Charlie Crist

Charles Crist, Jr.
44th Governor of Florida
Incumbent
Assumed office January 2 2007
Lieutenant	Jeff Kottkamp
Preceded by	Jeb Bush
35th Attorney General of Florida
In office 2003–2007
Governor	Jeb Bush
Preceded by	Richard E. Doran
Succeeded by	Bill McCollum
Personal details
Born	(1956-07-24) July 24, 1956 Altoona, Pennsylvania
Died	[
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Amanda Morrow (1979-1980) (Divorced)
Profession	Lawyer
Website	Florida Governor Charlie Crist

Charles Joseph "Charlie" Crist, Jr. (born July 24 1956), is an American politician of the Republican Party and the current Governor of Florida. Crist served as state attorney general from 2003 to 2007. He is the first member of the Florida cabinet since Park Trammell to be elected governor. He defeated Democratic Congressman Jim Davis by six percentage points. He is reportedly under consideration to run for vice-president on Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential ticket.

Personal life

Crist was born in Altoona, Pennsylvania to Dr. Charlie Crist Sr., a Greek American and wealthy doctor, and Nancy Lee, who is of Scots-Irish descent. The family last name was changed by his father from "Christodoulou" to "Crist". Crist's father, Charlie, Sr., legally shortened the family's name in 1949, according to court records in Pinellas County, Florida. Crist later moved to St. Petersburg, Florida, where he attended Riviera Middle School and graduated from St. Petersburg High School in 1974. After high school, he matriculated for two years at Wake Forest University, where he played quarterback for the Wake Forest Demon Deacons football team. After transferring, Crist received his undergraduate degree from Florida State University where he was the Vice President of the student body. He is a member of Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity. While at FSU, Crist was named Mr. Seminole. He received his law degree from the Cumberland School of Law in Alabama. He is a member of the First Methodist Church of St. Petersburg.

In July 1979, he married Amanda Marrow, a sorority member of Delta Delta Delta from Palm Beach County. The couple had no children and divorced less than a year later. Crist was the one who filed for divorce six months after the marriage and it was dissolved on 2/15/80. Crist did not marry again.

In May 1989, Crist denied being the father of a child put up for adoption. Rebecca O'Dell Townsend, nee Wharrie, gave birth to a girl, whom she said was fathered by Crist after a one-time sexual encounter in the fall of 1988. Crist signed an affadavit and other paperwork stating he was denying paternity and claimed no parental rights. The issue came up again in January 2007. Some believe Crist's political enemies raised it, others believe it rose up as an issue because the child was becoming a college bound adult and curious about her birth parents. The St. Petersburg Times questioned the Governor's office about the possibility of DNA testing and were told by the Governor's staff that the question was "inappropriate".

On 3 July 2008, Governor Crist announced his engagement to Carole Rome, 38 after being single for over 28 years.

Early career

During law school, Crist interned in the State Attorney's Office. After graduating, Crist failed the Florida bar exam twice, before passing on his third attempt. Crist served as general counsel to the minor league division of the Baseball Commissioner's Office. He worked for Senator Connie Mack and then entered private practice. He was elected to the Florida Senate in 1992, representing parts of St. Petersburg. As state senator, he was known for his support of chain gangs for state prison inmates, earning him the nickname "Chain Gang Charlie." While a senator, he supported spending on education and particularly teacher salaries. He cosponsored the bill that created charter schools. Crist sponsored a bill requiring felons to serve at least 85 percent of their sentences. Crist sponsored a license plate to raise funds for the Everglades.

Crist became well-known in state politics in 1998, when after nearly six years in the Senate he challenged popular Democratic incumbent Bob Graham for his U.S. Senate seat but lost by 26 percent. In 1999, Governor Jeb Bush appointed Crist to the position of Deputy Secretary of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. In 2001, Crist was elected to the office of Education Commissioner of Florida in November 2000, and he served in this capacity until 2003. When the office was eliminated in accordance with a 1998 constitutional amendment, all responsibilities turned over to the appointed Secretary of Education. Crist had by that time already won his position as State Attorney General.

During his time in office, Crist has been applauded by civil rights and consumer groups for expanding the powers of the Attorney General to prosecute civil rights and fraud cases. He has also received acclaim for his work to combat spam e-mails, freeze utility rates, end telecom deception, and protect the environment. Supporters of Crist's candidacy included America's Most Wanted host John Walsh, who publicly filed Crist's gubernatorial candidacy paperwork, citing his work with the Center for Missing and Exploited Children. John Walsh also appears in Crist's "anti-murder" campaign advertisements.

