What's with all the prominent Republicans unable to even make it through their first terms? Today Mel Martinez joins the club of lame-duck GOPers unwilling to be dead fish going with the flow, and instead is going to maverick his way on up and out of the Senate:
He made the announcement at a morning staff meeting, where he said he will not be returning to the Senate after the August recess.
Martinez announced he wasn't seeking re-election to the Senate last December, but he had insisted that he would be serving out the remainder of his term, which expires in 2011.
Martinez is reportedly interested in the presidency of Florida St. University, which opened up in June. So he may already have lined that up, or maybe he's just decided to jump out of the plane first and find out the color of his parachute on the way down. (Can life in the minority really be that bad?) Well, like the refrigerator magnet says, he doesn't need to explain himself to his enemies.
So now the big question is: what does Charlie Crist do? Florida doesn't have a fast special election law like Texas, so Crist has to appoint someone for the remaining year and a half of Martinez's term. With Crist already running for the open seat in 2010, there's certainly the possibility he could appoint himself. He'll have to weigh, though, whether that would help or hurt him for 2010, whether any incumency advantage he'd gain would outweigh the perceived impropriety of appointing himself. If he doesn't appoint himself, who's a likely elder-statesperson placeholder he might appoint? He wouldn't want to appoint anyone who might turn around and decide to stay in the Senate, and he wouldn't want to appoint anyone too moderate either, as he doesn't want to rile up an already hostile Republican base, seeing as how his most immediate problem in 2010 is getting past Marco Rubio's primary challenge from the right. (Discussion underway in DTMB!'s diary.)
UPDATE (James L.): The Associated Press confirms that Crist will not appoint himself to the big show. Smart move on his part -- right now, he's the likely GOP nominee and the likely Senator-elect come November 2010. A self-appointment would only create controversy.
LATER UPDATE: The Palm Beach Post fingers FSU Board of Trustees Chairman (and ex-state AG) Jim Smith as Crist's likely choice for placeholder.
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