Florida Republicans might be increasingly angry at Governor Charlie Crist’s moderate positioning, but the party’s potential Senate candidates are nonetheless waiting for Crist to make his plans clear. But one Republican looks undaunted at the prospect of facing Crist and has just announced that he will seek the Republican nomination for the seat of retiring Senator Mel Martinez: Bob Smith, a former Senator who served in Congress from 1985 to 2002.
The twist: Smith did not represent Florida… but New Hampshire!
First elected to NH-01 in 1984, Smith moved to the Senate in 1990. At the end of that decade, Smith launched a comical sequence of party switches: After spending a few months running for the Republican presidential nomination, he delivered an angry speech on the floor of the Senate announcing his departure from the GOP in July 1999. His new plan: run as a third-party candidate. In the saga’s final episode, Smith announced that he would return to the GOP when the chairmanship of the Committee on Environment and Public Works suddenly opened up because of Sen. Chaffee’s death. This entire episode left him politically vulnerable. He lost his 2002 primary against then-Rep. John Sununu and he decided to move to Florida.
What is particularly strange about the scenario of Smith losing a Republican primary (partly) because of his disloyalty for his party is that he was known as a conservative Senator - particularly by Northeastern standards. During a speech on the Senate floor, he famously stabbed a pair of scissors on a doll’s neck as a way to denounce abortion.
In his candidacy statement released today, Smith portrayed himself as a conservative. “I have concluded that I can no longer ’sit on the sidelines’ in this fight for the soul of America,” he wrote. “It’s time for Republicans to start acting like Republicans again!” These words echo the explanation he gave when departing the party in 1999, and it makes sense for him to position himself as a movement conservative committed to pushing the party rightward given the odds he might face Crist in the primary.
Yet, Smith faces two huge problems - and they are both significant enough to raise serious questions about his electability.
For one, well… he is from New Hampshire! And it will be hard for him to claim that he has definitely relocated in the Sunshine State and should thus not be treated as a carpetbagger given that he was known to be mulling a run for New Hampshire’s open Senate seat earlier this year. (He ruled out moving back to New Hampshire at the end of February.) Pragmatically, Smith lacks the political networks that candidates like Crist or Marco Rubio (an ally of Jeb Bush) would enjoy - and that matters in a large state like Florida.
Second, Smith’s 1999-2000 saga should continue to haunt him. In 2002, Sununu used his departure from the party to label him a disloyal Republican. In an ad launched just weeks before the primary, Sununu featured Evie Kindler, a Republican voter who blasted Smith:
I’ve lived in New Hampshire for 27 years. I am a lifelong Republican. I voted for Bob Smith both times when he ran for Senate. When Sen. Smith decided to run for President, I was surprised, when he left our party and viciously criticized Republicans I was shocked. Now he’s attacking John Sununu. This time I am not surprised — I’m just disgusted. Senator Smith — you’ve gone too far and you owe me and all Republicans an apology. I’m waiting, Senator.
Sure, Smith has argued that he left the party because he felt it had lost its direction - a charge with which many conservative activists identify today. Sure, Smith accumulated a conservative record while in the Senate, making it difficult for his critics to blast him as a Specter-in-the-making.
Yet, Smith worsened matters in 2004 when he endorsed John Kerry over George W. Bush! That will make it very difficult for him to explain away his departure from the GOP. For such a conservative Republican to have managed to become his party’s version of Lieberman is quite a feat; how he is planning on winning a GOP primary from the right with such a line on his resume is beyond me.
Bob Smith is utter joke. Perhaps by being the first Republican to get in the thinks he can get a head start but held federal political office in another state and being an endorser of John Kerry in 2004, he will definitly get no traction in Florida. The fact that he switched parties momentarily probably isn’t his real problem however.
It would be fair to criticize Bob Smith over his voting record if you disagree with it. But to attack Bob Smith for not being a partisan hack is beyond the pale. Objectively, Bob Smith is being attacked for not being a partisan, political hack. He is a principled conservative, and he will not play defense for deviant Republicans. If Republicans misbehave, he won’t cover for them. Is that a bad thing? I think it is a healthy thing. He is more interested in preserving the country than a party.
THIS GUY ‘BOB SMITH’ IS A WACK JOB! HE WAS OUR SENATOR IN NH AND HE ENDORSED JOHN KERRY OVER GEORGE BUSH! THIS MAN IS ANOTHER ARLEN SPECTER!!! BOB WANT’S ALL TYPE’S OF GREEN TECNOLAGY LIKE SMALLER CAR’S WIND MILLS AND HE DOSEN’T CARE IF IT’S AT THE EXPENCE OF THE PEOPLE!! JUST WATCH YOUR FPL BILL GO SKY HI IF HE GET’S IN!!! GOD FORBID!!!!!!
I have taken the time to review his voting records. This Man missed less than 1% of votes. REMARKABLE! He votes Constitutionally no wonder the Party left him. Hopefully WE THE PEOPLE of Florida will hear and research his record to realize that he is the Pro American citizen and taxpayers best Candidate for 2010.
Crist is running on the liberal rino ticket and Rubio’s rep as house speaker squelching all illegal immigrants bills doesn’t bode well. Florida has way too many good ol boys in our RINO endorsed political arena. Actions always speak louder than words, and Bob Smiths actions politically are a breath of fresh Fiscal conservative air.
As a conservative, this REALLY ticks me off. Smith & Rubio will split the conservative vote handing the primary victory to Crist. What is this obsession that conservatives have with shooting ourselves in the foot?!