Brian Moore wants Bud Chiles as his Running Mate for Lt. Gov.

Brian Moore, who is running in the Democratic gubernatorial primary as a heavy underdog against state CFO Alex Sink, said on Saturday that he will ask independent gubernatorial candidate Bud Chiles to serve as his running mate in the unlikely event he wins the primary on Tuesday.

Buddy Chiles presence on the ticket would add enormously to the partys prospects in November, said Moore.I would be honored to have Buddy Chiles on my ticket. The Chiles family has long fought for ordinary Floridians -- the struggling, forgotten families that now find themselves, largely through no fault of their own, victims of the current economic crisis caused by the avarice and greed of the bankers on Wall Street.

Moore, a health-care executive who ran as the Socialist Partys presidential candidate in 2008, said that many Democrats have grumbled to him about Sink naming former Sen. Rod Smith as her running mate earlier in the week.

This is still a democracy -- at least the last I heard -- and the long-suffering voters in this recession-ravaged state have yet to have their say, said Moore. It might be wise to wait for their verdict, he added, before noting that he will ask Chiles to be his understudy after winning the nomination on Tuesday.

Moore said there could have been a reason Sink chose Smith before winning the Democratic nomination.

Despite her much-touted banking background, perhaps she thought Smith would change his mind once he realizes that she really doesnt have a clue about ending the states twin fiscal and financial crises, he said, taking a shot at Sinks background as a banker. Florida has some very serious problems. I mean, werent the bankers the ones who got us into this catastrophic mess in the first place?

Moore is promoting the idea of a publicly-owned bank -- an idea espoused by Virg Bernero, the mayor of Lansing who won the Democratic gubernatorial in Michigan earlier in the year.