Republican Sen. Mel Martinez of Probably not positive news for the climate and clean energy bill. Martinez was, according to fivethirtyeight.com‘s Nate Silver, only a 6.89% “Probability of a Yes Vote” (see “Epic Battle 3: Who are the swing Senators?“) — but most political honchos I know put him at a straight “undecided.” That said, we have no idea who his replacement will be …
His decision puts Republican Gov. Charlie Crist “” who is running to replace Martinez “” in charge of filling the seat in the interim….
… his resignation will be “effective on a successor taking office to fill out the remainder of my term.”
Officials predicted that Crist, who faces a Republican primary challenge and a large field of Democratic contenders, would select a “placeholder” for the temporary assignment.
… except that he or she will be a placeholder chosen by one of the more climate-friendly GOP governors (see “Florida, Part 1: A 50% GHG cut by 2025 will SAVE the state $28 billion“).
So that person will be relatively free to vote their conscience on the single most important public decision that person will ever makes in their entire life, the one they’ll be remembered by for generations and generations to come — whether to try to save Florida from utter destruction.
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I live in Florida and although I am a lifetime registered Democrat, I have found myself favorably inclined towards Charlie Crist since he became governor. He has proven himself a man of intelligence and genuine concern who is willing to effect *true* compromise when faced with a tough problem that breaks along partisan lines. Whether or not he can maintain that posture as he competes with some of the more rabid GOP candidates who will be running against him in 2010 for the Senate remains to be seen.
Still, Crist has pushed forward the decades-long plan to truly restore the Everglades, spending billions of state funds on the project even as Florida was facing the same recession problems as the rest fo the country. He has also pushed hard for renewable energy initiatives and on his watch Florida implemented some of the most generous tax rebates in the nation for the purchase of solar and wind power systems for both commercial and residential. He has vision and integrity and so one would hope that he would take this opportunity to appoint a replacement for Martinez who can ignore the party politics and vote their conscience for the world’s future instead. Fingers crossed.
“whether to try to save Florida from utter destruction.”
It really is past time for accurate language like this.