Senator Allan Bense?

Washington Post blogger and former Mouthpiece Theater cohost Chris Cillizza adds another name to the list of possible politicos Charlie Crist could appoint to Mel Martinez's soon-to-be-vacated Senate seat: former state Rep. Allan Bense.Add that to a list that already includes Jim Smith, Gov. Bob Martinez, George Lemieux, Dan Webster,...

By Kyle Munzenrieder

August 10, 2009

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Washington Post blogger and former Mouthpiece Theater cohost Chris Cillizza adds another name to the list of possible politicos Charlie Crist could appoint to Mel Martinez's soon-to-be-vacated Senate seat: former state Rep. Allan Bense.

Add that to a list that already includes Jim Smith, Gov. Bob Martinez, George Lemieux, Dan Webster, and (the unlikely) Jeb Bush. Bense served in the state House of Representatives from 1998 until 2006, a run that was capped with a stint as speaker of the house right before Marco Rubio took the title. Some high-profile Repubs tried to encourage Bense to run for Senate in 2006, partially just to stave off the embarassment of Katherine Harris. Bense is currently chairman of the board for James Madison Institute, a free-market think tank based in Tallahassee.

Cillizza says Bense is "the hot name at the moment in Florida political circles."

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