Will Crist try again in Florida?

[Sir Mohamed]

Will Charlie Crist again run for governor in 2018 if he's elected to the House in 2016? Or will he focus on another Senate race?

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

If he does, he probably switches to the libertarians. The guy has no convictions.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

I predict Crist will run for Gov in 2018, and use the House as a stepping stone. He wont return to run for Senate.

[Fuzzy Says: "Abolish NPR!"]

He'd lose both races. Next.

Crist will be elected to the House of Representatives.  It's a safe seat for him.  The recent redistircting makes this district more than marginally Democratic, and Crist has always maintained his popularity in the Tampa Bay area.

Governor is something else.  Crist has become something of an office-hopper.  He almost beat Rick Scott, and the reason Scott won was because Scott ran a far more focused campaign.  But part of the reason Scott's campaign was more focused was because Crist didn't just switch parties; he switched ideologies as well.  The latter part of that is why his credibility took a hit.  Crist was always something of a moderate Republican, but he took a few "red meat" stances while a Republican State Legislator (sponsoring legislation to bring back chain gangs), and his abortive campaign for the GOP Senatorial nomination in 2010 was one where he was posturing as a conservative.  I hate Rick Scott and I like Crist, but I understand why some folks find his particular switch a bit much.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

He'd lose to Rubio, if he runs, but to Pittman or a generic Gozp, whomever Dems nominate, it will be a race.

[Dereich]

I don't think he runs. Crist's biggest selling point was that he could win which didn't turn out very well and I assume there will be one or two actual Democrats running next time who will quickly start outpolling him in the primary. I don't think Rubio runs for the same reason; he has no strong FLGOP  connections and there are cabinet members who have been preparing to run in this election for years. The strategy for both would be to rely on starting name recognition and non-local fundraising, because their rivals will get the institutional support.

[Zioneer]

I accidentally misread the title as "Will Christ try again in Florida?"

Anyway, I agree with the idea that he'll run for governor again, after a term in the House. He seems really determined to get statewide office again, and Governor seems to be the easiest at this point.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Unquestionably, he will run, because he can work with GOP legislature.

[JMT]

It's obvious he wants to be governor and it's a step up from a house seat, but I don't think he'll end up  running. He has a good shot at winning this house seat, and he's now lost statewide twice in the past 5 years so I think if he wins this house seat (which he should be able to) he'll stay in for a few terms and run statewide again later on. I think he stays out, even though he does want to do it. I could see Crist running if Democrats don't put up a good candidate though, in that event he can say that he's running for the sake of the party. But if he ended up jumping in the Gov race I would not be surprised, I just don't think he'll actually pull the trigger.

[Adam Griffin]

We shouldn't even be letting this closet-case jackass run for a newly-opened safe House seat, let alone try again for statewide office. Why do Democrats (specifically FL Democrats) have this fetish with handing the keys of power to people who were screaming for smaller government as lately as a couple of years ago?

[Suburbia]

DWS will probably be the gubernatorial candidate for Democrats in 2018.

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

DWS will probably be the gubernatorial candidate for Democrats in 2018.

I'll look forward to Atwater or Rubio defeating her 60-40.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Rubio will be damaged goods by then, if he doesnt win in 2016. Crist will be running on the coattails of Murphy and Bill Nelson. Who will be difficult to beat.  LATINOS going Dem in 2016, helping Clinton in SW is only the beginning to Dems taking back statehouses.

[Vega]

Apparently he's not even 60 yet, so, yes, I'm sure he will.

[Kingpoleon]

He'll be 62 in 2018, 66 in 2022, and 70 in 2026. He'll either run in 2018 for Governor and lose(unless a Floridian GOPer is President), or run in 2022 for Senate, or gain ten years of experience in the House and be rather old when he runs again.

I'd prefer the last option. Then, in 2028, a young Minority female with about eight years in Congress/as Governor, picks him as her running-mate, or he picks her to be his running-mate. It's his only shot at the Presidency unless anyone really believes he'd have a chance in 2020.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Its too early, but Rubio will be less appealing should he lose. We shall see. But, Dems arent conceding race.

