Charlie Crist cuts Hillsborough elections chief list to six for interviews
July 10, 2009 at 6:18 am by Wayne Garcia
Applicants Sandy Murman, left, and Victor Crist.
As Charlie Crist looks to appoint an interim replacement for the late Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections Phyllis Busansky, the governor has trimmed a list of 22 applicants to six people — four Republicans, two Democrats — who will get job interviews.
The list includes some frontrunners for the position — Republicans state Sen. Victor Crist (no relation to Charlie) and former state House member Sandy Murman (full disclosure: both are past clients of my former political consulting firm). Others who will get some interview time with the gov and/or his staff are Republicans Chris Hart, a former Hillsborough County commissioner, and Earl Lennard, former superintendent of Hillsborough County Schools; and Democrats Craig Latimer, a former high-ranking Sheriff’s Office official and Busansky’s No. 2 in the current office, and Bob “Coach” Henriquez, a high school football coach, teacher, state bureaucrat and former state House member.
As I wrote in our print edition this week, I expect Gov. Crist to have to appoint a Republican, as he is embroiled in a primary election for the U.S. Senate nomination in 2010. If there is any good news for Latimer, a favorite among those who mourn the loss of Busansky, it is yesterday’s fundraising ass-whupping that Crist put on his challenger, Marco Rubio, that will take some pressure off Crist’s need to appoint a conservative Republican.
