Charlie Crist's old-fashioned economic campaign

[brooklynite]

Politico

Message in a bottle — Charlie Crist wants to talk about the economy and pocketbook issues. Will anybody care?

Invisible sun — The Democratic congressman and candidate for governor stood on the steps of the old Capitol on Thursday to outline the third part of what he’s calling his “Affordable Florida for All” campaign platform.

Spirits in the material world — “People are being squeezed,” Crist said while announcing ideas that he contends would deal with Florida’s rising property rates. (One of the ideas, ironically enough, was pushed by a Republican legislator unsuccessfully a few hours later.) Previous parts of Crist’s plan have been aimed at the state’s affordable housing crisis and look to upend the current system of how utilities are regulated.

Walking in your footsteps — Crist’s decision to embrace a form of economic populism — while at the same time spreading a message that Gov. Ron DeSantis is more interested in the 2024 presidential race than issues Floridians care about — is a throwback to his first run as governor (and when he was a Republican). In 2006, Crist focused on rising property taxes and property insurance rates.

Demolition man — But the political landscape has changed dramatically since then. Media coverage — even at the state level — has skewed sharply so it’s all about partisanship and clickbait and outrage. Issues don’t matter as much to many press outlets (and yes, I know many of you will point at this one). Only four reporters — and just one television camera — showed up for Crist’s event. He was competing with a Florida Legislature that is now wading deep into the culture wars, and a governor whose clashes with President Joe Biden and response to Covid-19 have made him a rising national GOP star.

[snowybirdie]

1. I'm beginning to get

fearful that no democrats will be elected in Florida this year. Not one commercial is being shown. No democrats seem to be letting voters know they are running. All I see is a few FB messages. Wish they would get serious about the primary and election! DieSantis is all over the news every day.

[brooklynite]

2. The Florida Primary isn't until late August.

There's no value to running ads at a time when voters aren't engaged.

[NightWatcher]

3. I'm supporting Nikki Fried for the Dem nom.

She's hugely pro-legalization of cannabis and the only state wide elected Democrat in office today.

[dsc]

4. Imagine if these bozos were in charge of inspecting bridges and had a problem with bridges falling

down. They would write an entire article about how bridges are falling down, how we used to not have bridges fall down, say what could be done to prevent bridges from falling down, and then preceded to cause more bridges to fall down. I mean, this article is literally a perfect example of the press ignoring issues and writing about process and anger. Go ahead, tell me after reading that article even one idea that Christ had in regards to the economy. They literally discuss an idea by saying it exists, that a GOP legislator poached it, but didn't say a word about WHAT THE IDEA ACTUALLY WAS. Let alone if it was any good. This is why Politico is Tiger Beat on the Potomac.

[madville]

5. Crist is kind of boring

He’s not going to generate a lot of excitement or momentum, it’s just the way he is. He’s not an attack dog, even if he is saying something negative it’s done in a nice way if that makes sense.

The primary between him and Fried could be close, they’re basically tied in the mid-30s in early polling. Black voters play a large part here in Florida’s Democratic primary so it will be interesting to see how these two “vanilla” candidates appeal to or generate any enthusiasm with them (if they can, name recognition may benefit Crist here).