We finally have a test case for the resurrection of a center right GOP in the Florida senate race for 2010:

The expected announcement Tuesday by Florida Gov. Charlie Crist that he’s running for the Senate would seem to be a rare bit of good news for beleaguered Republicans. 

But while Crist is a brand-name recruit with sky-high approval ratings and bipartisan appeal, his path to keeping the seat of retiring Sen. Mel Martinez in GOP hands has at least one significant roadblock: Sunshine State conservatives. 

Despite Crist’s widespread popularity, he faces a primary in which he will have to make his case to a restless GOP base dissatisfied with his high-profile advocacy for President Barack Obama’s stimulus and his handling of the state’s budget woes. 

If the GOP loses Florida’s senate seat, they are in a world of hurt. That would mean dueling Democrat Senators in CA, TX, and FL – the big electoral college states. Not to mention Dems in VA, etc.  

Conservatives can have ‘problems’ all day long if they wish – it simply means no seat at the table, not voice in directing this country. Either they get used to the idea of being part of a governing coalition or they sit on the side lines wailing.

But the conservatives better not assume they are required to win elections. There are plenty of center left Democrats and voters who are shell shocked by the far left turn the liberals in DC have taken this country. For example:

Forty-five House Democrats in the party’s moderate-to-conservative wing have protested the secretive process by which party leaders in their chamber are developing legislation to remake the health care system.

The lawmakers, members of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition, said they were “increasingly troubled” by their exclusion from the bill-writing process.

They expressed their concerns in a letter delivered Monday to three House committee chairmen writing the bill, which House leaders hope to pass this summer.

A centrist party which espouses limited government, but a strong safety net, which promotes national security (e.g., Leiberman, McCain), that understands the economic stimulus of tax cuts, could be a force to reckon with. As noted previously, many of the Senate hopefuls in NJ and NY and elsewhere are cut from the centrist clothe. Many are too centrist for me on key issues (e.g., embryonic stem cell research), but they are persuadable and probably more reliable allies than the all-or-nothing far right.

Tags: 2010 Elections, Centrists, Crist, GOP