Like an episode of “Deadliest Warrior,” Florida saw its own battle between two epic foes Tuesday, this one during a special legislative session called to pass a measure that would put the question of banning oil drilling on the November ballot. In The Florida Legislature vs. Charlie Crist, I have to give this one to the Legislature, and a quick kill it was—about 55 minutes, to be exact.
Though Crist was fighting for the people, or—as others argued—for his next job, he did it with an arsenal of the wrong weapons. Choosing to push for a special session that was vehemently and openly opposed by House and Senate leadership only promised a waste of taxpayer dollars. Yes, one can argue it was the House’s choice to kill the amendment with a motion of limited debate followed by an early adjournment, which then forced the Senate to do the same, but Crist should have seen this coming a mile away.
The governor, far from being a political newbie, has been attacked with Republican spears of hostility since earlier this year when he announced his move to the dark side, otherwise known in politics as the Independent Party. Longtime staff quit his campaign, donors dropped their funding and Republican leaders took it personally.
The conflict is nothing new—even when Crist was on Team Republican, he was never “Republican enough” for leaders of the party, mainly due to his moderate stances on social issues like gay adoption and abortion. In fact, a joke around the Senate always concerned “Crist the Democrat,” and conservative eyes would roll when his name was mentioned. Even so, in the current time of partisan politics and extreme fringe candidates, Crist does exemplify an interesting new battle tactic.
By bucking both parties and instead opting “for the people,” Crist has won over moderate voters on all sides of the political spectrum. He’s leading in the polls for U.S. Senate, despite his sister running his campaign and his Republican donors moving to right-wing Team Rubio. Could this possibly mean that—gasp—people are more concerned with policy than party? That maybe partisanship isn’t as good of a strategy as some politicians want you to believe?
If Sun Tzu were in the business of political strategy instead of war, I think he might agree. After all, he did say, “Travel by unexpected routes.” Crist certainly is not a conventional, modern candidate, and he is doing exactly what the master of war described as “of supreme importance”: attacking the enemy’s strategy. With the call for a special session, Crist knew that either way the vote went, he could tout it as a win. If a “yes” vote, Crist would take the obvious win by getting what he wanted. But if a “no”—which in this case is what happened—he could easily pass it off as just another bunch of elitist lawmakers who don’t believe the people should have a voice in policy—a “snub,” as Crist called it in a statement.
So, for the final tally: one for Crist for making the legislature (mainly the House, which limited debated and adjourned in less than an hour) look like every political stereotype voters hate, but 1,000 for the Republican-controlled legislature, which takes the surprise win. Here’s why: While the House played bad cop, the Senate played good cop, shaming the House for leaving without giving the people a choice and arguing in favor of placing the amendment on the ballot. In one word, brilliant! Demonize the House for doing something that the Senate leadership was in favor of from the beginning (i.e., voting the resolution down), but coming off like the hero anyway.
The House played scapegoat, and, whether intentional or not, it worked like something straight out of Tzu’s playbook: “All warfare is based on deception.” Apparently modern politics are, too. In the end, Crist lost some political capital—at least $55,000 worth, the cost of the failed session—but took some Republican blood down with him, though not nearly enough for a win. His loss is exacerbated by calling a session destined to fail and coming off looking like the move was simply political—an easy fix would have been to expand the session to more than one agenda item, a session to workshop the economic issues facing the Gulf Coast, something facing Floridians now. Maybe then Crist would have come out on top.
The Republicans won this battle, but the question of who will win the war is far more intriguing … and one that might be answered come November.
Brittany Fox is a political science senior.
