While former President Bill Clinton crisscrosses the country stumping for Democratic governors running in the midterms, his appearance Friday evening in Miami with Florida’s Democratic gubernatorial nominee Charlie Crist is getting particular attention.
Crist, the Sunshine State’s former governor, held office as Republican, and has since undergone an ideological change-of-heart, first becoming an independent and then a Democrat.
Political watchers are keenly observing the Clinton-Crist relationship since Crist was an outspoken critic of the former president during his impeachment scandal in the late 1990s, calling for Clinton to step down because his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky "shattered the confidence and trust of the American people,"
according to CBS News.
But with Hillary Clinton a likely contender for the White House in 2016, Bill Clinton is making sure the couple have all their bases covered in order to buoy her chances of a win,
according to Politico. And battleground Florida is of particular importance.
"Whoever wins Florida is the next president of the United States," Democratic donor John Morgan, whose law firm employs Crist, told Politico. "That’s just math. The governor is extremely important. They control the secretary of state, voting days, voting hours."
In November, Crist will face Republican incumbent Gov. Rick Scott, who narrowly leads in the polls,
according to NBC News. Scott is using the Clinton-Crist appearance to underscore his assertion that "Charlie Crist is a slick politician, a smooth talker, and I'm not."
"He will tell you anything you want to hear ... but nothing will happen," Scott said during a campaign stop in South Florida on Thursday. "He will get nothing done."