Cristpalooza, Off and Running

Charlie Crist made it official today, he is running as an independent.  And I picked this day to be in Washington DC, not Florida.  Nice timing, Steve.

If the Governor's goal was to get people talking to him, he succeeded.  I took 10 calls this morning before 9:30 AM, and 9 of them were from reporters talking about this race.  It just carried on from there, in the line at airport security in Tallahassee, on the television in the lobby of my hotel when I checked in, and even the topic of conversation in the lobby of a restaurant.  Heck, even my blog had its best day ever.  It is all Charlie, all the time, just the way he likes it.

Tomorrow it will get even more interesting, when California billionaire Jeff Greene, gets in the race as well, as a Democrat. Only in Florida.

But the real game is between Meek, Crist and Rubio.  As I wrote last night in Cristpalooza Begins, it is a wide open race.  Personally, I think the biggest beneficiary of the Crist move is Meek, but all three have a shot.

Clearly, on the surface, Crist's math is the hardest, 50% of independents and 1 out of 3 GOP and Democratic voters.  If you want to find out how Crist is doing, just ask three of your Republican AND three of your Democratic friends where they stand on the race.  If two of those 6 are with Crist, he has a great shot.  If not, he's probably done.

But as some Crist fans have reminded me today, on the flip side, in order to win, he just needs to convince about 60% of the Floridians who today approve of him to vote for him.  Moreover, Crist is already a likeable guy, and people like to vote for candidates whom they like. Seems, reasonable enough, right?  We'll find out in November.

Regardless of where you come from on this race, or on politics in general, pull up a seat and soak this one in.  It is going to be a great race---and hopefully, create a few jobs in the Florida economy from all the political pundits who will be invading the state to watch.

Please keep reading my blog.  There will be plenty more on this race in the days, weeks and months to come.

Cristpalooza Begins

Ladies and Gentlemen, you only thought Florida politics was crazy.  Well today it just got even more interesting.

So, can he do it? 

Only a fool would say for sure.  I have made pretty compelling cases all week for all three of them, because all three have strong arguments why they will win.  It is jump ball Florida.

But back to Crist.  On the numbers alone, he has a hard row to hoe.  Assuming a win number of 35-36% (I doubt we will see a 34-33-33 race), he needs to get roughly 50% of the independents and 30-35% of the vote in both parties, a very difficult challenge.

The challenge, as Rubio's people pointed out today, the independent vote in Florida isn't as big as some people think. Even on its best day in November, NPA and minor party voters will probably only make up 18% of the electorate, so even if Crist gets 50% of the vote, he only nets 9 points of total statewide vote.    Here is why his challenge is so daunting:

Independents (18% of vote):  50%  = 9 statewide points

Republicans (40% of vote):   35% =  14 statewide points

Democrats (42% of vote):   30% =   12.6 statewide points

Total= 35.6 %

Is that doable math?  Sure.  Is it a long shot?  Absolutely.  Here's why:

Look at the Meek math.  Right now, Rubio is clearly going to try to tie Meek and Crist to Obama, but with the President hovering around 50% approval in Florida, that could be a risky strategy.  If Meek can solidify Democrats to rally around the President for him, he will likely win this thing, even with just a tiny portion of Republicans and Independents.  Here's how:

Independents (18%):   20% for Meek = 3.6 statewide points

Republicans (40%):    3% for Meek=  1.2 statewide points

Democrats (42%):   80% for Meek= 33.6 statewide points

Meek total statewide vote:  38.4%

Play with the math, and you can all of the sudden make the same case for Rubio.  And of course, there is easily a scenario where both Meek and Rubio both get near 40, and Crist barely emerges into the 20's, though my hunch is this could be razor tight with all three above 30.

All three candidates are incredibly talented, and all three have tremendous challenges.  For Meek and Rubio, it is introducing themselves to the state.  Meek has low statewide name ID, and Rubio is only slightly higher.  Buyiing name ID is expensive, which is why first time candidates for Governor and Senator tend to struggle.

For Crist, he has to make the case to 1/3rd of all partisans that vote in an off-year election that they are better off with an independent than one of their own.  Plus he has to figure out how to raise the cash without a party apparatus, and put together a team talented enough to win statewide in a place like Florida.  Neither are easy tasks

But at the same time, all three have really interesting paths and in the case of both Meek and Rubio, some interesting choices to make.  Do you solidify the family or do you try to take away the middle?  Either way is a potential path.   This is political chess at its finest, and any of them can win it. 

