After 10 Glorious Years, Sunshine State News and I Are Passing the Baton

On Friday, I reported that Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and Charlie Crist had a telephonic tete-a-tete that afternoon. It turns out that the governor/Senate candidate also got a call from another big-name Democrat -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The Wall Street Journal reported today that Reid called to wish Crist well in his independent campaign. No word if Kendrick Meek or any other Democrat in the field got similar encouragement.

Big political news from the Panhandle. Rep. Dave Murzin, R-Pensacola, has dropped out of the race to take the state senate currently held by Durrell Peaden. Murzin will instead run for for a county commission seat in Escambia County. This leaves Rep. Greg Evers, R-Baker, and Mike Hill, a businessman and West Point graduate, battling it out for the seat.

Gov. Charlie Crist took some time this afternoon to talk with Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell by phone. Crist spokesman Sterling Ivey told me via e-mail: "The governor is not sure what the call is about...it was a request from Gov. Rendell's office." It was a curious call, to say the least. Does Rendell know anything about oil spills? Or independent campaigns for U.S. Senate? Not that we're aware of. But Rendell does know a thing or two about hardball politics, and how to play them in a state that leans both left and right.

Can you imagine Bob Dole leaving the U.S. to move to Costa Rica and, after 15 years, making a political comeback in his new home? Me either but that's kind of what is happening in South Florida as former Haitian Senate President Bernard Sansaricq, a powerful figure in Haiti in the 80s and early 90s, attempts to knock off Congressman Alcee Hastings. Yomin Postelnik, currently running in an interesting Republican field to take the place of Rep. Ellyn Bodanoff, R-Ft. Lauderdale, in the 91st House District,has also been helping out on Sansaricq's bid.