JEB!’s heirs
The Republican primary for governor is definitely the first one to start going ugly. Tom Gallagher has a commercial wherein he accuses Charlie Crist of being pro-choice, supporting civil unions for gays, supporting amnesty for illegal immigrants, and being in favor of some billion dollar spending plan that JEB! opposes. For republican primary voters in Florida, this is about the same as accusing Crist of being in NAMBLA.
Crist has fired back with an ad that talks about Gallagher’s distorting attacks on JEB! eight years ago in his previous run for governor. Crist has been serving as Attorney General under JEB!. Prior to the JEB! era, Crist had made a couple of failed attempts at running for statewide office as the darling of the religious right. He has tried to position himself in this race as a mainstream, pragmatic problem solver, focusing on his work as Attorney General. Crist hasn’t really done much in the way of attack ads on Gallagher, at least not on TV. He may be doing them by mail or some other venue where only Republicans can see them. The aforementioned ad simply has Crist talking into the camera about Gallagher’s history of attack politics.
Early in this race, Crist was the clear favorite. That was kind of surprise to me. Gallagher is a well known figure in the state who has run several statewide campaigns over the last 15 years. The race has pulled much tighter in recent weeks, proof that Gallagher’s attack ads are working. I imagine that Crist is going to have to respond in kind if he wants to stay in this thing. Crist’s TV advertising has mostly been aimed at the general election audience until this most recent ad. I’m sure he was hoping to avoid a bruising primary, but that’s not looking too likely now.
Good.
