Gov. Charlie Crist (R-FL), who some see as a target of the conservative movement that backed Doug Hoffman in NY-23, called the race there “kind of a funky situation.”
“I don’t know if we can really tell exactly what that race meant. I mean, that was kind of a funky situation, to put it mildly,” Crist said today on CNN. “And I think that it’ll take a little time to analyze what happened there. But what did it happen there is that, unfortunately, a Democrat won in a district that’s been held by a Republican for 140 years.”
Conservatives are targeting Crist over his credentials, especially his support of the stimulus. Some are turning to Mark Rubio, Crist’s opponent in the Republican primary for a Senate seat in Florida.
Crist is, not surprisingly, distancing himself from the stimulus.
“I didn’t endorse it. I didn’t even have a vote on the darn thing,” he said today. “But I understood that it was gonna pass and I wanted to be able to utilize it for the benefit of my fellow Floridians.”
Asked if what happened in New York could happen in Florida, he said, “I certainly don’t hope so.”
“As a Republican running for the U.S. Senate, I hope that a Republican wins and I hope that it’s me,” he said.
