Florida Gov. Crist’s independent streak showing in primary

Either Gov. Charlie Crist (R-Fla.) realizes he can’t escape the stimulus, or he’s leaning toward an independent run for Senate.

Crist is saying some curious things for a man in the midst of a conservative primary challenge.

Here are a few, just from the last couple days:

{mosads}From an appearance on “Fox and Friends”: “[President Barack Obama has] done some things that are good for our state; he’s done some things that are not good for our state. But what I have to do is make sure that I’m working with anybody who will do things that are good for our state and not just cast them aside because they have a different letter behind their name.”

On supporting the stimulus: “I don’t apologize for it at all. It was the right thing to do. We needed the money. It saved 87,000 jobs for our state.”

More, from the St. Petersburg Times: “I understand that different people view [the stimulus] in a different way. In the shoes that I stand in right now,

I’ve got to look out for the people, and that’s what I’m doing.”

Crist met with Obama in Washington this week after (not-so-smoothly) ignoring him late last year. He has also parted ways with some key campaign staff, including political director Pablo Diaz and new-media consultant Sean Doughtie, who told the Times simply, “The campaign was going in a different direction.”

The campaign is definitely headed in a different direction, which is to be understood, what with its declining poll numbers. The question is what kind of direction.

Crist’s camp has steadfastly denied it will go the independent route, but Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) was saying the same thing mere days before he became a Democrat.

An independent run is easily the most tempting scenario for political junkies, and polls show Crist would stand a better chance of winning in a three-way race with Republican former state House Speaker Marco Rubio and Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.) than he would of winning the GOP primary.

If he does want to go down that road, he must decide by April 30. He can still take the $7.6 million he has banked and use it on an independent bid, so he would have a fighting chance without a party infrastructure behind him.

— A.B.

Menendez: Dem Senate retirements will stop

Faced with strong headwinds, Democrats say there will be no more Senate retirements and they’re moving to push Republicans to the right.
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) Chairman Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) previewed the 2010 strategy with reporters Wednesday during a Christian Science Monitor breakfast.

Faced with an increasingly tough political environment and a public that Menendez said was anxious about the economy, the Democrats’ campaign guru emphasized that Republicans face contested primaries in the majority of the seats they are targeting.

The Democrats’ goal, he said, is to use those primaries to push the candidates to the right and make sure the Republican label is part of the equation.

“Republicans have a problem with their generic brand,” he said.

Asked about the projections that the Democrats’ 59-41 majority may be in doubt, Menendez said prognosticators are missing the picture.

“That doesn’t take into consideration the primaries that exist across the board for Republicans,” Menendez said. “People are moving further and further to the right.”

Menendez pointed specifically to GOP candidates like former Colorado Lt. Gov. Jane Norton and former New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly Ayotte, whom he said could have defined themselves “any way they wanted” had they not faced primaries.

Pressed on whether Republicans actually have a shot at the majority next year, Menendez said it was wishful thinking.

He also said he has “every confidence” there will be no more Democratic retirements.

National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesman Brian Walsh said Democratic primaries have the same effect: “I’d say that we might use the Democrats’ own primaries … to push their candidates to the left, but when you consider that all of their candidates are on record supporting the stimulus boondoggle and the president’s unpopular government healthcare bill, they’re already to the far left.”

— A.B.

Daniels: Redistricting could end partisanship

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) recently offered his own solution for ending the partisan rancor in Washington — redistricting.

The process traditionally has been used to gain an advantage over the opposing party. But Daniels, who was in Washington preaching political civility, says it could be used to push members into the center of the political spectrum.

“If we got rid of gerrymandering and districts were really drawn not to protect incumbents but on a demographic and geographic and common-sense basis, I think we all know we’d have a lot more competitive districts and you’d have more places where people compete for the center and not the edge,” the potential 2012 presidential contender said at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast on Tuesday. “I’ve already told my own party, which got shafted in the last redistricting congressionally, and in the state House, I will not sign a politically drawn redistricting plan.”

In Indiana, redistricting is overseen by the State Legislature, with the governor holding veto power over its proposal.

Daniels said he is pushing state lawmakers to pass legislation to create redistricting guidelines that would make the process more transparent. “As it happens, it would give us a fairer shake than today,” he said.

Indiana Democrats, meanwhile, are worried that Daniels’s prolific fundraising abilities will help his party reclaim the state’s lower chamber. He has a political action committee that donates to state politicians. If the GOP takes the state House, it would give the party complete control over redistricting, which will begin after the census is completed in December.

{mosads}Still, Daniels brushed aside the suggestion he was concerned about his party’s political future. His desire to reclaim the state House, he said, “is not about redistricting.”

“We’ve got several more things I’d like to do on my watch, and I’ve about run out the string of things we can get done with our opponents in control of the House,” he said.

Now that doesn’t sound very bipartisan.

— S.J.M.

Aaron Blake and Sean J. Miller are campaign reporters for The Hill. To see more postings, visit digital-staging.thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/.