Democratic St. Lucie County Commissioner Chris Craft, who’s challenging U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, in a Republican-leaning district, said Wednesday he’s “deeply concerned” that President Obama and Democratic congressional leaders might bypass a formal House-Senate conference on health care and hash out a private deal.

Craft is running as a “moderate and independent voice” in a district that voted for Republican John McCain in 2008. So he raised some eyebrows in the fall when he said he supported the House health care bill. That bill passed on a 220-to-215 vote in which most Dems from McCain districts voted no.

Now that the Senate has also passed a bill, there’s talk of scrapping the traditional conference and jettisoning Obama’s oft-repeated 2008 pledge to have the negotiations televised on C-SPAN.

Craft issued a statement Wednesday calling for a bipartisan solution on health care. Read it after the jump….

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Most Democrats who represent congressional districts that went for Republican John McCain in 2008 voted no on the recent health care bill. Democrat Chris Craft hopes to win election in such a district in 2010, but he’s for the health care legislation.

Read about Craft’s position in this week’s Politics column, along with the latest on Irv Slosberg’s plans and the warning from not one but two local Dems about Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.

Democratic congressional hopeful Chris Craft says he would have voted for the health care overhaul legislation that squeaked through the House on Saturday. And Craft says he would have opposed the amendment to the bill banning federal payments or subsidies for abortions.

Both stances put Craft in opposition to freshman U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, whom Craft hopes to unseat in 2010. They also put Craft, who’s running as a moderate in Republican-leaning District 16, at odds with many centrist Democrats in the House.

The health care bill passed on a 220-to-215 vote, with 39 Democrats breaking with House leadership and President Obama to oppose the bill.

The abortion amendment, offered by U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., passed on a 240-to-194 vote, with 64 Democrats joining the entire Republican caucus in support.

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As Florida pols scramble to unload contributions they received from accused mega-scammer Scott Rothstein, U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, announced he’s giving the $4,600 he got last year from attorney Rothstein to a pair of Treasure Coast charities. But Rooney’s campaign said it doesn’t plan to return $4,600 he received from Rothstein’s wife last year.

Rooney’s Democratic challenger, St. Lucie County Commissioner Chris Craft, slammed the incumbent for that.

Read Craft’s statement after the jump….

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Democratic St. Lucie County Commissioner Chris Craft’s challenge of freshman U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, is off to a slow financial start.

Craft, who entered the race in early August, raised $61,605 through Sept. 30, according to a report filed today. His campaign ended the quarter with $51,546 in the bank. Rooney raised $114,655 during the quarter and has $247,416 on hand.

Congressional money-raising reports are due by midnight tonight.

Republican Allen West, who’s challenging U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, raised $281,508 during the quarter and has $257,416 on hand. Klein’s report has not yet been filed. He began the quarter with nearly $2 million in the bank.

Democratic St. Lucie County Commissioner Chris Craft, who’s challenging freshman Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney of Tequesta, will attend a fund-raiser in Washington, D.C., Thursday at the home of a lobbyist whose clients include ACORN and other liberal groups. The invitation lists liberal U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, as a host.

In a Republican-leaning congressional district that favored John McCain over Barack Obama last year, the National Republican Congressional Committee is using the event to paint Craft as an out-of-touch liberal.

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Call it the Klein-Craft Axiom: In Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast, Democratic enthusiasm for a government-run public health insurance plan to compete with private insurers is inversely proportional to the percentage of Republicans in one’s congressional district.

Liberal U.S. Reps. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, and Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, are vocal cheerleaders for the “public option” that is a centerpiece of the health care overhaul pushed by House Democratic leaders.

Wexler and Hastings represent slam-dunk Democratic districts.

But in nearby Palm Beach-Broward District 22, which has slightly more Republican voters than Dems, U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, approached the topic cautiously in a “telephone town hall” with constituents last week.

During the teleconference, Klein sounded as if he’s leaning toward the public option and rejected the argument that putting the federal government in the market would drive out private insurers.

