CRIST DOESN'T MAKE BI-COASTAL SCHEDULE; CHOOSES FUNDRAISER AND MAKES PALM BEACH REPUBS UNHAPPY

The Palm Beach Post political blog Q makes note this morning that Attorney General and Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist made members of the Palm Beach County Republican Executive Committee unhappy this week when he turned out to be a no-show at their meeting as scheduled...but ended up in Sarasota for a campaign fundraising event.

“I’m not happy,” county GOP Chairman Sid Dinerstein said, but he wasn’t going to doubt the Crist camp’s explanation because “I’m a benefit-of-the-doubt kind of guy.”

Crist's operatives say the AG had planned to make both events Wednesday evening, as Q notes:

"...Crist had been scheduled to huddle with about 20 Palm Beach County Republicans from 5:45 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. Wednesday, then schmooze with other party activists until 6:45 p.m., when the party’s monthly meeting began. He was supposed to speak at the beginning of the meeting and duck out by 7:15 p.m. The Crist campaign said the candidate then planned to hop a charter to Sarasota and arrive sometime after 8 p.m. at his fund-raiser there.

"But [Tropical Storm] Alberto compelled Crist to remain on the west coast Wednesday to take care of AG-related tasks, such as combatting price-gouging, Crist campaign spokeswoman Vivian Myrtetus said. While he couldn’t make it to West Palm Beach, he was close enough to Sarasota to get to the fund-raiser, Myrtetus said.