For me, this race is going to boil down to Charlie Crist.  He has virtual universal name ID and generally high approvals.  At the top of his game, Crist is as good as anyone who plays it.  Will his new found freedom set him on a new course, or will he get drawn into the weeds, as Rubio did to him in the primary?  If Charlie is Charlie, he can win.  No one likes the lights more than Crist, and for the next six months the lights will shine brightly on him as both candidates take shots at him as they work to secure their own base.   Lose and its take your fan and go home.  Win and you transform Florida politics.  

This is unchartered territory.  This race has no peer group.   There are more questions than answers (I have a whole blog on that subject coming soon).  So sit back, and relax and look keep an eye out on the street for Chris Matthews, Chuck Todd and John King because one thing is for certain, we are all going to have a front row seat to political history, right here in Florida. 

Cristpalooza begins today. 

The road to independence starts in his own back yard

Today, the pride of Kenyon College* (also known as the Sewanee of the north), Adam Smith published an article where it was suggested that the race for the United States Senate may come down to the "I-10" corridor, where Crist might be able to break through with his independent message.

I disagree.

I assume, the underlying argument s voters will vote for Crist over the African American candidate and the Hispanic candidate.  First, to the basic premise there, Barack Obama did about four points better across North Florida than did John Kerry (not to mention that the only state elected African American Republican represents one of the state's most conservative North Florida districts). 

Secondly, the GOP base voter up here is more solid than arguably anywhere in the state, and lastly, Crist's current approval in North Florida, according to the recent Q poll, even with the region's strong GOP base, is lower than any other region in the state.  

North Florida today is home to two party bases, and outside of Duval County and a few others, there is not a lot of persuasion going on.  For example, it is hard for me to imagine a Tea Party center loike Walton County turning out big for Charlie Crist, simply because they don't want to vote for a Cuban Republican.  The North Florida of 2010 is conservative, but that doesnt mean it is the North Florida of 1968.

No, in my opinion, Tampa will decide Crist's fate for the same reason that Tampa decides everything else, it is where the swing voters live, and if you have a message that plays well there, you will play well among swing voters everywhere.

Sure, other factors will play into the final equation.  Crist maintains high favorables in some Democratic circles in southeast Florida, and certainly that will translate into votes.  But in order to win, he needs to carry the bulk of Florida's swing vote, and he will have the benefit of being the home town kid.  The region's large, and much more moderate Republican base, has supported Crist since his days in the State Senate, and are much more likely to peel off in large numbers than voters along I-10, and further down the road, in Sarasota, Lee County and Naples, where the electorate is largely made up of retired Midwestern Rockefeller-type Republican, he again can find pockets of voters who are more likely to be turned off by the extremism of the Tea Party movement than he will find in North Florida.

The numbers bear some of this out.  If you look at the swing vote between Crist and Sink in 2006 (admittedly, not the best comparison, but it is something), the biggest vote swings were in Tampa market, followed closely by Orlando, then the SW Florida counties.  

But more than anything, the best predictor in politics is past performance, and in Florida, there are counties (32 to be exact) that are always Republican and certain counties (7 to be exact) that are overwhelmingly Democratic, plus another 14 or so that are pretty solidly predictable (might go once out of five elections the other way)---and to make things fun, the vote margins for each party out of their base tend to be pretty similar.  History says Meek and Rubio will do pretty well among their voters within their base counties.

This means there are only 11 or 12 that flip frequently from election to election, and out of those 11 or 12, only four would be considered to have large population bases:  Hillsborough, Orange, Pasco and Pinellas.

And three of those are in the Tampa media market.

If Crist wins, it will be close.

And on the off chance that he pulls it out, you will only need to look to history to see how he did it:  the same way everyone else has done it, by winning in Tampa.

*Thanks to politifact for catching my error.  :-)

The last Hail Mary for Crist?

Tonight, the feds announced a formal investigation into the Republican Party of Florida's credit card issues, an investigation that reportedly will include Marco Rubio's extensive spending on the party's credit card.  Press reports have suggested that a number of items on Rubio's card may could be considered personal expenses, and certainly Crist has been making this case for some time now.

