As Senate campaign shifts into high gear, Crist spending less time as governor

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TALLAHASSEE - In his final months as governor, Charlie Crist is phoning it in -- literally.

As his U.S. Senate campaign shifts into high gear, Crist's official daily work schedule shows him spending less and less time as governor, and more and more time checking in with his aides from the campaign trail.

Crist's schedule for the past month shows no official events on 11 weekdays and only one event on six other days.

A day-by-day review shows that even on most days his schedule showed him working, he did not have a crowded calendar.

On Aug. 3, he attended one event, a tourism roundtable in Fort Lauderdale -- one of only two events in the past six weeks focusing on Florida's economic problems.

The next day, Crist's sole public event was a visit to Miami Jewish Health Systems. The day after that, he conducted site visits of two facilities in St. Petersburg and Sarasota, and the following day, Aug. 6, his only official event was a press conference in Orlando.

On 11 days, the only item of official business was a telephone call to Shane Strum, his chief of staff. He met with heads of executive branch agencies on Sept. 2, the first such meeting since July 21.

This from a governor who four years ago used an empty chair to symbolize missed votes in Congress by his Democratic opponent, Jim Davis. In that 2006 campaign, Crist promised Floridians: ``I'll work for you every day.''

Despite the light schedule lately, Crist says he has kept that commitment, through the use of his cell phone.

``I've been in constant touch with the office every day, several times a day. That's my duty and my obligation to the people of Florida,'' he said. ``As long as I've got my phone with me, I'm never not governor.''

Crist has been using that line ever since the news media began questioning the amount of time he has scheduled off since he was sworn into office on Jan. 2, 2007. Three days later -- a Friday -- he took the day off.

A St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald analysis of his daily work schedule shows he has scheduled no work for 123 days -- a number that excludes weekends but includes conventional holiday time. On 238 other days, Crist worked half days or less -- equal to an additional 164 days off.

Added together, Crist's schedule indicates he has taken off an average of more than 14 weeks annually over four years, though his term isn't finished. Crist has worked some weekends -- often attending luncheons or parades -- and has put in days where he has worked more than 8 hours. But that overtime work is eclipsed by the equivalent time off he took on 250 other days in which he worked less than 8 hours but slightly more than a half day.

On Tuesday, a typical day of late, Crist had no events on his official schedule. He met with members of a pipe fitters' and plumbers' union in Miami-Dade and spoke to a group of retired New York City police officers in Margate.

On Wednesday, Crist had one official event: a speech to hotel owners in Palm Beach County.

Florida's economy remains deep in the doldrums, and Crist has come under fire from legislative leaders for not advancing more specific steps to help Panhandle-area businesses and residents recover from the oil spill. Both political parties have ripped Crist for campaigning too much.

Both of Crist's U.S. Senate rivals, former state Rep. Marco Rubio and U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, criticized his slack schedule. Recalling Crist's pledge in 2006 to ``come to work every day,'' Rubio campaign spokesman Alex Burgos said: ``It's clear that was just another thing he was willing to say to get elected.''

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