Crist Party-Switch Prompts Position Flips
<strong>Health Care Reform:</strong> Following Florida Gov. Charlie Crist's <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/charlie-crist-florida-senate_n_555412#s90011" target="_hplink">decision</a> to drop his affiliation with the GOP and pursue an independent Senate campaign, <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/topic/charlie-crist" target="_hplink">the election hopeful</a> has shifted his stance on a host of different issues. On the issue of health care reform, in July, Crist unambiguously <a href="http://www.charliecrist.com/blog/my-position-on-the-obama-health-care-bill" target="_hplink">wrote</a> in a blog post on his campaign website, "Had I been in the United States Senate at the time, I would have voted against the bill." About a month later, the independent candidate said just the opposite in an interview with with a Florida-based television station. "I would have voted for it," he <a href="http://www.cfnews13.com/article/news/2010/august/143131/News-13-Exclusive:-Gov.-Crist-talks-to-News-13" target="_hplink">said</a>. Hours after making the remarks, Crist faltered on his position once again, <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/senate-races/116145-crist-says-he-misspoke-on-healthcare-" target="_hplink">claiming</a> that he "misspoke" in sharing his view.
<strong>Offshore Oil Drilling:</strong> During his 2006 campaign for Florida's governorship, Crist <a href="http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/state/article633650.ece" target="_hplink">suggested</a> that he would never support drilling for oil off the coast of the Sunshine State. But in 2008, standing alongside then-GOP presidential hopeful John McCain, Crist <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121372245926581441.html" target="_hplink">voiced support</a> for efforts to drill and joined calls to lift a decades-old drilling ban over the rising price of gas. The Florida hopeful flipped his position once again in the wake of the BP oil spill in the Gulf Coast earlier this year. He <a href="http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2010/10/charlie-crist-pans-decision-to-lift-the-drilling-ban.html" target="_hplink">said</a> it was crucial for a drilling moratorium to be firmly in place, explaining, "We simply cannot afford another spill."
<strong>More issues sparking Crist shifts:</strong> a <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2010/08/30/crist-marriage/" target="_hplink">constitutional ban</a> on same-sex marriage, <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2010/05/27/crist-support-repeal-dadt/" target="_hplink">repealing</a> "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," the <a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2010/10/charlie_crist_flip_flops_on_sa.html" target="_hplink">competency</a> of Sarah Palin, and of course, the matter of <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/charlie-crist-could-win-e_n_539122" target="_hplink">whether he'd ever run for Senate as an independent</a>.
