WASHINGTON — Ask Lenny Curry, the chairman of the Florida GOP, if he expects a Floridian to run for president in 2016 and he lights up.
“I hope it happens,” Curry told The Daily Caller in an interview this week. “I mean, look. We have Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush. I’d get very excited about either one of them.”
“I think there’s a pretty high level of likelihood that we see a Floridian in the presidential,” he said. “And I think it’s great for Florida that you have two serious people that are being seriously discussed from my state. That’s really exciting.”
Would Bush — the former governor and brother of former President George W. Bush — and Rubio — the freshman Republican senator – run against each other?
“I don’t think so,” Curry said, pausing briefly. “Highly unlikely. They’ve got a good, close relationship.”
In an interview at TheDC’s offices, Curry discussed a variety of political issues within the Sunshine State — including former Republican Charlie Crist’s new Democratic campaign for governor and how Republicans should talk about immigration.
The GOP argument against Crist: “Charlie Crist spent his life as a self-proclaimed Ronald Reagan, Jeb Bush Republican. He spent his political life as such. And decided –when Florida most needed a governor and most needed someone to lead because we were in an economic crisis — he was going to run for the U.S. Senate. And he said at the time that he needed to go to Washington because the problems were too big to be solved in the state. So he gets in the Senate race — basically abandons the state of Florida when we needed somebody to mitigate the job loss and the crisis we were in. And went to run for the U.S. Senate and when it looked like he couldn’t win as a Republican, became a [no party affiliation candidate] and now he’s a Democrat.”
Crist’s problems with Democrats: “He’s been all over the board on every issue. He’s been on every side of every issue. And still is. To watch him try to thread a needle, when he does an interview right now, about is he still pro-life, is he not pro-life? I don’t know what he is right now. I don’t know that the Democrats know what he is right now. And I also expect that the Democratic base is going to have a hard time showing up to vote for this guy.”
How should Republicans talk about immigration in Florida: “I would say on the immigration issue that there are diverse voices in the Republican Party on how to solve that problem in Washington. And my job as the party chair is to keep us all going the same direction. And that being said, I think we as Republicans — if we can step back from the problem for a minute and just acknowledge this: we have an immigration problem because we’re still the greatest country in the world and people still want to come here and pursue their hopes and dreams. Bring your poor, bring your sick, people want to come to the United States because of who we are. I think if we start there, that’s a softer approach. And then I’ll let those elected to office figure out the solution.”
The GOP argument for incumbent GOP Gov. Rick Scott: “What’s going on in the gubernatorial race in ’14 is and should be the model for Washington D.C. Here’s a governor that paid down 3 and half billion dollars in debt, Rick Scott. Where do you hear that happening? Most states aren’t paying down their debt, they are incurring debt.”