In Florida politics, there are few parlor games being played with more vigor than speculating about who will be tapped as Charlie Crist’s running mate. Case in point, the Miami Herald‘s Kathleen McGrory breathlessly reported on Sunday that “Crist (is) under pressure to name running mate.”
Except Crist isn’t under any pressure.
First of all, who would presume to pressure Crist? Certainly, no one in the Florida Democratic Party, which would actually like for Crist to avoid naming a running mate and upsetting the faction of the party which backs former state Senator Nan Rich and would view such a move as putting the cart before the horse.
A cursory search of social media finds little mention, if any, of Crist being “pressured” to pick his choice for lieutenant governor. There is some discussion about who would be the best choice, but there isn’t anything that would constitute pressure.
No one I speak with inside of Cristworld is hammering Crist about needing to pick the next Jeff Kottkamp, If anything, the Crist campaign is just starting to get its legs again after slugging through a difficult June. The priorities for Crist’s campaign staff remain raise money, raise money, organize volunteers, hammer Rick Scott, raise money and raise money. And when they’re done with that, it’s raise money and organize volunteers.
Late-night bull sessions about the pros and cons of adding Annette Taddeo-Goldstein to the Democratic ticket just aren’t happening.
None of this is to suggest that Crist might not name his running name as soon as tomorrow. He practically said as much in McGrory’s story. Asked when he might make a decision, Crist said “Probably sooner rather than later.”
“It might be nice to have two people running around [campaigning] instead of just one,” Crist said.
