Lenny Curry’s resignation as RPOF Chairman to pursue the Mayor’s seat in Jacksonville currently held by Democrat Alvin Brown is the talk of Florida political circles today. We will have plenty of time to discuss this in coming months, but Curry may simply be getting out ahead of a storm if  Charlie Crist is elected in November.

The 60-day legislative session ends today in Tallahassee. This is the time of the year when Florida’s citizens are most under threat from the over reaching hand of ideologues in state government whose mantra of “less government and lower taxes,” usually means the opposite. This session was relatively tame compared to some in the past when right-wing ideologues such as Tom Feeney, Marco Rubio, Johnny Byrd and Mike Haridopolos ran roughshod. However, it very well could be the end of a lamentable era for the state of Florida. 

As was reported earlier this week, Charlie Crist’s lead over Rick Scott is once again growing in a hypothetical Gubernatorial matchup. The news was met with panic among some of the lobbyists and consultants who have profited handsomely off the culture of entitlement that has permeated the legislature and executive branch since the 1998 election when the GOP achieved total control over both branches. Events have ebbed and flowed through that period, with moderate Republicans fighting conservative Republicans and sometimes winning, thus sparing the state greater pain. However, throughout the entire period a class of corporate oriented insiders have continued to gain a stranglehold on the state. Term limits in the legislature has coincided with trend, thus giving the insiders an even greater control over proceedings.

While Charlie Crist was long part of this power structure and doubts continue to persist among some progressive activists statewide about his true ideology, official Tallahassee is by-in-large petrified of his possible return to office. It is said that nothing can quite be equated to the zeal of a convert. The fear is that Crist is a truly different man who will come back to town and shake up the apple cart in ways unknown to a whole generation of insiders who have profited off unchecked Republican rule in the Capitol.

A Crist victory will make incoming House Democratic Leader Mark Pafford and incoming Senate Democratic Leader Arthenia Joyner more relevant in the process than their most recent  predecessors have been and will also give individual Democratic legislators in both chambers more influence on the process.

A certain state of denial is also taking place among some Republicans and Republican supporting groups. Associated Industries of Florida has made clear they believe much of the public polling is flawed in the Governor’s race. Earlier this week an email went out from Ryan Tyson who is largely responsible for AIF’s political operations in which the polling methodology was questioned.  The email read similarly to memos that GOP leaning groups sent out in 2006 and 2012 questioning the public polls in those cycles. In both of the years, the polling average was closer to the Democratic number.

Irrespective of the faith in the polling, a clear sense of concern has begun to set in among Tallahassee insiders. A Crist victory while not certain could spell doom for business as usual and the culture that has overtaken the capital city in the last 16 years. An era may be ending later today.