Some supporters of Crist are probably hoping the news of this investigation might be his version of Doug Flutie's heroic last minute throw against Miami, but for him, his game was decided long before tonight.

Why?  The grassroots GOP decided long ago that he wasn't going to be their standard bearer.

This goes back to the first post I ever wrote on this blog (and to this date, still the most read one) about Crist's historical lack of a base.   As that post showed, even in Crist's most popular days, he was never embraced in the Jeb Bush way by the GOP grassroots.  In fact, around the Capitol, there was never a shortage of grumbling not only about his leadership style (considered weak), but also what many on the GOP side saw as appeasement tendencies. 

And Crist did little to change that opinion.  He supported changing the state's policy to allow felons who had paid their debt to society to have their right to vote restored, he stood up and said he believed in the overwhelming scientific evidence supporting climate change, and when the lines were long at early voting sites in October of 2008, he signed an order extending early voting.  To make matters worse, on that last one, he only talked to one legislator first, Dan Gelber.   So when he hugged the President, it wasn't the first mistake, it was the last straw.

In retrospect, Marco Rubio could have been Dean Cannon, Jeff Atwater, Adam Hasner or Mike Harridopolis and the result would have been the same.  Someone other than Crist was going to win the nomination.  Don't get me wrong, Marco Rubio is a highly talented guy and he's run a very good campaign.  However, the movement was there, looking for a leader, and Marco stepped up, but if not Marco, there would have been someone else.  My mistake early on was thinking there was a chance that Crist could rally, but clearly that was never going to be allowed to happen.

Now that doesn't mean the attacks on Rubio or the GOP credit card investigation won't have an impact, but it won't help Crist in the GOP primary, and considering that former GOP head, Jim Greer, the center of the controversy, was also put there by Charlie Crist, it likely won't help him anywhere.

I don't think there is any doubt he moves forward and runs as an NPA.  The only question is timing.  Does he pull the trigger tomorrow or wait another week.  At this point, that is the only suspense. 

I still believe his path is uphill and he is very likely to lose, even as an independent.  But then again, there is nothing in modern American history to compare this to, so we will all find out together.

The six questions Crist must ask himself right now about the NPA bid.

By calling reporters tonight, Crist finally admitted that he is opening the door to running for something other than as a Republican for United States Senate.  His admission was hardly a shock to anyone, given the last 3-4 months of chatter.

But needless to say, Crist has some hard questions to answer in the next week as he ponders his political future.  None of his options are good. If he were to call me tonight, here are the six most pressing I think he needs to answer.  I'd also tell him to go ahead and run as an independent for U.S Senate (before anyone gets any ideas, I support Kendrick Meek), because in the scheme of things, he has nothing to lose at this point, and a whole lot of upside if he pulls it off. 

1.   Who am I?   Seems like a trite question in the scheme of political punditry, but this is a very personal moment for Crist.  The decision to run as anything other than a Republican is at some level a repudiation of his long standing political positioning, and isn't a decision to be made lightly.  Does he consider himself a Republican, Democrat or Independent?  People change and have the right to change their affiliations, but should never do so simply for political gain (either way).  For Crist, this is the most basic question he must answer before he takes one more step.

2.  If I run as an independent for U.S Senate, operationally, how would I run a campaign?  The vast majority of political operatives worth a salt pick sides.  It is how the game is run.  If I run, who will still be there to answer the phones, raise the money, make the television ads, manage the campaign, etc., and can I win with that team?  Along the same lines, how will I raise the money?  Will my finance people stay by my side, or bolt to Marco?  Can I win with the money I currently have in the bank?  Chances are, most of his team will bolt and he will be a man on an island for the first time in his career.  Can he live with that?

3. Where are my votes coming from?  In the process-driven news coverage of politics, one process story tends to get forgotten about:  where does candidate X get the votes to beat candidate Y (or in this case, Y and Z). As I've written about recently, I believe that he needs 50% of NPA, and between 28-30% of both GOP/Dem.  Some folks have written me and suggested the 30% number is more like 33-35%, given that the win number isn't 33.4%, but really is more like 36-37%, which is a very compelling argument.

