Gov. Charlie Crist (I-FL), who left the Republican party to run for Senate as an independent, will not be giving refunds to donors who gave to him when he was a Republican and now want their money back.
Before his party switch, there had been indications that Crist would give partial refunds, but this is no longer so.
Crist spokesperson Michelle Todd told the St. Petersburg Times: “We have never made an official statement before. It is now the official statement. They donated to the Charlie Crist for U.S. Senate Campaign, and it’s still the Charlie Crist for U.S. Senate Campaign.” Todd also told CNN: “The governor’s position is people donated to a good cause and we intend to spend their money on a good cause.”
I asked Michelle Todd for some clarification. When she said the money will be spent “on a good cause,” did she mean the campaign, or that it might go to some kind of charity. Todd e-mailed back: “The campaign.”
In other news, the Crist campaign announced on Monday that it had raised $100,000 in the ten days since he left the GOP. While $100,000 might not seem like much in the age of the money-bomb, in a way it represents a lot of money for a candidate who is now running without a party.
So we asked Michelle Todd for more information about where the money came from. The money came from “at least 1,400 unique donors.” This would work out to a mean average donation of $71 per donor. The median average donation — which is in many ways the more important statistic — was not available or divulged. Donations ranged from $5 to $4,800, and a majority of the money is said to have come from within Florida, and have been donated online.
Up through this the end of the first quarter of this year, the Crist campaign had $7.6 million cash on hand, compared to $3.9 million cash on hand for his Republican rival Marco Rubio and $3.7 million cash on hand for Democratic Rep. Kendrick Meek.
