RSS Feed of the blog

Contributors:

Reporter William March has covered state and national politics since 1994. Email

Reporter Mike Salinero has covered Hillsborough County government for The Tampa Tribune since 2007. Email

Reporter Lindsay Peterson has been a general assignment reporter at the Tampa Tribune since 2005, focusing on higher education since 2009. Email

TBO RNC 2012 Section

Florida Political Blogs:

• State Of Sunshine
• Pushing Rope
• Interstate4Jamming
• News Service of Florida
• FLA Politics
• Sayfie Review/

News Blog Search

Advanced Search

Most Recent Entries

• Memorial Day weekend deals to honor military, vets
• How come the poll results don’t match?
• Q Poll: Mack has long lead in primary, ties Nelson in general matchup
• Mack campaign retracts Fortuno endorsement quotes
• Coburn backs LeMieux, answering Mack’s Fortuno
• Q Poll: Romney has significant lead in Florida
• Storm The Swarm: SOCCENT deputy chief asks for technology to stop threat of Iranian small boats
• Nelson disses Obama on Castro daughter
• Hoyer to campaign with Ehrlich
• Mack dumbest speaker in Congress?  It’s complicated
• Guetzloe sentenced for not filing tax returns
• Mack asks feds to investigate LeMieux appointment
• Pentagon Reports Deaths of 7 Troops This Week in Support of Operation Enduring Freedom
• Mack demands investigation of LeMieux appointment
• Ross backs Mack

More

• Breaking News
• Command Post Tampa
• Fact Finders - Databay Blog
• Guestbook: Remembering The Fallen Soldiers
• Fresh Squeezed Politics
• RNC 2012: The Road to Tampa
• Political Safari

Monthly Archives

• May 2012
• April 2012
• March 2012
• February 2012
• January 2012
• December 2011

Mutual Admiration Society, But No Endorsement, As Crist And Romney Meet

Posted Apr 23, 2007 by William March

Updated Apr 23, 2007 at 05:11 PM

The question was inevitable when Mitt Romney appeared with Gov. Charlie Crist in Tallahassee.

Crist, a reporter noted, got a $1 million infusion of campaign cash during his race for governor from the Republican Governor’s Association, whose chairman at the time was Mitt Romney. Would the favor be returned with an endorsement?

Crist’s reponse was to praise Romney effusively—as he also did with John McCain and Rudy Giuliani, who also campaigned with him last year—but to carefully stay neutral.

“We think the world of him,” Crist said of Romney, calling Romney “a real leader” on health care taxes as governor of Massachusetts and as head of the Olympics.

Crist said, “It’s important as great leaders like Gov. Romney obviously is come to the state of Florida that we’re gracious people, whether it’s he or Mayor Giuliani or Sen. McCain … it’s important for us to be gracious and reach out to friends who have been so kind to our state and personally kind to me.

“But in the meantime,” he concluded, “I’m focused on property insurance and property tax reduction.”

Romney, meanwhile, can only be envious of the unprecedented 77 percent approval rating Crist recently got in a poll done by the University of North Florida.

“I came here to see if I can get some of his favorability points to fall over to me,” Romney said. “The more popular he is and the closer I can get to him, the better I’m going to do.”