Chuck Baldwin for U.S. Senate Special Appointment (FL)

As I'm sure most of you know by now, Senator Mel Martinez has announced that he will be retiring from his U.S. Senate seat before his term ends in 2011. This places Governor Crist in an interesting situation, seeing as he is now able to appoint someone to fill the seat: the very same seat that he will be seeking to win in the 2010 elections. I assume, then, that he does not want to appoint someone who he perceives as being a potential threat to his own candidacy for the seat (as a Republican may be). And yet he also cannot afford to appoint a Democrat to the seat, either; that would make him look bad to the Republican electorate in Florida, and also run the likely risk of damaging his own election chances. Under these unique circumstances, getting Governor Crist to appoint a third party conservative might be a genuine possibility. And who better than Florida resident and Constitution Party presidential (2008) and vice presidential (2004) candidate, Dr. Chuck Baldwin? Dr. Baldwin's 2008 presidential campaign --- again, as I'm sure most of you know --- was endorsed by Dr. Paul. I don't even know if he would accept this appointment if it were offered, but it's worth a try.

An article (Alex Newman. "The Fallout of Sen. Mel Martinez’s Resignation." The New American Magazine. August 10, 2009. Accessed August 10, 2009) at http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/usnews/congress/1626 suggests that the appointment is likely to be made by the time Congress returns from recess. We should immediately begin to flood Governor Crist, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) and NRSC Chairman Senator John Cornyn with letters/faxes/phone calls asking them to carefully consider Dr. Baldwin for the appointment. Key arguments to make are that this appointment would provide a genuine conservative to represent Florida, avoid the mistake of appointing a Democrat, show that Governor Crist can make independent decisions, and also help to lessen the risk of seriously threatening his own candidacy for the seat in 2010.

This is a unique opportunity, and because of Governor Crist's circumstances I believe that there is at least a realistic possibility that it theoretically might succeed, but we only have a short period to get Dr. Baldwin's name out there for consideration.

CONTACTS:

1. Governor Crist
http://www.flgov.com/contact_governor

2. National Republican Senatorial Committee
http://www.nrsc.org/about-the-nrsc.html (near the bottom of this page)

3. NRSC Chairman Senator John Cornyn
http://cornyn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact...