Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera comes to Nan Rich defense

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I gotta admit, it sounds kinda strange to hear Republican Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera — who is doing radio rounds this week to push the guv’s campaign — defend former Democrat Sen. Nan Rich, who is running for the top state post in the primary.

But then I realized he was really giving front runner and former Gov. Charlie Crist una galleta sin mano.

That’s just what the former state rep and most recent Miami-Dade Property Appraiser — tapped earlier this year for Gov. Rick Scott‘s No. 2 — did Wednesday morning, in his accented Spanish (but he’s gotten much better very quickly), on Radio Mambi with host Lourdes de Kendall as they discussed frontrunner Charlie Crist’s refusal to debate Rich (though I don’t know why she kept calling him vice mayor).

“Democratic voters deserve, in a debate, to hear from a real Democrat, which is Nan Rich,” C-Lo said. “Remember, Charlie was first a Republican, then he was an Independent and now he is a Democrat. I don’t know how many parties he has left to go through.”

Tough to imagine Crist turning Libertarian but, hey, it’s not impossible. Meanwhile, he has repeatedly refused to debate Rich, which is an old campaign trick to make the other candidate seem less relevant.

“Nan Rich wants to ask Crist some difficult questions but he doesn’t want to answer,” Lopez-Cantera said. “But voters deserve it to really know which is their candidate.”

We get it, C-Lo. We get it. Scott would much rather face Rich on the ballot in November.

  Carlos Lopez-Cantera, Charlie Crist, Nan Rich, Rick Scott