Crist Thanks Friends, Asks for Patience
By Mary Ellen Klas and Gary Fineout, The Miami Herald
Jan. 2–TALLAHASSEE — Displaying the same affable style as he did on the campaign trail, Charlie Crist kicked off his inauguration day with an early morning prayer breakfast at which he thanked others and asked that Floridians realize that he will make mistakes during the next four years as governor.
“I’ve got all these prepared comments . . . and I’m just going from the heart, which sometimes is good to do,” Crist said at the close of the event held on the campus of Florida A&M University, the historically black college just south of the Capitol.
Crist thanked those on hand at the event, including both of Florida’s U.S. senators, Bill Nelson and Mel Martinez, and pledged to reach out to Democrats.
“We are from both sides of the aisle but we are going to work together,” said Crist, who also noted the attendance of Alex Sink, a Democrat who will be sworn in later today as the state’s chief financial officer.
Noting that he scrapped plans to hold a lavish inaugural ball after reports detailed how his fundraising team was asking for large donations, Crist told the crowd his administration will make mistakes in the next four years.
“Be patient with us. We will make mistakes from time to time,” he said. “We’re human and that’s how it is. We were going to have a ball tonight, but we’re not. Hope you don’t mind.”
Crist, who has been Florida’s attorney general for the past four years, will be sworn into office around noon on the east portico of Florida’s Old Capitol.
The inaugural ceremonies began at 10:30 a.m. Crist and the Cabinet officers will take the oath of office from state Supreme Court Chief Justice Fred Lewis.
Joining Crist will be Sink and Bill McCollum, who will take the oath as the new attorney general. The returning veteran is Charles Bronson, who was reelected agriculture commissioner.
The governor-elect and his lieutenant governor, Jeff Kottkamp, took a run-through on the rain-soaked lawn of the Old Capitol Monday afternoon. Crist won’t say what his inaugural speech will be about but has hinted that he will continue to take a centrist tack that focuses on inclusiveness and bipartisanship to address the top issues he believes are facing the state: soaring property insurance and property taxes.
Crist will be the first unmarried governor to take office since Republican Claude Kirk, who married six weeks later in 1967. But Crist will be just one of seven bachelors to reside in Florida’s governor’s office. Three of Florida’s governors, Harrison Reed, Fuller Warren and Kirk, married while in office. Three others, William Dunn Moseley, Marcellus Lovejoy Stearns and Albert Waller Gilchrist were single throughout their term, although Moseley was a widower.
The new governor will be joined on the podium by his parents and three sisters, as well as outgoing Gov. Jeb Bush and Bush’s family.
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Copyright (c) 2007, The Miami Herald
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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