'Dear God,' Florida thanks you'Charlie'

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'Dear God,' Florida thanks you'Charlie'

by Mark Silva

This one reminds us of Bill Gunter, a former insurance commissioner and good Baptist in Florida who was running for Senate and happily told a ballroom full of elderly Jewish voters in South Florida once that he had met his wife in Israel.

On a tour bus. She was American.

So who says the Republicans won't have a prayer in next year's Senate races?

Charlie Crist, the Christian (Methodist) governor of Florida who is running for Senate in 2010, has a suggestion for why Florida has been spared major hurricanes on his watch.

The governor told some real estate agents in Orlando today that he has had prayer notes placed in the Western Wall in Jerusalem each year, and no major storms have hit Florida. Just before his election in 2006, the former attorney general and state legislator noted, Florida had been affected by eight hurricanes alone in 2004 and 2005.

"Do you know the last time it was we had a hurricane in Florida? It's been awhile. In 2007, I took my first trade mission. Do you know where I went?" said Crist, telling of his trip to the Western Wall and inserting a note with a prayer. He said it read, "Dear God, please protect our Florida from storms and other difficulties. Charlie."

"Time goes on -- May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December -- no hurricanes," Crist said. "Thank God."

Last year, when state Sen. Nan Rich was traveling to Israel and Crist asked her to place another note in the Western Wall. "It was the same note, by the way,'' Crist said, "the same prayer.

This year he gave a friend bound for Israel another note.

"You can do it on the Internet now,'' Crist noted. "but I'd rather have it physically in there.''

The note went in in May.

"May, June, July, August -- we're getting closer," the governor said today. "Knock on wood. I would ask you all to say a prayer."

Afterward, he conceded that he's not taking real credit for the absence of storms in his hurricane-prone state.

"I give that to God," Crist said. "But it's nice."

( With thanks, and apologies, to Brendan Farrington of the Associated Press. Photo of Florida Gov. Charlie Crist at the announcement of Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) that he will step down before his term ends by Chris O'Meara / )