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Problems mount for Crist in Florida

November 13, 2009 —

Is the senatorial campaign of Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, viewed only a few months ago as unstoppable, showing signs of implosion? Most of Crist's problems are intramural, but they don't seem to be going away. 

Republican leaders from around the state this week requested an "emergency" meeting with Crist's ally, state GOP chairman Jim Greer, in the wake of several controversies which have troubled the state party. They include the firing of a state party staffer for setting up a bogus Twitter account to embarrass a county chairman who was a critic of the party establishment, and the criminal investigation of attorney Scott Rothstein, who has been a major contributor to the party.

Crist's longtime communications director, Erin Isaac, resigned this week, in the wake of a bad patch of news about Crist's previous statements. The governor has been questioned about his denial that he endorsed the Obama Administration's stimulus package, despite having appeared to do so in February, and his statement that he didn't know about Obama's plans for a recent trip to Florida despite emails which indicated his staff had been informed.

-- It has been a week of high-profile endorsements in the South's two big-city mayoral runoff campaigns. In Atlanta, state Sen. Kasim Reed picked up the endorsement of City Council President Lisa Borders, who finished third in the Nov. 3 election, and that of former Gov. Roy Barnes.  In Houston, city councilman and third-place finisher Peter Brown endorsed City Controller Annise Parker, but four prominent African-American ministers who had supported Brown threw their support to former City Attorney Gene Locke.

-- It's like a low-grade version of a "Terminator" movie: More than a century ago, a Japanese plant called kudzu was introduced into the United States, and was adopted by Southern farmers and county agents as a ground cover to control erosion. It was decades before the plant was recognized as a virulent invasive species, and by then it had grown completely out of control.

Now, researchers at the University of Georgia and Dow AgroSciences have identified another Asian species, the lablab bug or globular stink bug, which has mysteriously turned up in Northeast Georgia. The insect eats kudzu, but it also eats soybeans and other legumes, stinks, and gets on houses. This could be a nasty sequel.