On the same day that Rick Scott's half-a-million dollar television and online ad goes live in the Tampa Bay area and three other major media markets across the state, his likely Democratic challenger for governor this fall, Charlie Crist has now unveiled his own Spanish language website.
“Today, we launched CharlieCrist.com/espanol with the goal of spreading Charlie's message to even more people,” Omar Khan, Crist’s campaign manager, informed supporters in an email on Wednesday. “Almost 20 percent of Floridians speak Spanish — I bet you know at least a few people who have been waiting to get involved until the information was available in the language they're most comfortable in.”
The Scott campaign also has their own Spanish speaking website,RickScottPorLaFlorida.com (The initial post failed to mention that).
The battle for the Latino vote has become an issue in the state Legislature this week, with the attempt to provide in-state tuition rates for undocumented students in Florida colleges and universities that is still up in the air with just a little over a week to go.
This morning the Republican Party of Florida's Susan Hepworth sent out an email to reporters blasting Crist for another flip-flop - this time on this particular issue. At a Tiger Bay Club speech in Tallahassee yesterday, the former governor said of the Legislature's efforts on the bill that “They’ve got less than two weeks to do the right thing.”
However Hepworth points out that in 2006 Crist said Florida lawmakers did the "right thing" when they opposed such legislation. Of course, he's hardly the only legislator to change his tune as the importance of the Hispanic vote has grown here in Florida and nationally.
Governor Scott campaigned on getting a tough "Arizona-style" immigration bill when he campaigned in 2010 and pushed hard for its passage in 2011. He's since dropped any discussion of such legislation.