Bullet Point Election News: Real Story Behind Gov. Crist Saying He'd Support a Repeat of the Florida Democratic Primary

Monday, March 3, 2008

Real Story Behind Gov. Crist Saying He'd Support a Repeat of the Florida Democratic Primary

Today Bloomberg News reported that "Florida Governor Charlie Crist said he'd support a repeat of the Democratic presidential primary so the state's delegates can be counted at the party's national convention.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said he's open to the possibility. Primary elections are paid for by a state's taxpayers, so the offer from Crist, a Republican, is ``very helpful'' because money is an issue, Dean said. "
The Orlando Sentinel reported that "Later Sunday, Crist spokeswoman Erin Isaac told the Orlando Sentinel that though the governor supports seating Florida Democratic delegates at the party's convention this summer, he did not commit the state to paying for a redo of the Jan. 29 primary, declared nonbinding by the Democratic National Committee because the early date violated party rules."
Which news agency is correct? Why would Governor Crist who signed House Bill 537 to move the primary date change his position and incur the additional taxpayer expense of a second primary?
Bloomberg and other agencies that reported the story were working off of an interview Governor Crist had with CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Sunday. The following is a transcript of the part of the interview concerning Governor Crist and the Florida primary:

In just a moment, I'll be joined live here by Florida's popular governor, Charlie Crist. He calls himself the people's governor. He's a strong supporter of John McCain. Will he swing this state for the GOP in November? And how serious is this talk that he could be a running mate? "Late Edition" continues right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: He may not be a typical Republican, but they sure do like him down here in Florida. Florida's governor, Charlie Crist, has an almost 70 percent approval rating.

BLITZER: That's a popularity that certainly could swing the state to the GOP column potentially in November. He also is a strong supporter of John McCain. The governor is here with us in our Miami studios. Thanks very much for coming in.

CRIST: Welcome back to Florida. It's good to have you here.

BLITZER: Let's talk about the Democrats first, what, 1.7 million Democrats or so voted in their Democratic primary. But that vote is not going to be counted. Are you as the governor ready to let the Democrats have another primary if necessary to seat those Democrats, those Democratic delegates at the convention in Denver?

CRIST: That'd be fine with me. I think it's very important, though, that those delegates are seated. And I'm hopeful that the national Democratic Party, the Democratic National Committee, comes to the conclusion it's the right thing to do. Every vote must count. Every vote should count, and for the Republicans as well. They're not counting half of ours.

BLITZER: The caucuses, the state parties pay for, but a primary, taxpayers would have to pay for it. You, as the governor, you're saying, go ahead and reorganize. Do a redo of the primary so that the Democrats can vote, presumably for either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.

CRIST: Well, my preference is, you know, the people of Florida already voted, as you know, Wolf. And I think, you know, their vote should count.

BLITZER: But the candidates couldn't campaign here.

CRIST: No, I know. I know. Well...

BLITZER: It's sort of, you know, a vote without candidates campaigning is not really a fair vote.

CRIST: Well, I'm not so sure. I mean, you know, in a perfect world you'd like to have them campaign, like to have them work hard. We moved up our primary. And I think it was exactly the right thing to do.

BLITZER: Even though the Republicans were stripped of half, and the Democrats were stripped of all their Florida delegates, you still think it was the right thing to do?

CRIST: Without a doubt. Yeah.

BLITZER: Why?

CRIST: Because the impact it had. I mean, you know, the people had an opportunity to voice their choice, to make their wishes known. That's important. Because the national committees in Washington decided not to seat delegates, that's their issue. But for Floridians, it was the right thing to do.

BLITZER: It was important on the Republican side, but it doesn't look like it's going to have much impact unless they redo it on the Democratic side. How worried are you as a strong supporter of John McCain that the economic indicators could hurt him? Because he could inherit a lot of ill will that the Bush administration has received, what, $100 a barrel for oil, inflation now is creeping up significantly, there's fears of a recession, there's job loss, mortgage crisis, all these bad economic indicators are out there that McCain could inherit. How worried are you that that could hurt him dramatically if it stays as bad as it is right now going into November?

CRIST: I don't think that it will at all. John McCain is the kind of guy who is a leader that people can trust and have confidence in. The other thing that I think is very significant in this election cycle is safety and security. And there's no better prepared candidate for president than John McCain when it comes to the issue of safety and security. This is a guy who, after all, served 5 1/2 years in a POW camp, fought for our country. He is a true American hero. He has great strength. That's an issue that's awfully important to the American people. Obviously, it was important to the people in Florida. That's why he won here, and that's why he's winning.

Later in the same episode Wolf Blitzer told Howard Dean "And you heard Governor Crist of Florida just tell me moments ago he's ready to go ahead and support a redo here in Florida, a new primary, which the taxpayers would pay for if the Democrats want that, in order to make sure that Florida Democrats -- 1.7 million of whom voted -- actually could be seated and have a say at the Democratic convention. Are you ready to accept his offer right now? DEAN: Well, it's not him to offer that, but that's a very helpful thing for him to say, because money is an issue here. "
At the root of the Bloomberg (and other agency) stories is Wolf Blitzer badly paraphrasing Governor Crist's response to his question, not Governor Crist offering to hold and have Florida taxpayers pay for a second Democratic Primary.