{"id":56021,"date":"2022-11-05T16:22:34","date_gmt":"2022-11-05T20:22:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=56021"},"modified":"2022-11-05T16:22:42","modified_gmt":"2022-11-05T20:22:42","slug":"florida-newspapers-line-up-behind-charlie-crist-in-governors-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2022\/11\/florida-newspapers-line-up-behind-charlie-crist-in-governors-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Newspapers Line Up Behind Charlie Crist In Governor’s Race"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Democrat Charlie Crist has picked up more endorsements by Florida newspapers \u2014 this time from the Tampa Bay Times, under the headline: \u201cA decent man or a bully?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Previously, the Miami Herald<\/a> and the Palm Beach Post<\/a> recommended voting for Crist, who served as governor as a Republican between 2007 and 2011 before becoming a Democrat and winning election to the U.S. House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m incredibly grateful to earn the support of my hometown paper, the Tampa Bay Times, as we work to defeat Ron DeSantis\u2019s divisive games and bring decency back to the Sunshine State,\u201d Crist said in a written statement. \u201cFloridians are good people and deserve a governor who will unite them, not divide for his own political ambitions \u2014 I\u2019ll be that governor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, Crist continues to trail the Republican incumbent in the polls<\/a> and lags far behind in fundraising<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two major Florida newspapers \u2014 the Orlando Sentinel and South Florida Sun-Sentinel, published by the Tribune Co. \u2014 have announced a corporate dictate to withhold endorsements<\/a> in the races for governor and U.S. Senate this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lehigh Acres Gazette and Lakeland Gazette both have endorsed Crist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not clear newspaper endorsements carry weight any more, Susan MacManus, professor emerita of politics at the University of South Florida, said in a telephone interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor older voters, endorsements still matter, and for people who read newspapers and love their newspapers, endorsements can matter, but those are often people who also have already made up their minds about who they\u2019re going to vote for,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCritical is trying to reach this younger one-third of our registrants who often don\u2019t read newspapers and rely on other sources. That doesn\u2019t really target them like they need to be targeted right now for Democrats. Democrats cannot win statewide races in Florida without having a substantial portion of the younger vote, and the younger vote is harder to turn out in a midterm election. But they\u2019re not going to do it through newspaper endorsements,\u201d MacManus said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DeSantis campaign has not responded to a request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Times editorial board noted that DeSantis won election in 2018 with 49.6 percent of the vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn other words, more people voted for someone else. We thought that might encourage him to build consensus. Instead, he doubled-down on the tribalism that plagues too much of today\u2019s politics,\u201d the board wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe wanted to believe in him, for the good of the state. But he has always acted as if he won in a landslide, with a mandate not just to govern but to rule. It is not enough for him to win. He has to crush those who oppose him, whoever they are.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The editorial calls Crist \u201ca decent man who always asks, \u2018What do you think?\u2019 or \u2018What would you do?\u2019 That\u2019s not DeSantis\u2019 style. Crist will compromise, which is essential to the long-term health of Florida. At heart, he is a uniter. DeSantis is not. He divides to conquer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It concludes: \u201cDo you want the state governed by a decent man or a bully? The Tampa Bay Times recommends voting for Charlie Crist, a man of decency, for governor.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democrat Charlie Crist has picked up more endorsements by Florida newspapers \u2014 this time from the Tampa Bay Times, under the headline: \u201cA decent man or a bully?\u201d Previously, the Miami… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":56022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[1898],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56021"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56021"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56024,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56021\/revisions\/56024"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}