The RP’s Weekly Web Gems- The Politics of the States

This week’s Republican National Convention has exposed a large and growing rift between former allies George LeMieux and Charlie Crist.

It’s convention season, so Florida was bound to have some interesting problems. When Charlie Crist publicly endorse President Obama and began to slam the Republican Party (his former party) a few days ahead the Republican National Convention, George LeMieux, former US Senator from Florida and advisor to Mr. Crist, responded with a scathing editorial. LeMieux claims “this isn’t the Charlie Crist I knew” in a letter to the Tampa Bay Times, lamenting his former boss’s shift from a “Reagan Conservative to an Obama Liberal.” Worth noting: Crist lives in St. Petersburg, mere miles from the location of the ongoing convention. [Tampa Bay Times]

Across the country, the California delegation to the RNC has been given an unusual role: All 172 members have been deputized in the fight against renegade Ron Paul delegates.Why California? For starters, the state has the largest delegation at the convention (not a surprise), and by far the largest that is entirely pro-Romney. (Texas, the next largest state, has so diverse a delegation as to include Gov. Jon Huntsman’s only convention delegate.) There is also, of course, some state pride to this: Because the state is so strongly Democratic, its delegates tend to be ignored at Republican conventions; this is one of their few opportunities to shine. [Sacramento Bee]

We haven’t been to Wisconsin in a while, so it’s probably time for something else absurd to happen there. They certainly don’t disappoint. Since assuming his current position a month ago, Capitol Police Chief Dave Erwin has called for enforcement of Madison’s often-ignored permit policy, effectively kicking out many protestors. Lest you think this is simply Erwin being harsh, know that the same groups of protestors have been visiting the Capitol daily for the past 18 months, wandering the halls and shouting at Republican lawmakers. (Capitol Police have also begun installing panic buttons in legislators’ offices.) [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]