Former Miami Mayor Maurice Ferre announced his bid for the Democratic senate nomination in Florida back in October, but has been relatively silent since. Not anymore. Ferre has come out swinging this week, attacking Gov. Charlie Crist (R) and slamming Sen. George LeMieux (R), who Crist appointed earlier this year.
On Wednesday, Ferre attacked Crist, suggesting the governor was lying about his record in a recent interview with the St. Petersburg Times.
"Charlie Crist has been anything but 'honest and truthful' and he certainly has put politics over people," Ferre said in the statement. "Sadly Charlie Crist has not done the job we have already elected him to, property taxes have not gone down and either [sic] have insurance rates. Now Charlie wants a promotion when he doesn't merit one based on performance in the job he has now."
Today, Ferre turned his attention to LeMieux, Crist's former Chief Of Staff who Crist appointed to the senate seat after Mel Martinez (R) vacated it in August. LeMieux isn't running in the race for his current job (which Crist and Ferre are vying for), but has recently hinted he might run for Florida's other senate seat in 2012.
"What we need in Washington now is less partisanship and less jockeying for political advantage and more bi-partisan problem solving," Ferre said today. "Instead [LeMieux] plays politics -- to the determent of Florida."
Ferre criticized Crist over the LeMieux pick, and called on LeMieux to stay out of the current senate race.
"Governor Crist chose to appoint a staff member and political operative to the U.S. Senate," Ferre said. "I want my Senator working on Florida's problems not out fundraising for his political benefactor."
The new attacks on Crist an interesting turn of events for a campaign that, rumor had it, was part of an elaborate plan to destroy Rep. Kendrick Meek (D) run by Crist allies.

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Walter Mitty
November 27, 2009 1:31 PM
It still could be a ploy by Crist allies in that it will force Meek to get into the back-and-forth sniping a lot sooner than he wanted to. Meek seemed content to stay on the sidelines and let Crist and Rubio take shots at each other. Now with Ferre getting his name involved Meek will have to raise his profile or ferre might be seen as the front runner as he'll grab all the early race name value on the democratic side.
Also by attacking Crist, it will allow Crist to fire back at the Democrats instead of the GOP party infighting.
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navamske
November 27, 2009 4:04 PM
I don't disagree with Ferre's point, but Democrats should be wary of making this argument given that Vice President Biden had his aide Edward Kaufman appointed to his Senate seat very likely to keep it warm until Biden's son Beau could run for it in 2010. (Kaufman, like LeMieux, promised not to run for the seat.) Of course, Biden didn't appoint Kaufman directly, whereas Crist did appoint LeMieux, but I doubt if anyone believes the elder Biden didn't "pressure" Governor Minner, even if that pressure consisted only of making his wishes known to her.
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holyhandgrenaid
November 27, 2009 4:30 PM in reply to navamske
Its similar, but not terribly- Crist appointed a placeholder for HIMSELF (as in for a seat he was already running for), as opposed to appointing a placeholder for a seat that someone related to the previous holder might run for. Yes, very similar, and still a little greasy, but it has nothing on what Crist did (not that he had any alternative- frankly I have a hunch Martinez quit just to drop this problem on Crist and to try to set up Rubio, but I don't know)
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