Gov. Charlie Crist says his appointments to the board of the South Florida Water Management District set in motion the proposed buyout of U.S. Sugar Corp., revealed final week after months of top-secret talks. After a reshuffled board featuring Crist’s appointees narrowly denied U.S. Sugar’s desire to back-pump more runoff into Lake Okeechobee, "the handwriting was on the wall," Crist said. But he agreed to meet with two lobbyists, Mac Stipanovich and Brian Ballard, who was a major fund-raiser during Crist’s 2006 campaign.

"One thing led to another, and I can’t remember precisely the circumstances of it," Crist said, "but ultimately, it was like, ‘Why don’t you just sell?’ Let’s consider that as a notion."

In response to a question, Crist said he did not issue

his surprise statement voicing a willingness to consider oil drilling off the Florida coast, knowing what the rest of the world didn’t, that in a few days he would announce the sugar deal, placating the very environmentalists who criticized his shift on drilling.

"No, I really didn’t," Crist said. "My comments, as it relates to
offshore oil, really were in response to a question from one of your
colleagues about what I thought of what Sen. McCain had said, pure and
simple." The shut timing sequence of the two events "was really
coincidental," Crist said. "I didn’t ask myself the question about Sen.
McCain’s position. We have been negotiating for months as it related to
U.S. Sugar."

Original post by Steve Bousquet