Strong Endorsement: Charlie Crist over Nan Rich

I get that Nan Rich is more liberal, and she would have done a fine job as governor. (But to be fair, anyone with a small amount of concern for a Florida citizen would have done better than Rick.)

But here's something you also need to know: There is no way in hades that Nan Rich can beat Rick Scott.

Nan is behind in every.single. poll--and by a wide margin. Also consider that she is getting creamed without one dime being spent by anyone attacking her.

Our state is Democratic in the South, moderate in the middle, but solid GOP in the North--and Tea Party in the LA ("lower Alabama") region of the panhandle. Midterms are built for the GOP--turnout is heavy in the North and light in the South. There will also be no crossovers from light-right leaning moderates.

She will need a lot of money in a short amount of time. No way the Democrats will give her much money with that kind of polling. They will put limited resources elsewhere. She will also be completely ignored by the trial lawyers and corporations, who always back the likely winner. This race would go from toss-up to strong GOP overnight.

However, here's something Nan Rich is able to do and is doing right now: allow herself to be used by Rick Scott's campaign to smear Charlie Crist with his fake liberal group! This mystery group, calling itself "Progressive Choice Florida", sprang up a few months ago and is flush with cash. Naturally, it refuses to disclose donors.

It has run a ton of ads on black radio stations and media telling everyone that Crist is a closet racist, with the goal of keeping the black vote "light", (just in case all the voter suppression laws he passed isn't enough). Scott's campaign is pulling out all stops to keep the black vote under 90% this election, which they determined is the magic number for victory. Every one of these slimy attacks are coming from this fake group, supposedly because they have such strong love for Nan Rich, although their mailers and ads don't say one positive thing about her.

To be clear, Rick Scott has GOT to be defeated this November. If you are not inclined to vote for Charlie Crist in the general election, consider voting for no other reason than this:

The legislature passed a bill, signed by Scott, that said they will replace the three liberal justices by whomever wins the next gubernatorial election! The state Supreme Court has been the only branch stopping us from utter tea party madness. If you think Scott is bad now, wait until he has ALL THREE branches of government under his complete control--and no reelection to worry about.

Not to even mention that the NRA will continue to run Florida, students will be indoctrinated, citizens will continue to die over his refusal to expand healthcare in this state, and his cronies will build more F-rated charter schools in our state. More money will be taken out of helping poor, sick children and given to Scott's corporate buddies.

Our environment will continue to be choked: spring destruction, polluted beaches, and, for the first time ever under Rick Scott, fracking in the Everglades (which Rick Scott personally profited from. (Rick even used our now ruined environmental protection agency to to fraudulently defend this garbage.)

You can argue that Charlie is an opportunist. No, that would be Scott. Scott has reversed himself on several issues just this year and tried to make himself seem less evil. The difference is that Scott will fling himself back into full tea party throttle if he wins. Crist will be a Democrat. I know this because I noticed a change in him the last two years as governor: he embraced Obama, stopped an intrusive abortion law, and refused to scale back early voting. If Crist was really an opportunist, he would done the easy route and embraced the hate. He didn't, and his party hated him for it. I and many others, however, loved him for it. He finally lived up to his promise of putting people before party--or even before his own career.

As for me, if I was far behind in the polls as Rich has always been and only providing assistance to help Rick Scott, I would have dropped out long ago. Don't misunderstand, I am not calling for her to drop out. You have a choice for the primary to express your support for either one. I'll be glad that you voted. All I'm asking you to consider when you are in the booth is what will happen to our state if Rick Scott wins. Charlie is not just the best shot we have, he's really the only shot we have.

I would love if we had a preferential voting or other method that more reflected the will of the people: we'd have more participation and more robust elections. We don't, however. We use "first past the post", which means in the general election you really have only two choices: Scott or Charlie. If Charlie is our candidate, by not voting in the general to protest him not being our ideal candidate, you are doing exactly what the Scott campaign has fought so hard to do: disenfranchise. I beg you not to make that decision.