Right now, the Q poll has Cristgetting 35% of Southwest Fl voters, a number given the moderate nature of GOP voters there, seems plausible.  On the flip side, I have a hard time seeing him holding the 32% of North Florida voters, unless the bottom falls out of Meek, which I don't see happening.  While some will say that Perot did well there, I think we can all agree that Crist does not really appeal to the same kind of voter as Perot.  So what does the vote model look like?  Can he sustain any bounce he gets from his initial announcement?  And can he convince Republicans, who are traditionally much harder to break away from their party, to bolt in big enough numbers to get him to a win number?

4. What does running as an NPA and winning mean?    The upside:  there are days when you will be one the most important person in American politics, especially in a close Senate; you will be highly sought out for political endorsements from moderates, and your win in a state like Florida could (note italics) be transformational.  The downside:  You will likely be a man without a family in the Senate and with the attention comes the weight of intense pressure and scrutiny.  Can you handle that?  Do you want to handle that?

5. If I step aside gracefully, what next?  Today, the Tallahassee chatterbox was centered on the rumor that Crist might just step aside completely.  From where I sit, that means he serves out his term and has no short term plans to get back into politics.  If he wanted to sit on his cash and run against Nelson, he'd probably still face a tough challenge from the right.  That means his earliest next shot would be in 2014 (if Sink wins), 2016 (if Meek wins) or 2018, should Nelson win or there be an open seat at either Gov or Senate.  Crist has lived virtually his entire life in the public eye and stepping away from the cameras is never easy for any politician.  Can Crist do it? 

6. Should I run for re-election?  There are wild unconfirmed Tallahassee rumors that the Governor is polling whether he could run for re-election, and while who knows if they are true, he should ponder the question.  With the entrance of Rick Scott into the GOP primary, all of the sudden, Crist could end up looking like the adult in the room.  30-35% could win that four way primary, and Crist, even in his worst poll numbers, seems to maintain that among the GOP.    That being said, winning the primary still means a very tough race against Alex Sink. 

Crist's NPA Challenge

With the Governor's vetoing of SB 6, it seems Crist's fortunes in the GOP primary are set.  Now the big question, what's next.

NBC's First readsuggested his advisors were weighing two choices:  a run as an NPA and a run against Nelson in 2012.  Let's take a quick look.

Running against Nelson in 2012:  

This seems like the least likely.  He'd have to sit out for two years and run against his closest advisor and one of his best friends.  Moreover, from where I sit, it isn't a matchup that does much for Crist.  Nelson is a moderate, who has always done well with independents, and given the long-term trajectory of the economy, 2012 is probably a better year for Democrats than 2010. 

Taking the express train to NPAville

The challenging math notwithstanding, this seems to be the most likely scenario.  While I think it is uphill, Republican smart guy Mac Stipanovich rightly points out that "The political graveyard of Florida is littered with the bodies of people who underestimated Charlie Crist."

That being said, in making this decision, Crist has a daunting challenge.  Right now, it is a little like a climber trying to decide which path to climb K2:  regardless of the road taken, political death is a very real outcome.  

Can he win the GOP primary?  With Jeb now freely open to endorse Marco Rubio, the answer is no.  Sure, strange things always happen in politics, but Marco seems to be free in the wind right now.

Can he win as an NPA?  It is tough.  In recent political history, independent candidate wins have only happened when then one of the major political parties nominated either an extremely weak candidate, or didn't nominate one at all.   The only exception, arguably, would be Minnesota in 1998, when Jesse Ventura won, but this isn't exactly Minnesota. 

But more than the vote goal challenge of reaching a plurality, there is another really significant challenge to Crist winning in November: Money. 

As my good friend Jim Davis (who by the way, is one of the finest people I've ever known in public service) knows all too well, money has never been a challenge in Crist's at least recent political career.  Even in the depths of his GOP primary challenge, he continues to raise money at a remarkable clip, and has banked 10 million dollars.  But the day he makes the switch, it will get tough.  Sure, some loyal Crist donors will remain with him, but most will defect to Rubio. 

Crist will start with 100 percent name identification, but that doesn't mean he can be out-communicated by his opponent and get to the finish line in first.  He will need to spend $20-30 million to pull this off and right now, he starts at $10million.

