AIRWAVES IN THE GOVERNOR'S RACE. ONE OF THOSE ADS FROM THE FLORIDA REPUBLICAN PARTY BLASTS DEMOCRATIC CHARLIE CRIST FOR HIS ONE CLOSE TIES TO CONVICTED PONZI SCHEMER SCOTT ROTH TEEN.

This is a story of a man and his fan. The man is former Florida Republican governor Charlie Crist who is running as a Democrat to get his old job back this fall. And the fan is, well, a fan. It is small. It is is black. And, it goes everywhere with Crist.

Jim Martin, the chairman of 60 Plus Association....jabbed Crist over seniors' issues on Friday. "By his own words, Charlie Crist thinks that seniors losing their doctors under Medicare Advantage, which was slashed by $300 billion to fund Obamacare, is 'great,'” Martin said. “He thinks 300,000 Floridians having their health plans canceled by Florida Blue due to Obamacare is just fine. You know what Florida seniors think is great? A governor not named Charlie Crist.

Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Charlie Crist turned to voter-rich South Florida Thursday to tap a running mate. Crist's campaign announced he had picked Annette Taddeo-Goldstein, a Colombian-American and chair of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party, to be his lieutenant governor nominee -- provided he wins the primary

Candidate for governor Charlie Crist was disinvited from a high-profile fundraiser starring former President Bill Clinton in Miami Beach Tuesday evening after Crist’s Democratic primary opponent Nan Rich ran into Hillary Clinton in Washington, Gossip Extra has learned. The $25,000-party at the Palm Island home of Lumber Liquidators founder Tom Sullivan was officially a fundraiser for the Democratic Governors Association, an organization that supports Crist.

Charlie Crist has scrapped plans to go to Cuba this summer, citing time demands in his campaign for governor and delays in getting federal permission to visit the island nation. “I had to make a decision,” Crist said. “We’ve got to win this thing, and we can’t sap any more of my time or staff’s time to the detriment of victory. … I need to stay focused on Florida.” Crist’s about-face was immediately called a “flip-flop” by Gov. Rick Scott’s campaign, and it follows a recent poll that showed his July plans were not popular with Cuban-American voters in Miami-Dade,...

Charlie Crist is a millionaire, who made more than $700,000 last year, far more than he did in all four years he was Florida governor. Charlie Crist’s loss in a U.S. Senate race was a crushing defeat, but it did wonders for his checkbook

Former Florida Governor Charlie Crist has made no secret of his desire to end the U.S. embargo on Cuba, but he may go even further and take a visit to the communist nation over the summer, according to the Tampa Bay Times. The Times reported that Crist is “eager to learn more about the country as he call for normalizing relations with Florida’s neighbor." Crist’s calls to lift the embargo lines up with polling across the state and the nation that show majorities favor ending the U.S. policy.

Unlike other polls which show a narrowing race, Quinnipiac University released a poll of registered voters Wednesday morning that finds former Gov. Charlie Crist, the leading Democratic gubernatorial candidate, with a solid lead over Republican Gov. Rick Scott.... The Q-poll relies, it should be pointed out, on a sample of 31 percent Democrats and 25 percent Republicans, an unusually low percentage of GOP voters in an off-year election..... "Florida voters think former Gov. Crist is more compassionate, more honest and trustworthy and was a better governor than Gov. Scott,” Brown said. “The difference may be simple: voters like Crist, whose...

Former Governor Charlie Crist went where few Democrats dare, a full endorsement of Obamacare Democratic gubernatorial candidate is doing something with his campaign that almost no other Democrat in America is willing to do: give a full-throated endorsement of the Affordable Care Act. Crist made an appearance at the Capital Tiger Bay Club and repeatedly called the ACA “great” during his lunch speech. Crist also took aim at attack ads against him being run by a political action committee backing Republican Governor Rick Scott.

Abu Dhabi policewoman calms girl and assures her that there was nothing to fearA chameleon in a house garden scared a girl in Abu Dhabi, after she mistook it for a “crocodile”. She contacted Abu Dhabi Police via the Operations Room, and reported that a “crocodile” was found in the garden of her family’s house “sticking out its tongue”, and preparing to attack her, she told the police on the phone The police mobilised its force and made its way to the reported site, accompanied by the specialised authorities, where they discovered that the animal that was “sticking out its...

And so it begins. Former Republican-turned-Independent-turned-Democrat, Charlie Crist, has finally launched his much anticipated gubernatorial campaign against Rick Scott. Well, kind of. The website CharlieCrist.com has just launch, asking Floridians to share their comments with the former governor, because as Crist believes,” Only you, the people, can get Florida back to common sense.” -