TALLAHASSEE — Bob Graham, the former Florida governor and U.S. Senator and the state’s most famous itinerant laborer, made a rare opening day appearance in the Capitol today and sat in the front row of the House chamber for Gov. Rick Scott’s State of the State speech.

Graham, a Democrat, gave Republican Scott credit for giving “such emphasis to the connection between education and economic development. I strongly share that opinion and am pleased that it’s going to get, from the governor’s office, the emphasis and energy.”

Graham said he doesn’t have a favorite candidate for governor in 2014, but predicted that Democrats “will have a very strong candidate and the lines are going to be well-defined for the people of Florida to decide their future course.”

The leading Democratic contender may be former Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, who became an independent in 2010 and a Democrat in December.

“Listen, we had a long period where Democrats were becoming Republicans. I think it’s only fair that we have a little reverse tide,” Graham said.

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CNN political analyst and former presidential adviser David Gergen will give a speech at the LeMieux Center for Public Policy at Palm Beach Atlantic University on March 21.

Gergen, who worked for Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton, will deliver the inaugural speech at the joint venture between West Palm Beach private university and former U.S. Sen. George LeMieux. LeMieux, a Republican, served 19 months in the Senate after then-Gov. Charlie Crist appointed him to fill a vacancy created by U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez, who retired.

Here’s the release from the LeMieux center on Gergen’s appearance:

Former U.S. Senator George LeMieux today announced the inaugural speaker for the LeMieux Center for Public Policy at Palm Beach Atlantic University. Presidential advisor, national political analyst and Harvard School of Government Professor David Gergen will speak to students and special guests at the University on Thursday, March 21 at 7pm ET.

In addition to his work at Harvard, Gergen is a senior political analyst for CNN who served during the administrations of four U.S. presidents. He is a professor of public service at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and the director of its Center for Public Leadership. In 2000, he published the best-selling book, Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership, Nixon to Clinton.

“I am very excited and pleased to welcome David Gergen as the LeMieux Center’s inaugural speaker. As a journalist, an analyst, and a senior advisor to four U.S. presidents, David brings an unparalleled depth of insight into national politics and first-hand accounts of America’s leading political figures,” said Senator LeMieux. “One of the reasons the LeMieux Center was founded at Palm Beach Atlantic was to give students opportunities for conversations about public policy and leadership. There are a series of substantial and ongoing issues facing Florida and America, and a need for thoughtful consideration in how to address these challenges. I look forward to David presenting his insights at the University.”

Obama, Crist as members of opposing parties in 2009

Crist, a high-profile supporter of Obama in Florida last year, says he and wife Carole got tickets for Monday’s oath-taking ceremonies from the White House and also accepted a “gracious” invitation to attend a reception at the White House on Monday night.

Crist said he has attended several other presidential inaugurations, going back to Ronald Reagan‘s in 1981. He attended Obama’s 2009 inaugural, representing Florida as the Sunshine State’s Republican governor.

“Now I get to go as a Democrat,” said Crist, who left the GOP in 2010 and became a Democrat in December. “It feels wonderful. I feel very comfortable and very welcome. Carole and I appreciate it very much.”

A survey by Democratic firm Public Policy Polling this week showed Crist leading Republican Gov. Rick Scott by a 53-to-39 margin in a hypothetical 2014 match-up. The poll also found Crist the top pick among Florida Democrats to run for governor.

Crist has said he’s considering a run for his old job, but hasn’t set a timetable for making a decision.

“Those numbers are very humbling and it’s very nice to be thought of in that way. I just haven’t reached a decision yet and I think there’s plenty of time,” Crist said. “We’ve come through a pretty strenuous political season and I think people need a break.”

Republican-turned-independent-turned-Democratic former Gov. Charlie Crist would easily defeat Republican Gov. Rick Scott in a hypothetical 2014 general election race, a new survey by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling says.

Crist would get 53 percent to 39 percent for Scott, according to a PPP survey of 501 Florida voters that has a 4.4 percent margin of error.

Crist left the GOP in 2010 to pursue a losing no-party Senate bid and endorsed President Barack Obama and spoke at the Democratic National Convention last year. He officially became a Democrat in December.

Crist’s standing among Democrats has steadily improved since last year, with the new PPP poll finding 58 percent of Dems name Crist as their first choice to run for governor next year. The 2010 Democratic nominee, Alex Sink, was a distant second, with 18 percent of Florida Democrats saying Sink was their preferred 2014 candidate for governor.

Crist is viewed favorably by 73 percent of Democrats and unfavorably by 17 percent in the new poll. Last July, Crist’s favorable/unfavorable score among Democrats was 50/31.

Scott remains plagued by dismal approval ratings. In the new PPP poll, only 37 percent of Florida voters approve of Scott’s job performance, with 57 percent disapproving. PPP says Scott would lose 47-40 to Sink, 43-39 to former Tampa mayor Pam Iorio and 44-42 to Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, but the Republican governor would edge Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and former state Sen. Nan Rich.

More than half of Floridians say Gov. Rick Scott doesn’t deserve another term, according to a new poll released by Quinnipiac University this morning.

