Gov. Charlie Crist will likely announce plans to run for U.S. Senate on Tuesday morning in with “low key” statement and avoid a press conference, Republican Party of Florida officials said.

“I think Charlie Crist will be Florida’s next U.S. Senator,” RPOF Chairman Jim Greer said.

Crist would be the first Florida governor to decline the opportunity to run for a second term since voters gave the state’s chief executive that opportunity in 1968.

The only other major Republican in the race is former House Speaker Marco Rubio, who announced his plans last week. Democratic candidates include state Sen. Dan Gelber, U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek and North Miami Mayor Kevin Burns.

Crist ran for the same Senate seat in 1998, losing to popular Democratic incumbent Bob Graham in a race that gave Crist statewide name recognition and a grassroots network. That helped him win the education commissioner’s race in 2000 and the attorney general seat in 2002 before beating Democrat Jim Davis in 2006 to take his current position.

Tags: Charlie Crist

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 10th, 2009 at 11:23 pm and is filed under 2010 campaigns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.