Strategic Party Affiliation Switch

In a commentary appearing in last Saturday’s Gainesville Sun, St. Petersburg Times columnist Sue Carlton suggested that those 170,000 Florida teachers whose careers may have been saved by Republican Governor Charlie Crist’s recent veto of a sweeping anti-teacher bill passed by his own party’s state legislature may want to return the favor by voting for him in his senatorial campaign against current GOP front-runner Marco Rubio. And why not? Rubio supported the bill, which would have ended teacher tenure in Florida, a state already greatly suffering in its public education system largely because its citizens don’t want to foot the necessary bill to have an effective system. The only problem is that, for those many already-underpaid teachers who happen to be Democrats, they can’t vote in the August 24 Republican primary pitting Crist against ultra-conservative tea party hero Rubio. So Ms. Carlton suggests…

Since voters can switch their party affiliation up to 29 days before a primary, why can’t those Democratic teachers grateful to Crist simply become temporary Republicans in order to vote for him? They can all still support whomever they want in November and can switch back later to the Democratic Party later if they wish. Frankly, the thought appeals to me as well, since I can handle a reasonable human being like Charlie Crist being my senator while Marco Rubio makes me cringe. So I’m considering switching my party affiliation to Republican in order to vote for Crist in the primary. Only I think I’ll just wait a while (but not TOO long) to make the switch.

I remember Rush Limbaugh in 2008 urging conservative Republicans to vote for Hillary Clinton in those presidential primaries that allowed party crossover voting. His goal was to prolong the race between Clinton and Barack Obama, hopefully resulting in an irreconcilable division between the two and their supporters. Well, Rush, ol' buddy ol’ pal, the other side can play at this game too!