Turncoats are having a tough time. Charlie Crist was a ‘Pub once, being elected as Florida’s Governor and Attorney General. He was unsuccessful in his run for the US Senate, being beaten in the primary by the Tea Party candidate, Marco Rubio. After his senate loss, Crist switched parties, first to be independent and finally to the democrats.
He lost again as a democrat. Now, he’s attempting to regain the Governor’s seat, a position he held in past years as a ‘Pub. But his past party shuffling has become an anchor chained to his leg.
CRIST’S CONVERSION COMES BACK TO HAUNT HIM
Charlie Crist’s own words on political bona fides are getting a going-over in the Republican-turned-independent-turned-Democrat’s bid for Florida’s governor’s mansion. AP: “It sounds like something Republican Gov. Rick Scott would ask of…Crist: ‘How can the people of Florida trust your recent conversion?’ But the words were Crist’s, and the question was asked to Tom Gallagher during the 2006 Republican primary for governor. [Then-Republican] Crist easily won that race in large part because he accused Gallagher of shifting his politics to win the election. ‘Talking about being a conservative after a political lifetime of liberalism just isn’t believable,’ Crist said of Gallagher. [Now] Crist is the leading Democratic candidate for governor and is fielding the same accusations — in reverse — from Florida Republicans and his Democratic primary opponent, Nan Rich. They say Crist can’t be trusted because of his political conversion from Republican to independent to Democrat.” — FOXNewsletter, August 11, 2014, Trib Total Media.
Voters have memories and those same voters will remember the turncoat who betrayed them. That situation applies to another turncoat, Missouri’s Attorney General Chris Koster, who started politics as a conservative republican. Koster won election as Cass County’s Prosecutor in 1994. After ten years as Cass County’s Prosecutor, he ran successfully for state senator in 2004 as a ‘Pub and voted conservatively during his only term.
But the state senate was just a stepping stone. Koster wanted to be Governor. Unfortunately, the ‘Pubs already had a candidate and Koster hadn’t yet paid his dues for the next rung up the political ladder.
Koster found he couldn’t buck the GOP state organization. Instead of building a base and serving another term in the senate, he switched parties and was successful winning election for Attorney General as a democrat. In that conversion, Koster discarded his conservative stance and adopted all of the democrat’s radical politics. In politics, that is known as burning your bridges…sometimes, as Charlie Crist has found, in front of you.
Once again, Koster is aiming for Governor vice current Governor Jay Nixon. But he has hit a stumbling block. No one really trusts a turncoat and democrats fear Koster could betray them like he betrayed the ‘Pubs in 2007.
By STEVE KRASKE, The Kansas City Star, 08/08/2014 3:42 PM, Updated: 08/08/2014 3:42 PM
Chris Koster waited only three months into Gov. Jay Nixon’s second term to announce that he was preparing a run for Missouri governor in 2016.
The two-term attorney general has coasted on a smooth-as-glass highway to the Democratic nomination ever since.
Until now.
In recent days, two longtime party leaders — former lieutenant governor Joe Maxwell and former state senator Joan Bray — have questioned Koster’s bona fides for the state’s highest office.
Their concerns center on recent Koster moves that they say cloud his commitment to the Democratic Party he joined almost exactly seven years ago in a switch that stunned politicos.
That Bray is a liberal serves to highlight the long-standing tensions between Democratic conservatives and progressives in a party increasingly centered in the state’s two biggest cities.
Bray and Maxwell, known for his work on elderly and children’s issues, pointed to Koster’s public support of the controversial “right to farm” amendment that appears to have narrowly passed. Critics, including Maxwell, called the amendment a sellout to corporate and foreign interests.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/local-columnists/article1179151.html#storylink=cpy
Their concerns center on recent Koster moves that they say cloud his commitment to the Democratic Party he joined almost exactly seven years ago in a switch that stunned politicos.
That Bray is a liberal serves to highlight the long-standing tensions between Democratic conservatives and progressives in a party increasingly centered in the state’s two biggest cities.
Bray and Maxwell, known for his work on elderly and children’s issues, pointed to Koster’s public support of the controversial “right to farm” amendment that appears to have narrowly passed. Critics, including Maxwell, called the amendment a sellout to corporate and foreign interests.
…
Some Democrats are piqued by the $260,000 campaign donation that Koster accepted from GOP kingmaker Rex Sinquefield. And Bray had hoped that Koster would oppose the 3/4-cent sales tax for highways based on the hit the state’s poorest citizens would have taken. Instead, Koster took no position.
“I have questions about where he’s coming from,” Bray said.
Said Maxwell: “Who is the real Chris Koster? These moves are concerning to Democrats who don’t know him that well.”
The complete article can be found at the website. The bottom line is this: no one trusts a turncoat. Seven years as a democrat cannot overcome the fact that Koster was a ‘Pub for the fourteen years before changing his coat.
Koster’s troubles couldn’t happen to a better person.
The
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/local-columnists/article1179151.html#storylink=cpy
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/local-columnists/article1179151.html#storylink=cpy
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/local-columnists/article1179151.html#storylink=cpy
Like this:
Like Loading...
Related
