I'm glad Crist is catching fire. With Crist promoting Jesscia's Law last year, he can promote himself as a "tough on crime conservative who cares for the children". I just hope a certain Senate candidate won't have any averse efect on him.
I think we all are concerned about that. Two problems:
1. The Senate race is will be at the top of the ballot (the Governor's race will be second). There is some concern that folks who are backlashing on the Senate race will simply continue down the ballot on the democrat side.
2. It appears that the democrats are successfully using the unpopular Harris candidacy to help mobilize their potential voters in Florida. While the Governor's race is an interesting one, and there are some closely contested Congressional races, it's doubtful that any of those races would be the lightening rod to bring the democrats and independents to the polls that the Senate race will be, assuming Katherine Harris is the republican nominee following the primary.
Most folks don't realize (or don't consider) that fully 20% of all registered voters in Florida are registered, not as democrats or republicans, but rather, as independents or as members of another political party (like Green or Constitutional, etc.).
The most recent poll numbers show that, among registered Florida voters, only 20% of those polled actually 'approve' of Katherine Harris, while 58% 'disapprove', and 22% are 'undecided'. In my opinion, when the number of people who are indifferent about a candidate outnumbers the number of people who actually like the candidate--and the number of people who like the candidate plus the number who are indifferent together doesn't come close to the number of those who dislike the candidate, then it's foolish to pretend that candidate is a)going to win the seat they are running for, or b)not going to be a detriment to the party of which they are a representative (when they are running for statewide office).