Further,  most of the DC institutional cash will go to either Meek or Rubio, and online 'movement' giving tends to not flow to pragmatic moderates.  But then again, Crist has one option he didn't have in 2006, the possibility of dipping into personal resources.   

In Defense of Midnight Sessions

Last week, count me as one of those strange people rivited by the late night debate over Senate Bill 6, the controversial teacher pay bill.

As the Palm Beach Post's Mike Bender chronicled, the late night session ran until 2:45 AM, surpassing the most recent late nighter, when then House Democratic Leader Dan Gelber kept the place open until 2:00 AM, forcing the GOP to read every bill on the agenda after they refused to consider a few Democratic alternatives. 

Much is always written about these late night sessions, how bad things always happen in the dark of night.  Not all of this is without merit.  One of the last sessions I worked, I clearly remember finding deep in a 275 page strike-all amendment to education bill a 2 year delay of the implementation of the class size amendment and managed to get a member to call attention to it.   Former Representative Joe Pickens of Palatka, a Republican member whom I had a ton of respect for, had simply missed it when they had re-written the bill in negotiations with Democrats and the Senate.   They corrected it and the process moved on.  Then of course, there are more famous examples, such as when Rep. Tom Feeney slipped in an amendment to sell the state's drivers license photos, not one of the House's finer moments.

But in spite of these events, many late night sessions are real moments of political theatre.    During typical day time sessions, so many things are essentially scripted, with the minority picking members to offer amendments, ask questions or debate, while the majority tries to speed up the process by limiting their floor debate.  You can look at a typical 10:00 AM House calendar and predict the outcome with the same certainty that Tom Watson would beat me in golf.

Though when the sun goes down and members get tired, the stress levels go up and so does the theater.   Majority members are more likely to go rogue and step out of line, and minority members tend to get more emotional.  In general, the debate is more colorful and memorable.  Such was the debate on Senate Bill 6, which was a real argument on the merits of a bill that brought out strong views on both sides.  Yes it took forever, and yes, it was worth every second.

I was blessed to spend nine years working in the Florida House, the last five sessions I spent inside the House Democratic Caucus office, three of which I was largely staffing the floor debate.    I remember the great debate the night that Tom Feeney passed out Senate President McKay's tax reform package in exchange for a seat in Congress.  That night, former Representative and all around great guy Matt Meadows returned to the floor from his hotel room with a 102 plus fever to give the Democrats enough votes to nearly kill the deal.  Or the night the House nearly killed the 1800 page school code re-write after hours of debate, at nearly 3:00 AM---or the aforementioned night, when Dan and his caucus kept the legislature in session, with the majority threatening to cut off access to the restroom in order to break the caucus (actually, I think then Speaker Marco Rubio was enjoying that nearly as much as Dan).  These were moments of real political drama and more importantly real debate.   And quite frankly, Florida would be better off with more of that.

So bring on a few more late night debates.  This political observer would welcome the must see late night TV. 

Crist as NPA: Can he win?

Despite Governor Crist's continual denying of his interest in running for the United States Senate as an independent, this is the rumor that will not die. 

If you wanted to believe he was on the verge of making  history and running as an independent candidate, you could certainly find compelling evidence in his recent record. He vetoed a key priority of his own party, recommended that federal prosecutors look into the state GOP, and renewed his support for the President's economic stimulus.  He's also embraced some views of the populist right, most notably, suing the federal government over the President's health care plan, and in many ways, his approach against Marco Rubio has been to paint him as a typical insider politician, a strategy he'd certainly employ as a third party candidate. 

While you could argue he was setting up a run up the middle, embracing the 'popularist' tenets of both sides of the current ideological debate, I am not convinced he is leaving the GOP primary, but I am convinced he is at least considering it.

Take this to the next level.  Can he win?

The answer:  It's tough, and may end up being the real reason why he doesn't do it.

Let's look at one electoral scenario to help make this point. 

Assuming the electorate on Election Day is 42% Democratic, 40% Republican and 18% Independent (Dems currently have a 7% advantage, so a 2 point advantage on election day is a fairly conservative estimate), even if Crist got 25% of the Republican and Democratic vote, and a whopping 60% of Independents (with Meek/Rubio splitting the rest), he would only get to 31%, several points short of a win number.  

