The St. Petersburg Times reports:
Marco Rubio got 73 votes to Charlie Crist's 9 in a straw poll last night conducted by the Republican Party of Pasco -- a sign of the governor's poor standing among some of his historically strongest supporters.
"I wanted to see how our Conservative base felt about the U.S. Senate Race," chairman Randy Maggard wrote in a letter to Rubio announcing the result.
Why should this concern Crist who holds a commanding lead in statewide polls?
Pasco is just one county removed from his home in Pinellas, for one, and the Pasco REC also endorsed Crist early in his 2006 GOP primary against Tom Gallagher. At the 2005 Ronald Reagan Day Dinner in Pasco, Crist told boisterous supporters that he considered the county his back yard and invoked its crucial role in the 2004 election.
"(Pasco) won it for the president," Crist he told the St. Petersburg Times. "It's hugely significant to me."
It's a LONG way until the 2010 election.
Marco Rubio is clearly the man to watch. If he can beat Crist, there's hope for grassroots conservatism. If he can win that Senate seat, there's hope for the GOP. Otherwise, the malaise will continue.
ReplyDeletePlease watch and post this new supporter-created Rubio video on your blog. It's called "Crossroads" and it highlights perfectly the importance of the Rubio-Crist primary for the future of the Republican Party.
ReplyDeleteIt would also be good to post the video on th Facebook group. If we can get it to go viral I bet the campaign will pick it up and run with it. Check it out and pass it on!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5BScPhFndk