Indy Crist is keeping his stash. Now what?

On Wednesday, Charlie Crist officially changed his party registration to no affiliation. Not much to see. I guess it will stop people (like me) from repeating ad nauseam that he truly isn't an independent, that he is still secretly a Republican. Well now he is genuinely a man without a party.

Probably the bigger news this week is that he won't return any donations, but that doesn't surprise me so much. I know it will piss off many of those donors who only supported Crist knowing he would caucus with the GOP. Such outrage occurs every time someone switches parties, or in this instance, simply leaves the party. But if you step back and consider it from a political science viewpoint, candidates can't start giving back money every time supporters get angry at a particular action or stance. Yes, leaving the Republican primary was a big deal, but I know Florida politicians who have done worse things to upset supporters.

Remember Mark Foley? How about Willie Logan? These were men once beloved by their supporters, then despised overnight. After sex scandals hit the papers, you can understand how people who once were proud advocates of these men suddenly wanted to be disassociated with them. But it would have been impractical to refund money. Heck, in the case of Foley, the scandal broke a couple weeks before the election, so most of him money was spent already. And people forget that when campaigns spend cash, they don't mark every dollar to knowSusie's money went for radio time and and Bobby's went for a mailer last week. It gets spent from the same pot. And refund or not, nothing changes that money given to Crist has been spent to reserve airtime in October.

If I were a Republican and a supporter of Crist - and I am neither, so take this with a grain of salt - I would be more focused on ensuring he caucuses with Republicans should he be elected to the Senate. It struck me in the beginning, and I think Crist has been forthright about this, that his decision to run absent a primary was a strategic move. Crist believes himself the best general election candidate, good enough to win even with a designated Republican on the same ballot. But his entire career, he has been a Republican. He was elected to the Florida Senate in 1992 as a Republican, after all, and was in the minority there the majority of his years as a legislator. If he wanted to be in the Democratic caucus, he could have switched parties earlier this year and run against Kendrick Meek for that nomination. It seems half of Florida Democrats are supporting Crist right now, so he likely would have won that race easier than the primary against Rubio. But he didn't go Dem, and I think that means something.

For all of these reasons, I believed from the outset Crist would caucus with the Republicans regardless of how he won the race, but that seems less conclusive each passing day. As donors who were prepared to support a failing primary campaign say they want no part in a winning general election campaign, it gives the governor more reasons to go another way once he arrives in Washington.