[Young Conservative]

He'd lose both races. Next.

Crist will be elected to the House of Representatives.  It's a safe seat for him.  The recent redistircting makes this district more than marginally Democratic, and Crist has always maintained his popularity in the Tampa Bay area.

Governor is something else.  Crist has become something of an office-hopper.  He almost beat Rick Scott, and the reason Scott won was because Scott ran a far more focused campaign.  But part of the reason Scott's campaign was more focused was because Crist didn't just switch parties; he switched ideologies as well.  The latter part of that is why his credibility took a hit.  Crist was always something of a moderate Republican, but he took a few "red meat" stances while a Republican State Legislator (sponsoring legislation to bring back chain gangs), and his abortive campaign for the GOP Senatorial nomination in 2010 was one where he was posturing as a conservative.  I hate Rick Scott and I like Crist, but I understand why some folks find his particular switch a bit much.

Crist is the epitome of what's wrong with American politics. I hope he runs again so I can actively campaign against him. He won't win. Everyone in Florida knows that he has no convictions!

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Well, he's gonna do remarkably well in the new redrain district.  Better than Rubio's chances against Trump. We wouldn't know how Rubio will fair in 2018, until after this election. Crist or Rubio might be old news by then.

[Xing]

Why wouldn't he? He's got nothing to lose (since he's already lost of all his dignity.) He won't win in 2018 unless he has a joke of an opponent, but he'll probably run for some kind of office in Florida as long as he's alive.

[Slow Learner]

Yes, and he will win.

[Kingpoleon]

Why wouldn't he? He's got nothing to lose (since he's already lost of all his dignity.) He won't win in 2018 unless he has a joke of an opponent, but he'll probably run for some kind of office in Florida as long as he's alive.

His best hope is to have an open governor's seat in 2022 for some reason.

[Bacon King]

We shouldn't even be letting this closet-case jackass run for a newly-opened safe House seat, let alone try again for statewide office. Why do Democrats (specifically FL Democrats) have this fetish with handing the keys of power to people who were screaming for smaller government as lately as a couple of years ago?

As terrible as Crist is, he's still better than almost half of the current FL Democratic delegation - at the very least better than DWS, Alan Grayson, or Corrine Brown. The fact that he obviously has no personal convictions isn't a bad thing, necessarily, because it means he will have no resistance against the dreaded Whip of Pelosi

Also maybe since they are giving him a House seat, he will keep it for a while instead of running for some statewide office (and losing) every two years

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Why wouldn't he? He's got nothing to lose (since he's already lost of all his dignity.) He won't win in 2018 unless he has a joke of an opponent, but he'll probably run for some kind of office in Florida as long as he's alive.

His best hope is to have an open governor's seat in 2022 for some reason.

2022 will be too late for a gerrymandering favoring Dems. Dems want WI, Iowa, Pa,  NV, CO, NM, IL, MI, FL and Govs by 2020 for reappointment.

[Young Conservative]

Why wouldn't he? He's got nothing to lose (since he's already lost of all his dignity.) He won't win in 2018 unless he has a joke of an opponent, but he'll probably run for some kind of office in Florida as long as he's alive.

His best hope is to have an open governor's seat in 2022 for some reason.

Even then his chance is next to none

[RFayette]

God no. I was one of Crist's few defenders here before, but he had his chance. He blew it and lost to an unpopular Criminal. Yeah, a lot had to do with the political climate, but also partly because Crist had a lot of baggage to exploit, and party switchers are seen as untrustworthy.

This.  I remember in the Crist-Scott debate, half of Scott's responses were, "On position X, you can't trust Charlie because he used to believe Y" rather than defend his own position, and the ads often focused heavily on Crist's hypocrisy.  Crist's problem was that he ran aggressively as a conservative in the 2010 Senate race and had to shore up Republican support in the past, so his 2014 campaign showed him as all over the map.