In the more plausible, though still difficult scenario that he gets 50% of independents, he would need 31% of both Rs and Ds (assuming Meek/Rubio split the rest of the NPA) to get to a plurality of voters.  It is hard for me to see that many voters from either party bucking their party nominee.   Below 50% of Independents, and he has no chance whatsoever. 

That being said, if any politician could pull it off, Crist is positioned to make a run.   He starts with universal name ID and a hefty bank account.  He's also the Governor, meaning he can still earn press simply by turning on the fan and walking up to the podium.  No other potential third party candidate has had or will have those kinds of advantages---and if it were ever going to happen, the unpredictable 2010 electorate would give him a better shot than most years.  

I have another post coming looking more specifically at the Crist pros and cons scoreboard, but as it stands, the biggest downside is the electoral math.  On the flip side, he may have no other choice.  Winning the GOP primary looks harder each and every day, and his attacks on Rubio don't seem to be having much impact.  Certainly, today's news that Rubio raised more than $3 million in the first quarter of 2010 will give him even more reason to consider making the move.

Nonetheless, until the deadline for him to make the switch, this debate will continue to make for some fun Tallahassee and Washington chatter. 

Yes, Florida Is a Swing State

Earlier this week, Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight.com wrote a piece asking the question, Is Florida Still a Swing State?  In his short piece, he offers a few thoughts suggesting that the state is slipping out of swing state status, concluding that he isn't so sure that Florida will retain its place as a (or the) central battleground in Presidential elections.

While I won't question Nate's credentials (if you aren't reading his stuff, you should be), on this one, I couldn't disagree more.
 
Whether or not Florida is a swing state seems to be central to any national political discussion since well, Florida became a swing state.  Sometimes, I find this conversation starting with my good friends whose most favored state has far fewer electoral votes, but sometimes it is based on the assumption that today's Florida is the same as your father's Florida.

At this point in 2008, most people believed Florida was solidly in the 'red' column, and not without some reason.  As late as April of 2008, polls showed McCain with a 15 point lead here.  I am pretty confident that I was one of the very few strategists who thought Obama would win Florida.   In fact, more than one close friend thought I was totally nuts when I signed up for the campaign. But I have tended to subscribe to the Bob Graham view of Florida: that the state's demographic changes would eventually catch up to and eventually change its politics. Not surprisingly, Graham was right.
 
The problem with most political assessments of Florida is most folks view it through one of two lenses: 2004 Kerry or recent Gubernatorials. Both are perfectly reasonable places to start, but neither tell the whole story. Now I will give you that there are two Floridas, a Presidential Florida and a non-Presidential Florida. But since Nate's piece is about Presidential elections, this piece will focus on that. Why Alex Sink can (and should) win is coming soon, don't worry!
 
So why is Florida still a swing state? First, look at its history. Since 1992, no Presidential election in Florida has had a margin of more than six points, and arguably, Democrats have won three of the last four ('96 Clinton, '00 Gore and '08 Obama). Take out '96 and '04, and over that same time, the largest margin was our 2.5% win in 2008 (Bush '92 was +2; Gore/Bush tied), despite Silver’s assertion that Florida was a “come along for the ride” state. 
 
But in many ways, that is just the beginning of the story. Since Florida's entry to swing state politics, the state has changed dramatically, and those shifts continue even in the face of a somewhat tough political environment. In 1992, the Democratic voter registration advantages were dependent on a large contingent of old-line "Dixiecrats," voters who haven't supported a Democrat at the Presidential level since Carter (the first time) or Johnson. Since that election, those voters have largely registered as GOP and settled in as the core of the Florida GOP electoral math.
 
However, if you look at the voter registration numbers now, the current Democratic advantage is roughly the same margin as 1992. How? The Dixiecrats have been gradually replaced by three populations: a growing (and diversifying) Hispanic population, a softening of GOP partisanship--most pronounced in the Tampa area, and an increased African American registration. Granted, the last is largely due to Obama, but the first two are demographic. These trends can be seen pretty much everywhere south of Jacksonville and the Panhandle. For example, of the 120 state house seats, some 80 of them have had a net registration gain toward the Democrats since the 2002 redistricting. These new Democrats are far more predictable than the Dixiecrats were for the Clinton campaign in 1992.
 