Crist's tenure as Attorney General has been criticized by some. Some activists who had pushed for government intervention in the Terri Schiavo right-to-life case strongly criticized Crist when he did not attempt further legal action to keep Schiavo on life support. As Attorney General, he was also criticized for not using his powers to investigate Schiavo's missing Department of Children and Families file.

Canadian anti-consumer-fraud activist and author Les Henderson also criticized Crist's handling of the Lou Pearlman Wilhelmina Scouting Network affair in his September 2006 book Under Investigation. Henderson's book presents documentary evidence that Assistant Attorney General Jacqueline Dowd was forced to resign by Crist's office when she refused to stop investigating the scam, and intended to file charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

A lawsuit stemming from the alleged Lou Pearlman Ponzi Scheme and investment scandal alleges that Crist delayed or interfered with investigations into Pearlman in return for campaign donations, use of private jets, home, and skyboxes.

2006 gubernatorial race

Main article: Florida gubernatorial election, 2006

Crist consistently led Democratic opponent Jim Davis in statewide opinion polling during the fall of 2006, and so opted to skip a politically-risky appearance with President Bush. Crist had reasoned that the Pensacola area was already firmly in his camp, and instead decided to appear in a more closely-contested area with Arizona Sen. John McCain. Davis accused Crist of trying to avoid being associated with the unpopular President, whose job-approval rating stood at 34 percent nationally and merely 29 percent within Florida.

Crist also led his opponents in fundraising throughout the campaign, but his activities were occasionally controversial. One of Crist's backers was real estate mogul Donald Trump, whose guests at a Crist fundraiser included a former Ukrainian official in the country illegally, as well as the owner of a company under investigation by Crist's office. Crist later returned the donations from the companies under investigation, while the Ukrainian official's fee was paid by another guest. Further controversy set in, however, when ethics complaints were filed against Crist and his chief of staff for failing to investigate a major donor, personnel firm Convergys, that has been plagued by lawsuits and prison sentences for its role in the inadequate protection of state employees' social security numbers.

The Rev. O'Neal Dozier, a member of Crist's team and the Worldwide Christian Church, also generated controversy after being dismissed from his position on the Broward Judicial Nominating Commission for calling Islam a "cult" and a "dangerous religion", and opposing the construction of a mosque on the grounds that "we don't want our area to be a breeding ground for terrorists". When questioned about Dozier, Crist initially declined to take action on Dozier and said that he was "happy" with the help he got. However, Crist later told his staff to remove Dozier from all campaign committees, saying "While Charlie Crist respects Rev. Dozier's right to express his political and religious beliefs, he does not agree with Rev. Dozier's recent statements and writings concerning Islam".

In September 2006, the St. Petersburg Times received an anonymous fax documenting that Crist had fathered a child in 1989 with Rebecca O'Dell Wharrie, a Republican operative. The documents were additionally reported to show that O'Dell Wharrie wanted to place the child for adoption and that Crist had signed an affidavit denying paternity and relinquishing any parental rights. Responding to the report Crist stated, "The whole thing, I mean, it's just absolutely false. It's obviously a last-minute ditch effort to try to resurrect a campaign, and it's sad, and it's the most scurrilous thing I think I've ever heard of in Florida politics. And I'm not going to honor it with any further comment."

Platform

Crist's platform as a gubernatorial candidate included a "pro-life and pro-family" approach to abortion, $3,000 subsidies to heterosexual adoptive parents and $5,000 subsidies to foster parents, advocation of parent choice and strict, standardized testing in education, prescription drug tracking for assurance of safety and proper health care, less expensive homeowners insurance, report cards for insurance companies, abolition of citizens insurance, support for right to die, including respect for living wills, legal protection in eminent domain cases, lawsuit reform through elimination of joint and several liability, property tax flexibility, support for Florida's Defense of Marriage Act, cautious support for the death penalty, gun owner rights (endorsed by the National Rifle Association as an "A+" candidate), efforts to stop the "clear pattern of growth" in hate crimes, support for closed borders with promotion of legal immigration, opposition to further statewide expansion of legal gambling, and support for environmental protections such as a ban on oil drilling near Florida's coastline.

Governor

Charlie Crist on December 9, 2007.