And the poll showed that Scott, who is planning to run for reelection, could have problems with a primary challenge. More than half of GOP voters – 52 percent – said they would prefer another candidate instead of the incumbent, the poll found.

And Scott’s approval rating among Florida voters remains dismal, the latest poll found.

Florida voters disapprove 45–36 percent of the job Scott is doing, and more than half of the voters surveyed – 52 percent – said he does not deserve a second term, compared to 30 percent who say he should be reelected in 2014.

Scott’s ratings “are just plain awful,” pollster Peter A. Brown said in a press release.

“The numbers cannot be sugar-coated,” Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said. “When voters in a politician’s own party want him to be challenged in a primary by another candidate, it’s difficult to see it as anything but outright rejection.”

By a 55-29 percent margin, voters said they wanted another candidate to challenge Scott in two years. And GOP voters felt the same way, with 53 percent saying they wanted another candidate compared to 30 percent who supported Scott. Republican voters did give Scott a 63-19 percent job approval rating and 55-26 percent said he deserves a second term.

Former Gov. Charlie Crist, who recently made a high-profile party change and became a Democrat and is considering a run for governor, has a 47-33 percent favorability rating. Not surprisingly, he’s got a negative rating – 28–56 percent – among Republicans, the poll found.

That’s compared to Scott’s a 31-43 favorability rating among voters. Democrats and independent voters view Scott unfavorably while slightly more than half of Republicans view him favorably. Democrats view him unfavorably by a 60-16 percent margin, independents by a 25-48 percent margin while Republicans give him a 55-18 percent favorable rating.

Alex Sink appears to have faded in voters’ memory since her 2010 loss to Scott. More than half – 57 percent – of voters haven’t heard enough about her to form an opinion, compared to 27 percent who view her favorably and 14 percent who view her unfavorably.

The poll of 1,261 voters using land lines and cell phones was conducted from Dec. 11-17 and has a margin of error of +/- 2.8 percentage points.

While attending a reception at the White House on Friday, former Gov. Charlie Crist and wife Carole display form that will complete Crist's switch to the Democratic Party. Crist sent the picture to his Twitter followers.

1. Will he run for governor in 2014?

2. What was he doing with a Florida Voter Registration Application form at a White House holiday reception on Friday night?

Responding this morning to the question about running in 2014, Crist said: “I’m considering it and (wife) Carole and I will talk about it over the holidays and seek advice from our fellow Floridians.”

Crist also explained how he ended up sending a picture to his Twitter followers Friday night that shows him holding a signed voter registration form with the caption “Proud and honored to join the Democratic Party in the home of President @BarackObama!”

Crist has obviously been pondering a switch to the Democratic Party for months. While in Washington last week to attend a holiday reception at the White House, Crist said he decided the time was right to complete his journey from the GOP to no party affiliation to the Democratic Party.

“I thought I’d like to do this and I’d like to do it at the White House, but I didn’t have the form,” Crist said. So he said he went to the business center at his hotel in Washington and printed out an application from the Pinellas County elections website, then brought it to the White House.

Crist said he signed the application on a music stand that was being used by the United States Marine Band, which was playing at the reception.

Crist said that when he told Obama the news, the president reacted with a fist pump.

Crist said he hasn’t actually submitted the form to the elections office, but plans to do so soon.

“I’ve got to turn it in when I get to St. Pete,” Crist said today. “I could mail it in, but I’d rather take it in in person.”

Florida’s Democratic U.S. House members, including Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, have asked the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights to hold a hearing regarding Florida’s voting law that shrunk the number of early voting days, required more voters to cast provisional ballots and was intended to curb voter registration by outside groups.

The Democratic delegation asked for the hearing based on a report in The Palm Beach Post on Sunday that detailed how Republican Party of Florida consultants and staff sought to alter Florida’s early voting laws in the aftermath of the 2008 election to curb Democratic turnout.

“In light of these allegations, we are extremely concerned over the integrity of this law and the justification for its implementation,” U.S. Reps. Alcee Hastings, Corrine Brown, Kathy Castor, Ted Deutch, Frederica Wilson and Wasserman Schultz wrote to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Chairman Martin Castro in a letter sent today. “As you know, trust in our democracy is what holds our country together. Voters must be able to trust that their elected officials are acting in their best interest.”

The commission held hearings in Florida in the aftermath of the protracted 2000 election and made numerous recommendations based on its findings, many of which were included in the Help America Vote Act passed by Congress in 2002.

DELRAY BEACH — Republican-turned-independent Charlie Crist continued his Obama Florida tour today, joining Democratic Congressman Ted Deutch for a meet-and-greet with early voters in Delray Beach.

The former governor and congressman had to stay in the “solicitation zone” in the parking lot, greeting voters as they arrived. Crist’s button spelling out Obama in Hebrew was a hit with Democratic voters, and Obama volunteers came with a bag full of extra buttons.

“Isn’t that cute?” said Crist when a voter asked him about the button. “I have another one.”

When asked about “Obama Oy Vey” and other anti-Obama Jewish billboards in Palm Beach County, Deutch said, “They’re wasting their money, that’s what I think.”

County Commissioner Burt Aaronson, who will be term limited next month, joined Crist and Deutch and proclaimed the county library on Hagen Ranch Road as the busiest early voting site in the state.

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