Wexler political op Eric Johnson joins Crist
05/20/2010
As expected, Gov. Charlie Crist has hired Democratic political operative Eric Johnson (seen on the left with Robert Wexler) to run Crist's South Florida campaign.
Johnson has been involved in South Florida politics ever since he became a candidate for Palm Beach County School Board at the age of 19.
Nearly 20 years later, Johnson has developed a solid reputation as one of the top political operatives in the region. He helped the very popular former U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler stay in office and was instrumental in helping to elect Ted Deutch to replace Wexler.
Johnson has been involved in a host of other South Florida races and is now has his own Washington-based consulting firm.
Crist and Wexler are close friends. Wexler left congress to work for a Middle East think tank in Washington. The fact that Johnson is now working for Crist will be a strong sign to South Florida condo leaders that Wexler is backing Crist.
That's not good news for U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek who needs the heavily-voting Jewish condos to line for him if he becomes the Democratic nominee. Johnson and the as yet unspoken support of Wexler is a combination that could pull a signficant chunk of Democratic votes to Crist.
While these are votes that would not go to Republican Marco Rubio, the former state House Speaker must be keeping a wary eye on the coalition that Crist is trying to build among various voting groups.
In a three way race, the winner only needs a bit more than a third of the vote.
Meek still has to contend with billionaire Jeff Greene whose unexpected decision to run in the Democratic primary is creating uncertainty Meek doesn't need.
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