Democrats Warming to Charlie Crist?

A phone call late last week from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to Florida governor Charlie Crist, a newly independent candidate for Senate, has some asking whether Crist could become the preferred Democratic candidate.

On Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported on the call, which people in the know described as just a friendly conversation. Crist, once a popular Republican, recently switched to an independent candidacy after lagging in polling behind his more conservative Senate primary challenger, Marco Rubio.

However, since the governor dropped the Republican label, the Journal reports, "In the Florida race, Crist is ahead in the polls, and he has not ruled out caucusing with the Democrats should he win. Some Democrats have been calling the White House in recent days to suggest that Crist is the Democrats' best hope of preventing Republican candidate Marco Rubio from winning the contest."

The Democratic senate candidate, Rep. Kendrick Meek, placed last in a Mason-Dixon poll on Thursday, with 19%, compared to 38% for Crist and 32% for Rubio.

Thus far, reports the Journal, President Barack Obama supports Meek, who is African-American and campaigned for Hillary Clinton in 2008. But some Democrats left recent conversations with the White House under the impression that the "level of passion" invested in Meek might be negotiable.