Second quarter fundraising results suggest that dropping out of the Republican primary for Senate in Florida was a good move for Charlie Crist. According to the AP, Crist raised $1.8 million in the second quarter, an increase of $700,000 from the first quarter of the year — which Crist spent struggling under the surging GOP support for Marco Rubio.
Crist has $8.2 million cash on hand, a testament to his past fundraising prowess as a Republican. Leaving that party behind to run as an independent has cost him dearly in that regard — Rubio just broke Crist’s old fundraising record with his eye-popping $4.5 million second-quarter fundraising result.
But the increase in Crist’s overall fundraising total is good news for the governor’s Senate bid, as are polls that continue to show him with the advantage in three-way race for Florida’s open Senate seat. The TPM Poll Average for the contest shows Crist with 36.6% of the vote, Rubio with 32.6% and embattled Democratic party candidate Kendrick Meek — who faces an increasingly tough primary of his own — with 14.7%