Moreover, some of the Democratic gains are taking place inside the most solid of all GOP bases: Cuban voters. Second and third generation Cuban Americans are much more independent, many are even proud Democrats; but more importantly, hard-line Cuban Republicans are being surpassed in terms of population by non-Cuban nationalizations and Puerto Rican (American citizen) migration. Non-Cuban Hispanics are growing much faster than Cubans, and with some naturalization ceremonies in Miami adding well over 10,000 new citizens at a time, the South Florida Hispanic population is only getting more diverse.  And as for Silver’s claim that Obama has an uphill climb among Jewish voters, let the history show that despite relentless and scurrilous rumor-mongering attacks against him, he carried the three South Florida counties home to the largest Jewish populations by margins higher than both Kerry and Gore.
 
In fact, by 2012, Hispanics could make up as much as 14-15% of the statewide electorate, and among the Hispanics fastest growing segments of the population.  In fact, the census projects that people of Hispanic origin have risen from roughly 17% of the total Florida population in 2000 to 21% in 2008.   Driven in part by this trend, the Democratic base is growing faster than the Republican one, hence the dramatic changes in registration over the last 10 years.
 
That being said, Silver argues that the President's struggles with health care and other issues are the primary driver as to why Florida could lose its swing state status, to which I would argue that Florida is in no different position than any other state. First, I believe that once the media does its job and starts reporting about what is in the health care reform package, instead of just the sport surrounding its passage, support will grow.  For example, an estimated 3.2 million Floridians will benefit by closing the “donut hole” in the Medicare prescription drug benefit, while another 2.5 million could receive tax credits to help pay for insurance. 

In fairness, come 2012 if the American people do not believe this President has taken steps to improve the economy and their personal futures, I will be the first to agree that this conversation is purely academic.   But I have a ton of confidence in this President and believe that the economy will be in a better place by the time that the next Presidential election rolls around. For those Republicans rolling your eyes, I would point you to President Reagan's standing at the same point in history, and if I am remembering it right, he did okay in 1984. But back to Florida '12, a healthier economy means the President will run well on the I-4 corridor, a place that has been particularly stung by the tough economy of the last three years.  When buoyed by the fact that the partisan numbers are, in fact, trending ever so slightly to the Democratic column, Obama will do just fine here in 2012.
 
At 28 or 29 electoral votes and a growing base, it is hard for me to believe that national Democrats won't seriously contest the state's electoral votes for many Presidential elections to come, as they should. That may not be welcome news for other states which may not carry the same sized Electoral Vote bat, but for the good people of Florida, it means the sun will shine bright on our place in the political world.

As if it was necessary, more evidence of Crist and his lack of base...

In a recent survey of Florida voters, Public Policy Polling asked Florida voters to name their most favorite and least favorite Governor. 

Not shockingly, Jeb Bush (42% chose favorite, 33% chose least favorite) led both categories.  In addition to being one of Florida's most polarizing politicians in generations, he is also the most recent and memorable.   There are twice as many voters in Florida today as when the fellow who came in second, Bob Graham (23% chose favorite, 15% least favorite), served as Governor.   

The man in fourth (Bob Martinez finished last, with 5%)?  Charlie Crist.

The fact that a mere 9% chose Crist isn't on its face all that newsworthy.  As I've mentioned before, he is not the kind of leader who creates a natural fan base, and thus, will never do well in these kinds of surveys.   However, this survey once again shows that the GOP base is done with him.

Not only do 3 times as many GOP voters (12% to 4%) chose Graham as their favorite Governor, as compared to Crist, but Crist finishes in a statistical tie with Lawton Chiles as Republican voters' choice for least Governor. 

Democrats don't love him either, where he finishes fourth in the "favorite" rankings, behind Graham, Chiles and distant third, Jeb Bush.  That's right, even Democrats like Jeb better than Crist, at least when it comes to their most favorite Governor.

In fact, survey wide, only Bob Martinez fares worse across the board than Crist.  This probably has more to do with the fact that Martinez's term was a mere blip in a twenty eight year period dominated by three heavyweight personalities: Graham, Chiles and Bush.

What does all this mean?  Not much, other than more evidence that Crist's climb is really uphill in his primary.

The ratings:

Bush:  42 (Fav):33 (Least Fav)

Graham:  23:15

Chiles:  21:16

Crist:  9:17

Martinez:  5:19