Florida Gov. Crist hit from left, right as he seeks the middle ground in US Senate race

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Crist hit from left, right as he seeks the middle

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Democrat says Florida Gov. Charlie Crist is a Republican. The Republican says Crist is trying to appeal to Democrats. Crist, pursuing a Senate seat as an independent, says he cuts things right down the middle.

So which is it?

Well, that’s hard to tell. Crist’s positions on health care, the federal stimulus, offshore oil drilling, social issues and more have long had a tendency to shift from right to left and back, something that’s become even more apparent since he changed his party affiliation from Republican to none.

Crist says he’s just an independent thinker and has the freedom to come to new conclusions on issues now that he doesn’t have to toe the party line. His opponents in the Nov. 2 election, Republican Marco Rubio and Democratic Rep. Kendrick Meek, say he’s pandering to voters and opinion polls.

Some examples of Crist’s changing positions:

— He supported President Barack Obama’s $814 billion stimulus plan before entering the Senate race but then criticized Obama for the plan when he was a Republican candidate, saying in his first radio ad “the president has the same tired answer for every problem — to spend more of your money.” He now admonishes Republicans who were upset he stood with Obama for the stimulus. “When some in my former party criticized that, I thought, ‘Something’s wrong. That’s just not right.’”

— Crist said he was firmly opposed to Obama’s health care overhaul and wrote to Meek asking him to vote against it. When it passed, he called for a repeal of the law. Since then, he says there are very positive things about the bill but it needs to be fixed. He has also said it shouldn’t be repealed unless there’s a good substitute. In one interview he said he would have voted for the bill, then later said he misspoke.

— Crist said he supported Florida’s constitutional ban on gay marriage, but now says he wouldn’t support a similar federal ban.

— Crist opposed oil drilling off Florida’s coasts when he ran for governor in 2006, then later said he was open to the idea as a Republican Senate candidate. “We need to take a good hard look at drilling. I think that with the new technology that’s being developed, there may be ways to actually do it in a way that does protect our beautiful Florida,” he said just months before the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. After the BP oil spill and as an independent candidate, he asked lawmakers to put a constitutional drilling ban on the ballot and was furious when Republicans refused, saying, “I’m going to give them hell.”

— As a Republican candidate he opposed the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Since going independent, Crist said he probably opposed her because it was good strategy in a Republican primary.

Meek and Rubio don’t agree on much politically, but they’re both pointing out Crist’s inconsistencies.

Meek’s campaign has a simple approach. It sends out, with no additional comment, Crist’s previous campaign news releases verbatim from the days he was running as a Republican: Arizona Sen. John McCain’s endorsement; opposing the Obama health care overhaul; not supporting Sotomayor; calling himself a “true blue Reagan conservative.”

The goal is to remind people that while Crist is now seeking support from teacher and labor unions, groups that traditionally support Democrats, and has earned the endorsement of some Democratic state lawmakers, it wasn’t long ago he was saying no one was more conservative than him.

Rubio’s campaign has sent out dozens of e-mails with the subject line “Can’t trust Charlie.” The campaign has a nine-page, 7,818-word document listing Crist’s various positions.

“Crist has six different positions on ObamaCare because he doesn’t actually care about health care, he only cares about getting himself elected,” Rubio said in one recent news release. “Crist’s political opportunism puts him in a league of his own.”

Crist said he isn’t surprised by the nearly daily criticisms about flip-flops, saying it’s a reflection that he’s doing well in polls. Recent polls have either showed him with a lead or slightly behind Rubio. Meek trails by significant margins in most polls. The winner will replace George LeMieux, whom Crist appointed last year after Republican Mel Martinez suddenly resigned.

“The attacks have become sharper because of where I am,” Crist said. “It frightens them to a degree.”

He uses his changing position on offshore oil drilling since the spill as the prime example of why it’s OK to have varying positions.

“You’d have to be less than brilliant, to put it lightly, not to learn from that experience,” said Crist, who said other position shifts have come through analyzing issues and deciding what’s right for people.

“Obviously somebody that’s sort of required to be in lockstep with a political party doesn’t have much choice,” Crist said. “To be inflexible would be part of the head-in-the-sand crowd, and I don’t think people want that.”

Meek, though, sees Crist as someone who will do whatever works for him politically.

“If a poll was to come out tomorrow and say that Floridians would see you in a better light if you hug a palm tree for 30 minutes a day, he would be out there for an hour hugging a palm tree,” Meek said during a recent bus tour. “It’s the way he operates.”