Gov.  Charlie Crist took a stab last week at saying where he stood as a U.S. Senate candidate on one of Washington’s most contentious issues: whether to involve the federal government further in providing health care.

Florida health insurance has nearly 4 million uninsured residents. And according to a new Families USA report, 3,500 more each week are losing their insurance or dropping it because premiums have doubled in the past decade.

With national Democrats blanketing Florida health insurancewith television commercials urging Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson to back the Obama administration’s public health-care plan that would compete with the private sector, Crist has mostly dodged the complex issue. But last week, he held up his year-old Cover Florida program as a national model for how Congress and the White House should act.

“I’d like to see more private-sector involvement. I think that what we’ve done in Florida can be a pretty good model,” Crist told reporters. “The real concern here is to make sure the people have access to health care that’s affordable. Through our Cover Florida program, we’ve shown a way to do it where you don’t have to increase taxes.”

Basically, Cover Florida has induced private carriers to put together no-frills packages that cost as little as $150 a month. Critics say that, for anyone with serious health issues, these bare-bones policies remain unaffordable. In its first year, the program enrolled just over 3,200 people through the end of May — less than the number who lose coverage each week.

AG race
Orlando state Rep. Scott Randolph is endorsing Sen. Dave Aronberg in his Democratic primary with fellow state Sen. Dan Gelber for attorney general.

“Dave has shown an interest in running for AG for several years now, and I’ve always told him I’d support him,” Randolph said.

Gelber, a Miami Beach Democrat, jumped into the race late after being urged not to run a divisive primary challenge against U.S. Rep Kendrick Meek for the U.S. Senate seat coming open next year.

Aronberg, D- Greenacres, said he considered the endorsement a big one because Randolph and his wife, Susannah, are influential grass-roots organizers in Central Florida. Susannah is a deputy director of U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson’sOrlando office, and the Randolphs have helped give Democrats a string of recent wins.

“Scott has a track record of working really hard and having electoral success,” Aronberg said.

Gelber has racked up endorsements from Tampa and South Florida legislators, and landed on the Florida Trend magazine’s list of 918 “Legal Elite” lawyers for 2009.

Plane flap not over
Local lawmakers are getting deeper into the air attack against Democratic gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink’suse of state planes.

In case you’ve tuned out the criticism, Republicans have been hammering Sink about reports that she used state planes to pick up family members and catch a connecting flight to the Bahamas. Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill McCollum has so far said nothing. He hasn’t had to.

Sink announced last week her office had investigated and determined she did nothing wrong — though her campaign was reimbursing taxpayers for $17,022 in flights where she mixed public and political business.

State Rep. Mike Horner, R- Kissimmee, then sent a public-records request to CFO Sink’s office asking for copies of the investigative files generated from her internal inquiry. Horner and a handful of other House Republicans including Rep. Chris Dorworth, R- Lake Mary, had asked for an outside investigation.