The St Petersburg Times in Florida is certain that Charlie Crist, the state's governor, will tomorrow announce that he is leaving the Republican party and running as an independent for Florida's vacant senate seat in November.

The paper's politics blog reports: "Gov Charlie Crist expected to announce Thursday in St Petersburg that he will run as an independent candidate for Florida's open US Senate seat". It explains:

Crist's nonpartisan bid would allow him to forego an anticipated thrashing by former House Speaker Marco Rubio in the GOP primary and pave the way for a potentially competitive three-way contest against Rubio as the likely GOP nominee and US Rep Kendrick Meek of Miami as the likely Democrat. That means Florida's next senator could be elected November 2 with as little as 34% of the vote, upending the usual quest for mass appeal in an increasingly diverse state of 11 million voters.

Quite what this means for Florida and the Republican party remains to be seen. Just under two years ago Crist was mentioned as a possible vice presidential running mate for John McCain. Now he's out of the party. It's a Republican version of Joe Lieberman.

