Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp Will Endorse Marco Rubio, Hasn't Spoken to Charlie Crist in Months

Kottkamp (right) and Crist (left) in happier times with some old guy, we think Sarah Palin's grandpa.

​Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp will betray the man who helped raise the former Ft. Myers-area state rep from political obscurity to, um, political semi-obscurity by announcing he's endorsing Marco Rubio for Senate. Kottkamp was little known before Charlie Crist chose him as his running mate in 2006. Though now that Crist has left the Republican party to run against Rubio, the governor and lieutenant governor haven't spoken in months.

The announcement will be made Wednesday by email, according to Fox News.

It's not exactly surprising. Kottkamp is running for attorney general, and just weeks before the primary, the Republican nomination is wide open. Kottcamp, Pam Bondi, and Holly Benson are locked in a virtual three-way tie, and hitching himself to Rubio's wagon isn't a bad way to raise Kottkamp's cachet among Republican primary voters. In fact, the endorsement might do more for Kottkamp than for Rubio.

Kottkamp continues to claim he has barely spoken to Crist since the governor left the Republican party earlier this year to seek the Senate seat as an independent.

"He's my friend," Kottkamp said in June. "But I don't see him very often."