And the suspense continues… Gov. Charlie Crist (R-Fla.) has indicated he will wait until Thursday to announce whether he plans to run for Florida Senate as a Republican or switch his party affiliation to Independent, according to The Associated Press, leaving one of the most closely watched congressional races of 2010 up in the air.
Crist faces a seemingly insurmountable primary challenge on the right from Republican former state House Speaker Marco Rubio, with polls showing the governor trailing Rubio by 10 to more than 20 percentage points in a GOP primary match-up. Republicans have encouraged Crist to drop out of the race to save their party a divisive and expensive primary, but now he’s kept them in suspense by failing to state whether or not he’s preparing to launch an Independent bid. The filing deadline by which to make that decision is noon on Friday.
A recent Rasmussen Reports poll showed Crist placing second in a three-way race between Rubio, Crist and the Democratic frontrunner, Rep. Kendrick Meek.