But he stopped short of embracing it.

“I’m still looking at it. I haven’t committed to it yet,” Klein said of the public option. And as for the entire 10-year, $1 trillion House plan, Klein said he has problems with the price tag and described himself as “not quite there yet on saying I’m supporting the bill.”

Striking a similarly cautious tone is Democrat Chris Craft, the St. Lucie County commissioner drafted by national Dems to try to unseat freshman U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, in Republican-leaning congressional District 16.

The public option, says Craft, “is an option that’s on the table. I’m not 100 percent sold on it.”

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Marcia Andrews, a former teacher and principal and school district administrator, is considering a run for the school board seat of veteran incumbent Sandra Richmond.

School board seats are nonpartisan. But here’s what makes Andrews’ potential bid interesting: she’s a member of the Palm Beach County Democratic Party’s executive board. And Richmond, elected six times since 1988, is one of the county’s longest-serving Democratic elected officials.

Party leaders traditionally discourage challenges of incumbents from within the party. County Democratic Chairman Mark Alan Siegel says he’s not backing Andrews, but hasn’t discouraged her, either, because “I don’t know if Sandi’s running again.”

Richmond says she’ll “probably” seek reelection next year.

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Cedrick Thomas, who lost to Mack Bernard in last week’s special state House election, has to give up his Riviera Beach council seat Sept. 22 because he ran for the House.

But he doesn’t rule out seeking reappointment by the council.

Thomas is also weighing a 2010 challenge of Bernard or taking on County Commissioner Priscilla Taylor, who was a key Bernard backer.

Don’t expect any YouTubed confrontations when U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, hosts a town hall meeting later this month to discuss the 1,018-page House Democratic health care bill.

Klein is planning a “telephone town hall” that he says will reach far more constituents than an in-the-flesh event.

Republican challenger Allen West says Klein’s a chicken.

“The unwillingness to stand in front of your constituents can only be called cowardice,” said West.

Klein dismissed West’s claim. He said the teleconference has been planned for weeks and was not a reaction to the recent transformation of town hall events from soporific C-SPAN affairs to shout-fests that go viral on the Internet.

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Democratic St. Lucie County Commissioner Chris Craft didn’t mention incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney in his statement Wednesday announcing he’s running for Rooney’s District 16 congressional seat. Rooney didn’t comment on Craft’s announcement, with a spokesman saying the congressman is too busy with his job to focus on 2010 politics.

National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Andy Sere and Florida Democratic Party spokesman Eric Jotkoff, however, served up some harsh commentary.

Read their statements after the jump…..

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Democratic St. Lucie County Commissioner Chris Craft this afternoon announced he’s running for the congressional seat of freshman Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney of Tequesta.

Craft’s announcement, rumored for months, came a day sooner than he planned.

A press release scheduled for release Thursday was briefly posted on Craft’s old commission reelection Web site today, then taken down. The National Republican Congressional Committee saw the announcement and a spokesman branded Craft “a job-killing army of one” before the candidate himself had even gone public.

“I’m running for Congress because we need a representative who has shared the struggles of hardworking Floridians and can relate to the people of this district,” said Craft, who pledged to work with Republicans and Democrats as a “moderate voice” in Washington.

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National Democrats have been firing salvos at freshman U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, for months.

The national GOP recently added Rooney to its incumbent-protection program in preparation for battle.

The only thing missing is an actual challenger.

That could change soon. Democratic St. Lucie County Commissioner Chris Craft says he’s “leaning” toward entering the race in the next few weeks.

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Some Democrats hoped state Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, would challenge freshman U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, next year. With Aronberg running for attorney general, many Democrats are waiting to see whether St. Lucie County Commissioner Chris Craft will run for Congress.

Craft has talked to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and said today he hopes to decide on a congressional race by sometime this summer.

With Aronberg out of the congressional picture, Craft said, “now we really step up the efforts to see what’s out there as far as the support network, not only financially but also what kind of ground troops.”