It’s a classic story of you-don’t-scratch-my-back-I-don’t-scratch-yours: According to the developing narrative of yesterday’s decision by the Diaz-Balart brothers to withdraw their endorsement of Gov. Charlie Crist for Senate, the southern Florida representatives were miffed that Crist didn’t appoint who they wanted for a state judgeship.
Crist claims he never saw a letter from Lincoln Diaz-Balart calling on him to nominate a friend of Diaz-Balart’s son to the Gasden County bench. In October, Crist appointed someone else. Though no one is admitting directly that the political slight is what caused the brothers, important backers for the embattled Crist, local political reporters report all signs point to the judicial nomination as the moment things went sour.
Political observers in the state told TPMDC yesterday that whatever caused the Diaz-Balarts to change their minds, the move has big implications. The congressmen are pillars of the state’s Cuban community, and Crist’s camp had suggested that the Diaz-Balart endorsement proved Crist more pull in the community than his primary opponent, Marco Rubio, who was Florida’s first Cuban-American state house speaker.
Details on the judicial slight from the Miami Herald:
Asked today if they withdrew their support because of the judicial appointment, Crist said: “No comment. The whole situation saddens me.”
Diaz-Balart would not say yesterday whether the judicial pick was the reason, but he did restate his support for his preferred candidate, Frank Allman, who met his law student son when he interned at the Gadsden County State Attorney’s Office.
In an obvious screw-up by Crist’s staff, a spokesman for the governor says he never saw the letter from Diaz-Balart. The Gadsden County judge Crist appointed over Allman, Kathy Garner, is the first African-American and first woman to serve on the bench of the predominantly black county. “I believed her to be the best qualified,” Crist said today.
So will the Diaz-Balarts turn and endorse Rubio? Maybe, but for now they seem more interested in helping the likely Democratic nominee, Rep. Kendrick Meek. Crist, Rubio and Meek all appeared at a meeting of the U.S.-Cuba Democracy PAC Monday night to woo the influential group. The AP reported Rubio got the most applause of any candidate on the dais, though he wasn’t the one that the Diaz-Balarts were focused on:
But it was Democrat Meek’s 83-year-old mother, former U.S. Rep. Carrie Meek, who stole the show with the largest standing ovation during a shout-out from her son and later a special recognition from Cuban-American U.S. Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart, all Republicans.
