In an op-ed in Sunday’s Tampa Bay Times, former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist endorsed President Barack Obama and downplayed Mitt Romney’s candidacy.
Crist, who left the Republican Party to run for U.S. Senate as an independent in 2010, criticized his former party for having “failed to demonstrate the kind of leadership or seriousness voters deserve.”
On Fox News Channel’s “America’s Election HQ” on Sunday, Florida Republican senatorial candidate Rep. Connie Mack and former Rep. Adam Putnam, now the Florida agriculture commissioner, both said the news wasn’t that much of a shock.
“No one in Florida is surprised,” Mack said. “Charlie left the Republican Party a long time ago. His values and principles stand on the Republican Party. So, no one in Florida is shocked that that’s where the former governor went.”
Putnam, now the Florida agriculture commissioner, dismissed Crist as an opportunist and said the Republican Party is working to undo the last three years of Obama’s term.
“[Florida voters] care about someone who will bring strong leadership with a plan for putting people back to work and making them secure in their homes again,” Putnam said. “And you know, Charlie Crist, bless his heart, he is just so desperate to be in the parade, he will wear anybody’s costume. We have a governor in Rick Scott and a candidate in Mitt Romney and Connie Mack who are focused on putting people back to work, building on the strengths of enterprise and entrepreneurism and peeling back the regulations that the last three years of the Obama administration have placed on small businesses.”