Romney Campaign Run by Charlie Crist’s Political Aides
NewsMax ^ | January 23, 2012 | Andrew Henry
As Mitt Romney puts the South Carolina primary in his rear-view mirror and hits the accelerator in a bid to win Florida, he may discover himself crashing headlong into the bitter legacy of Charlie Crist, the former Florida governor who defected from the GOP and was soundly defeated for the U.S. Senate by Marco Rubio.
Romney’s “Charlie Crist” problem is this: Romney’s chief campaign strategist and several of his most senior campaign staff were Crist’s top political advisers — the same ones who crafted Crist’s moderate, ignore-the-tea-party strategy epitomized in Crist’s famous “hug” of President Barack Obama. That strategy led Crist, once the most popular Republican governor in the nation, to defeat.
Crist’s erstwhile political team was led by controversial GOP strategist Stuart Stevens. Stevens and partner Russ Schriefer are the principals in the high-profile Stevens & Schriefer Group consultant firm and are playing the lead role in crafting Romney’s primary and national campaign strategy.
.....The firm specializes in helping Blue State Republicans woo moderates, swing voters, and Democrats to help the GOP win statewide elections. Stevens & Schreifer advised Republican Chris Christie in his bid for New Jersey governor.
The firm’s appeal to the GOP conservative base, however, may be mixed at best — especially when its role in Crist’s unsuccessful 2010 Senate bid is factored in.
When former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio announced his bid to challenge Crist for Senate in May 2009, he trailed the popular Republican governor in positive name recognition in the Sunshine State by 36 points (13 percent to 49 percent), according to the Mason-Dixon polling company. Nevertheless, Crist went on to suffer one of the worst political meltdowns in recent history.......
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