St. Louis CofCC Blog

It’s official.  Florida RINO Governor Charles Crist is useless.

South Florida Sun-Sentinel:

TALLAHASSEE - In a marked change from his predecessors, Florida’s Republican governor is tackling many issues important to black voters, so much so that one black Democratic legislator calls him the state’s first black governor.

Charlie Crist’s agenda stands in sharp contrast to that of the national Republican Party, which has long had a contentious relationship with the black community and its leaders — most recently, when the party’s four leading presidential candidates skipped a debate at a historically black college.

“Crist is much different than national Republicans,” said Matthew Corrigan, a University of North Florida political science professor.

Since taking office in January, Crist has:

•Worked with the Legislature to restore felons’ voting rights after they complete their sentences, bringing Florida in line with most other states. The change has a disproportionate effect on blacks, who make up nearly half of new inmates.

•Pushed through a law that requires a paper record for all ballots cast, helping allay fears that votes in black communities were being undercounted by computerized voting machines.

•Supported a bill awarding $5 million to the family of a black teenager who died after being roughed up by guards at a boot camp for juvenile offenders.

•Addressed the state’s NAACP convention, the first Republican governor to accept the group’s invitation.

Number 2 isn’t a race issue; in fact, that’s actually a good thing for Gov. Crist to have done.  Number 3 isn’t really a race issue either, save the circumstances of that individual case — as we’re finding out from hearings on Capitol Hill, there are lots of teenagers of all races that are being victimized at boot camps.

Democrats predicted Crist’s outreach to black voters wouldn’t work and accused him of pandering. But Crist earned 18 percent of the black vote, triple what Bush received in his 2002 re-election and double what a Republican typically receives in a statewide election.

Since then, Crist has worked to convince black Floridians that his efforts weren’t just an election-year tactic. He met with black leaders in Jacksonville to talk about the city’s violence, attended a legislative black caucus banquet and volunteered to serve as the United Negro College Fund’s Florida fundraising campaign chairman.

“Charlie Crist has been a friend to the African-American community even before he became governor,” said Democratic Rep. Terry Fields of Jacksonville, who referred to Crist as the state’s “first black governor.”

And all that gets him 18% of the black vote.  By inference, he had to get a substantial majority of the white vote to become Governor, and if he does all these things for the voting bloc that gave him 18% of their votes, he should hang the moon and a few planets for the voting bloc that gave him a clear majority of their votes.

Then again, if he keeps pandering like this, maybe his take of the black vote will skyrocket to 25% when he runs for re-election.  That’s something he can be proud of as he watches his Democratic opponent take the oath for the office of Governor in January 2011.

Related:  Coverage of Florida Governor Charlie Crist on Countenance Blog