Former Foes Turn Into Campaign Team for Charlie Crist

Charlie Crist jumped into the governor's race on Monday and his new campaign team is chock-full of Democrats who weren't big fans of Crist or his administration when he was a Republican.

The chairman of Crist's political committee, Charlie Crist for Florida, isBob Poe, who is a former chairman of the Democratic Party of Florida. Crist'stop Florida adviser isSteve Schale,who worked for President Barack Obama.

Crist's top media staffer isKevin Cate, who has also worked for former CFO Alex Sink as well as Obama. Joe Anzalone will also be joining Crist's team, serving as his pollster. The former governor's finance director will be Jessica Clark, who has worked with U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and Obama. Jim Margolis has also joined Crist's team for advertisements. Margolis produced the ads for Obama for both election cycles.

Crist emphasized that his campaign is "not about the past" when asked about the odd options by the Times-Union.Crist also said heexpects trial attorneys from across the country to support him in his campaign. Crist himself has the support of well-known Democratic attorney John Morgan of the Morgan & Morgan law firm. Crist's formal announcement of his candidacy sounded oddly reminiscent of Morgan's television ads -- at several points, he said he was the governor "for the people" and even referenced an "army of angels" to help him in his campaign -- two slogans Morgan uses prominently in his advertisements.

"I hope it plays a big role in it," said Crist of Morgan, adding that he doesn't prefer the term "trial attorneys." He said he would instead call them "caring people from across the country."