Emission controls

In July 2007, Crist announced plans to sign executive orders that would impose strict air-pollution standards in the state, with aims to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 80 percent of the 1990 levels by 2050. Crist's orders would set new emissions targets for power companies, automobiles and trucks, toughen conservation goals for state agencies, and require state-owned vehicles to use alternative fuels.

Creation of Research Flagship Universities

During Florida's 2007 Legislative Session, Governor Charlie Crist signed into law SB-1710 which allowed the Board of Governors to allow Tuition Differential only for the University of Florida, Florida State University, and the University of South Florida (determined by law as the Research Flagships of the State University System). This legislation ultimately created a tier system for higher education in Florida's State University System.

Disputes with insurance companies

In 2007, Governor Crist became embroiled in public disputes with property insurers over homeowners' insurance rates. Governor Crist had expected insurers to lower their rates with new reinsurance coverage available from the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund. However, insurers have found that although the FHCF will offer them complete coverage, there are significant doubts in the marketplace as to whether the FHCF will be able to make good on those claims. Ratings agencies (such as Moody's, Standard & Poor's, and A. M. Best) have warned insurers that if they accept too much reinsurance from FHCF, they risk being downgraded. With such a warning in hand, insurers have instead gone to the private reinsurance market for much of their reinsurance, and have found significantly higher rates.

On race relations

Democratic Representative Terry Fields of Jacksonville, Florida referred to Crist as the state's "first black governor", saying, "Charlie Crist has been a friend to the African-American community even before he became governor".

He is the first Republican governor to accept the state's National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) invitation to a convention and endorsed legislation requiring paper records of all ballots cast during an election, stemming from criticisms in black communities that believed they were being undercounted by computerized voting machines.

Death penalty

Further information: Capital punishment in Florida

Crist is a longtime advocate of capital punishment. As attorney general he represented Florida government in 10 death penalty cases resulting in execution.

Although he confirmed technical temporary moratorium on execution imposed by Bush in late 2006, due to botched lethal injection of Ángel Nieves Díaz, he is expected to resume executions soon and continue policy of his predecessors.

Crist already signed one active death warrant of Mark Dean Schwab. Schwab was executed on July 1, 2008.

2008 Presidential Election

Crist campaigned frequently with John McCain during the Florida primaries and gave the Arizona Senator his endorsement. Crist has been mentioned by the media as a possible running mate for McCain and McCain himself has praised Crist. A McCain-Crist ticket may help McCain to secure the 27 electoral votes from the state of Florida. Perhaps heightening the speculation, Crist, along with Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and former contender for the Republican Presidential Nomination Mitt Romney, met with McCain on Friday, May 23, 2008 at his home in Arizona, according to Republicans familiar with the decision.

Crist has said that he is willing to support a re-run of Florida's Democratic primary in order to properly assign the delegates, so that they may be counted at the 2008 Democratic National Convention but opposes using Florida government funds to cover the expense.

Crist is now supporting McCain's position on oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico He has demonstrated support for the drilling, citing rising gas prices and claiming that the drilling will help alleviate some of the burdon placed on Americans by high prices.

Electoral history

Florida Gubernatorial Election, 2006

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Charlie Crist	2,519,845	52.2
	Democratic	Jim Davis	2,178,289	45.1

External links

• Florida Governor Charlie Crist official state site
• Charlie Crist official campaign site
• National Governors Association - Florida Governor Charlie Crist biography
• Follow the Money - Charlie Crist & Jeff Kottkamp 2006 campaign contributions
• On the Issues - Charlie Crist issue positions and quotes
• Project Vote Smart - Governor Charlie Crist (FL) profile

Articles

• [2] Morgan, Lucy (May 9, 2005). "Crist Will Enter Governor's Race." St. Petersburg Times, pp. 1A.
• [3] 1998 U.S. Senate race results.
• [4] Bousquet, Steve (February 18, 2006) "Crist's landlord reportedly takes illegal tax exemption" "St. Petersburg Times"
• [5] March, William (January 8, 2006) Tampa Tribune
• [6] (February 13, 2006) "Candidate's Fundraiser Uncovers Questionable Supporters" "Miami Herald"
• [7]Tisch, Chris (January 17, 2005) "The Woman Who Asked Charlie That Question" "St. Petersburg Times"
• [8]Capital Bureau
• [9] Attorney seeks to block steroid questions in corrections lawsuit
• [10] (October 3, 2006) "Book: Crist tried to "whitewash" probe" "The Gainsville Sun"
• [11] Miller, John J. (April 7, 2008). "He's No Jeb Bush." National Review.

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