It’s not clear to which voters Charlie Crist will appeal. He’s burned his bridges with the GOP. And his independent status isn’t gaining him any new supporters:

The labor union AFL-CIO has endorsed a Democrat in the race for Florida’s open U.S. Senate seat after an unusual sales pitch by the state’s governor, who’s running as an independent. The labor union chose on Sunday to back U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek in the Senate race. Meek served seven years in the state Legislature before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2002.The decision comes two days after Gov. Charlie Crist appeared before the union’s leaders to ask for their support. Crist, a lifelong Republican until this month, had never before sought the help of the union that typically endorses Democrats.

Big Labor is savvy enough to know that Crist is an untrustworthy ally. The labor bosses, not unreasonably, may figure that Crist is headed for third place. And even if Meek loses (quite likely), Big Labor won’t have burned its bridges with its devoted beneficiary, the Democratic Party. In politics, loyalty counts for something. Perhaps Florida voters, unlike those who turned out for primaries in Pennsylvania and Arkansas, have a yen for mushy moderates with no defined ideology other than self-promotion. But I doubt it.