Florida governor fights for Everglades amid U.S. Senate race

A panel that oversees Everglades restoration is set to decide Thursday whether to kill the state's proposed $536 million deal to buy 73,000 acres from U.S. Sugar Corp. The proposal, much trumpeted by Crist, has already been cut by more than half from the initial plan announced in 2008, which was $1.75 billion for about 180,000 acres and the company's assets.

This week's board meeting of the South Florida Water Management District comes with Crist locked in a close contest for the GOP nomination for Senate. While the board is likely to vote to keep the plan alive, at least for now, the shaky proposal has been hammered by critics.

Crist's campaign has already been hurt by the slumping economy. Florida's unemployment rate has matched an all-time high and the state has a foreclosure rate among the highest in the country. He has also lost support among conservative voters by appearing with President Barack Obama to promote the $787 billion federal stimulus package, a bill most Republicans opposed.

Recognizing that at least some of his political fate is connected to the Everglades plan, the usually easygoing governor has grown defiant in the face of criticism that the deal is too expensive and will kill other key restoration projects.

"It doesn't matter what it looks like to the detractors," Crist told The Associated Press. "They're trying to stop it, for whatever reason. I really don't give a damn."

Even if the deal goes through, it could hurt his campaign, as his opponent, former state House Speaker Marco Rubio, has criticized it as a colossal waste of taxpayer money to bail out a struggling sugar company.

It was a bold idea from the start: buy out the nation's largest cane sugar producer, and use the land to help clean polluted water entering the Everglades, something the state and federal governments have tried to do incrementally for years. It has since been downsized twice because of the sour economy.

Critics have questioned Crist's motives, claiming they're more politics than preservation. They contend, among other things, the cost has been inflated by U.S. Sugar executives hoping to pad their pockets, knowing the governor wants the land regardless. They say it will stall other key projects because the state won't have any money left to construct the reservoirs and water treatment marshes needed for restoration, making the entire proposal a boondoggle.

"I think he's killing restoration virtually forever," said Dexter Lehtinen, an attorney for the Miccosukee Indians, who live in the Everglades and are fighting the land deal in court alongside Florida Crystals, U.S. Sugar's main rival.