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PROGRAM SUCCESS – MAY 2009
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Is There Room in the Republican Party for Charlie Crist?
After Specter’s switch, focus turns to Crist’s future in GOP
By Adam C. Smith,
Times Political Editor
Guest Columnist
It’s a crazy question, considering the GOP these
days is only marginally more popular than the
flu, while the Republican governor of
America’s biggest battleground state enjoys
astronomical approval ratings. But it’s worth
pondering now that moderate Sen. Arlen
Specter of Pennsylvania has become a
Democrat, and the political world is convinced
that the moderate Florida governor is about to
run for the U.S. Senate. If Crist runs and wins,
he will join Maine’s Susan Collins and Olympia
Snowe — a pair reviled by many conservatives
— as the only Republican senators who
supported President Barack Obama’s stimulus
package.
Gov. Charlie Crist, whose popularity soars as the
national GOP falters, says he’ll decide soon on a run
for the U.S. Senate.
“If you agree with Susan Collins or Olympia Snowe on some of these issues, you might as well become a Democrat,’’ said
former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, a Republican who is likely to run for the Senate, whether or not Crist does. The
national Republican Party, reeling from a string of electoral losses since 2006, is engaged in finger-pointing and soul-searching
about its future. Polls show just over one in five adults now identify themselves as Republicans, the lowest level in decades,
and the GOP is losing ground with the most important demographic groups for long-term viability — Hispanic and young
voters.
Yet party leaders are nowhere close to consensus on why they’re shrinking so fast and what to do about it. With a Crist-Rubio
matchup, Florida’s Republican Senate primary could be a proxy fight for the party’s soul. “I don’t think we have a shrinking
movement, we have a shrinking party,’’ said Rubio, drawing a distinction between conservatism and the party label. “If the
Republican Party is not going to be an effective and authentic alternative to what the Democratic Party is offering, it will
continue shrinking.” That’s a widely held view among many leading conservatives. But many others hold the view that
Republicans will lose still more ground if they insist on ideological purity that turns off the broad middle.
“The Republican Party could well go the way of the Whigs. You don’t succeed in politics through subtraction. It’s all about
addition,’’ said Roger Stone of Miami, a Republican consultant who chaired Specter’s presidential campaign in 1996. Stone
scoffed at the notion that the path out of the political wilderness is a harder line on conservatism. “You’re telling me we lost
Hispanic voters because we weren’t conservative enough? Or we lost voters between 18 and 35 because we weren’t
conservative enough? Nonsense. What we need to be is inclusive.” Specter was clear about why he switched parties: It was
his only hope for keeping his job. Polls showed him trailing badly in next year’s Republican primary to Pat Toomey, a former
congressman and leader of the conservative Club for Growth.
“Specter’s switch doesn’t change anything. He did this so he could survive the election 18 months from now,’’ said Ken Jones
of Tampa, who was a senior aide to former Senate Republican leader Trent Lott. Jones does not have strong concerns about
the direction of the party, and notes that polls show Obama is much more popular than many of his policies. “I think the
Republican Party has had a fairly consistent message about limited government. Do we have to retool the whole party? I don’t
think so. I do think we need some new, up-and-coming leadership,” Jones said.