Orlando Sentinel

Crist gets back on the campaign trail

- By Anthony Man Staff writer Skyler Swisher contribute­d to this report. Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentine­l.com or on Twitter @ browardpol­itics

The issues were a little different — updated for 2021 — but the messenger, and his expression­s of concern and empathy, were vintage Charlie Crist.

Once again running for governor, Crist was back on the campaign trail, holding two in a series of statewide small-group gatherings in Lauderhill and West Palm Beach.

Ostensibly the purpose was for Crist to offer his views on the new state voting law signed last month by Gov. Ron DeSantis — “horrible” and “draconian,” Crist declared — and to hear concerns and strategies from political, religious and community leaders.

They were mostly opportunit­ies for Crist, the Democratic congressma­n from St. Petersburg, former Republican governor, and unsuccessf­ul 2014 Democratic nominee for governor, to emphasize that he’s ready to lead.

He did it in Crist style. “I’m not talking about right versus left. This stuff to me is right versus wrong,” Crist said, repeating a line he’s used in previous campaigns.

Before beginning the event in West Palm Beach, he called for moment of silence to commemorat­e the people killed in a shooting at a Publix in Royal Palm Beach.

Otherwise, he offered Crist-style sunny optimism that things will get better in Florida if everyone gets out to vote. He hit at Republican DeSantis, without ever mentioning his name, and he never said anything that in any way acknowledg­ed he has a formidable opponent in the Democratic primary for governor, state Agricultur­e Commission­er Nikki Fried. His comments suggesting he’s thinking only about the November 2022 election.

Florida is a worse place with DeSantis in charge,

Crist said, with the state making it more difficult to vote and DeSantis doing things like marking the start of LGBT Pride Month by signing legislatio­n keeping transgende­r girls and women out of high school and college sports, vetoing money for mental health services for survivors of the Pulse nightclub massacre, and the state Transporta­tion Department objecting to decorating bridges with rainbow pride colors.

“We have to be guided to that place where we understand how important it is that the opponent, the current governor [DeSantis], is shining a light on what that is all about, right? I mean he’s not making it very hard to see. It’s not like it’s hiding behind a cloud somewhere. It’s out on full display,” Crist said. “What country are we living in? We’re living in the United States of America.”

It was reminiscen­t of

the message he delivered against then-Gov. Rick Scott, when Crist had become a Democrat and challenged the Republican governor for re-election.

Crist continued Thursday in trademark style: “We’re a good state and you’re good people. I’m doing it for you. Honest to God.” He urged one woman at the roundtable to call him “just Charlie.”

Danny Finkelstei­n, a Democrat from Plantation, was one of the 11 people who sat at a table with Crist at a Lauderhill restaurant. “He reminded me of Bill Clinton. His demeanor is of a really good personal listener.”

Voting rights

Crist lambasted the DeSantis-signed law that makes it harder for some people in Florida to vote and said he hopes its provisions are overturned in the courts.

He painted DeSantis as someone who is “intentiona­lly

try[ing] to suppress the ability to vote in free, fair and open elections” and pointed to the governor’s own boasts immediatel­y after the 2020 election was conducted in Florida without problems.

After former President Donald Trump started pushing the false narrative that the only way President Joe Biden won was because of widespread voter fraud, DeSantis changed course and said Florida voting laws need to be changed to prevent future problems.

The truth, Crist said, is “they’re afraid” of what the majority of voters will do if they participat­e, so Republican­s are trying to make it more difficult to vote. He called it “anti-democracy” and “anti-American.”

Other issues

Crist related the importance of voting to a range of policy issues, especially affecting minority communitie­s.

He said that it was more difficult for people in innercity communitie­s with many minority residents to access vaccines than other people because they didn’t have the same kind of access to supermarke­t pharmacies as people who are better off. He pointed a finger of blame at DeSantis.

If Democrats don’t vote, or are prevented from doing so, the people who get elected siphon funding away from public schools, he said.

And a $15-an-hour minimum wage is something that doesn’t happen without Democrats voting, Crist said. In 2020 Florida voters passed a referendum to gradually increase the minimum wage to $15, at the same time they voted to re-elect Trump.

Crist touted his own record, as the Republican governor from 2007 to 2011, at restoratio­n of voting rights for 155,000 people convicted of crimes who’d served their sentences. Voters later passed automatic restoratio­n, but that has been hobbled by restrictio­ns imposed by Republican­s who currently control state government.

Not all sold

The 11 people at the Lauderhill roundtable were invited guests.

But they weren’t all Crist supporters, at least not yet.

Jasmen Rogers, a millennial who unsuccessf­ully ran for state representa­tive in 2020, said many younger voters need some real, concrete reasons to vote to overcome the reaction, “Vote for what? What is going to change?”

Rogers said Crist needed to give people a reason to vote for him. And, she demanded to know, when “Crist for governor” signs would be available in Creole. “We’ll get some Creole signs. Don’t worry,” he said. “We’re not perfect. But I’m here to learn.” (Outside the restaurant, there was a Spanish campaign sign “Crist Gobernador,” it said. “Florida Para Todos.”)

Ana Anselmo of Miramar also told Crist that people need reasons to vote for Democrats when volunteers go door-to-door. She told Crist she was motivated to become a citizen by President Barack Obama and motivated to become an activist because of Trump. She’s co-leader of the progressiv­e group Broward for Progress.

Laurie Woodward Garcia of Miramar, the other co-leader of Broward for Progress, said she won’t make up her mind “for quite a while. It’s important to learn as much as I can about the candidates.”

 ?? AMY BETH BENNETT/SOUTH FLORIDA SUN SENTINEL ?? Charlie Crist, candidate for governor of Florida, speaks during a roundtable on voting rights at Lallos Restaurant in Lauderhill on Thursday.
AMY BETH BENNETT/SOUTH FLORIDA SUN SENTINEL Charlie Crist, candidate for governor of Florida, speaks during a roundtable on voting rights at Lallos Restaurant in Lauderhill on Thursday.

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