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Crist jab at Rubio has historical resonance

Posted Mar 9, 2010 by William March

Updated Mar 9, 2010 at 06:33 PM

“Marco Rubio: A Miami lobbyist-politician. He thinks he’s special. Do you?”

That’s the closing line on the latest news release from the Charlie Crist campaign, jabbing at Marco Rubio.

It comes in response to the Rubio campaign’s leak to a news outlet of a memo by its pollster bashing Crist. The memo, reportedly, says Crist is now so far behind in the Senate primary his only chance is “a relentlessly brutal negative campaign.” Even that wouldn’t work, the pollster contends, because it would destroy Crist’s nice guy image.

But here’s an interesting historical footnote.

In 1994, there was a brutal Republican primary for governor of Florida.

Two candidates, Tom Gallagher, then state insurance commissioner, and Jim Smith, then state attorney general, got blasted in a negative ad by the eventual winner, who declared himself a political outsider and called them entrenched, big-government bureaucrats. Sort of like Rubio’s doing to Crist today.

Who was that political outsider? Marco Rubio’s patron and mentor, Jeb Bush.

Gallagher and Smith, in a highly unusual move, teamed up to produce their own ad bashing Bush for having been involved in questionable business deals, sometimes with unsavory characters.

The kicker line on their ad: “Jeb Bush. He thinks he’s special. Do you?”

Just a coincidence, said Crist campaign spokeswoman Amanda Hennebert.