Florida Pipe Trades Union Backs Charlie Crist for U.S. Senate

The Florida Pipe Trades union backed independent Gov. Charlie Crist in the race for the U.S. Senate on Wednesday. The union represents 11 local chapters with more than 10,000 members. This was a blow for U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek who is seeking the Democratic nomination in the race and won the state AFL-CIO endorsement earlier in June.

The campaign team for former House Speaker Marco Rubio, the leading Republican in the race, weighed in on the endorsement.

While Charlie Crist will do anything to save his own career, hes watched as nearly 1 million more Floridians lost their jobs over the past four years, said Alex Burgos, a spokesman for the Rubio campaign. With Floridas unemployment rate reaching record highs on his watch, this may be the first endorsement offered to a candidate for increasing the ranks of the jobless. And now, Governor Crist promises to do the same for our country by supporting such anti-jobs policies as higher debt, cap-and-trade and card check. Marco Rubio is the only candidate we can trust to go to Washington, be a check and balance against policies that will cost more jobs and offer a clear pro-growth economic agenda.