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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Gov. Charlie Crist won’t be sleeping alone in the governor’s mansion much longer — he is engaged to a woman he met in New York City last September who quickly captured his heart.

Crist, 51, asked Carole Rome to marry him Thursday morning at his St. Petersburg apartment, giving her a blue sapphire ring surrounded by diamonds. She immediately said yes.

“I’m very happy and couldn’t be more pleased. What a great way to celebrate America’s birthday,” said Crist, who has been mentioned as a potential running mate for Republican presidential candidate John McCain. “We’ve been talking about it for quite a while. I asked her while we were looking out over Tampa Bay and I couldn’t think of a better place to do it.”

Rome, 38, is the president of Franco American Novelty Co., her family’s New York-area Halloween costume company, though she stopped managing its daily business when she moved to Fisher Island near Miami in 2006. Crist said they met at a dinner where he and friends were discussing fundraising.

Asked what made him fall in love, Crist said, “Her beautiful smile, her sweetness, her brilliance — all of it.”

Crist was briefly married while in college, but was divorced in less than a year. That experience contributed to the long wait between commitments.

“It made me be very selective, candidly. Those things tend to make you gun-shy a little bit, but I’m so blessed to have found such a wonderful woman,” Crist said. “It sure is great to find the right one.”

The couple has been seen together frequently, from a Jimmy Buffett concert in Tampa last November to sporting events and on the campaign trail with Republican presidential candidate John McCain. At a Republican Party of Florida dinner last month, Crist told a crowd of 700 donors that he is lucky to have Rome in his life.

The couple is discussing a fall ceremony. Crist said the wedding will likely be a more intimate gathering in St. Petersburg followed by a larger reception at the governor’s mansion.

“It will be awfully nice to have her at the mansion. It’s a big place to have to be alone in,” he said.

Crist took office in January 2007 and previously served as attorney general, education commissioner and in the state Senate.

Rome was previously married to Blue Star Jets president Todd Rome. She has two daughters, aged 9 and 11, but Crist said he hopes the couple has a child of their own someday.

Barack Obama addresses the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Miami, Fla., Saturday. (AP Photo)

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Barack Obama accused his Republican rival Saturday of opposing funding for levees and flood control because he considered those projects to be “pork.”

The Illinois senator took shots at John McCain while addressing the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Miami, Fla. There he criticized the Arizona senator for visiting flood victims in Iowa earlier in the week without giving them the funding they need to prevent such disasters.

“I’m sure they appreciated the sentiment, but they probably would have appreciated it even more if Senator McCain hadn’t opposed legislation to fund levees and flood control programs, which he considers pork,” Obama said.

“Cities across the Midwest are under water right now or courting disaster not just because of the weather, but because we’ve failed to protect them. Maintaining our levees and dams isn’t pork barrel spending, it’s an urgent priority.”

McCain pitches himself as the scourge of wasteful earmarks and pork-barrel spending in the Senate. But the Des Moines Register reported Friday that a state senator in Iowa was lashing out at McCain for going too far, opposing a bill last year that included local flood control money. The newspaper reported that the earmark, pushed by the Iowa congressional delegation, would have added $6.9 million for work on the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers.

The bill that McCain opposed spent a total of $23 billion on water projects. It passed Congress overwhelmingly and was vetoed by President Bush because he said it spent too much on lawmaker’s pet projects. Congress voted to override the veto, the first time of Bush’s presidency.

McCain’s campaign fired back, saying it is Obama who’s flimsy on flood control and criticizing him in a statement Saturday for voting against a bipartisan measure they said would prioritize levee upgrades. That amendment failed.

“Barack Obama’s willingness to continue the status quo pork-barrel politics in Washington, and then engage in political attacks that entirely disregard the facts, once again fundamentally shows that he’s nothing more than a typical politician,” spokesman Tucker Bounds said.

Obama also told city leaders in Miami Saturday that he would be their partner and appoint the first White House Director of Urban Policy to help them cut through federal bureaucracies. The promise sparked a standing ovation.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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The Elian Gonzalez controversy is resurfacing on the 2008 campaign trail, as a great-uncle of the Cuban boy speaks out against two Barack Obama advisers who played a role in the dispute eight years ago.

The Miami Herald reported that Delfin Gonzalez planned to hold a news conference Friday in Miami to coincide with Obama’s arrival in the state, where the presumptive Democratic nominee is holding a fundraising event Friday night.

Delfin Gonzalez told the Herald he would denounce Eric Holder, a member of Obama’s running mate search team who was deputy attorney general at the start of the Gonzalez controversy, and Greg Craig, an Obama foreign policy adviser who represented Elian Gonzalez’s father during the custody dispute with his relatives in Miami.

“We’re going to express opposition to Barack Obama’s visit to Miami, and explain how we’re opposed to him having individuals on his campaign who were associated with Elian’s seizure in 2000,” Delfin Gonzalez told the newspaper. “Some wounds are so deep that they do not heal over time, such as taking a child and sealing his fate to a communist dictatorship.”

Elian Gonzalez, now 14, was 6 when his Miami relatives lost a custody dispute that drew international attention. He was returned to Cuba in 2000 with his father after washing ashore on U.S. coastline following a boating accident off the Florida coast as his family fled Cuba.

Click here to read the full story in The Miami Herald.

Sunday: Barack Obama shakes hands with the choir after speaking at the Apostolic Church of God service about fatherhood in Chicago. (AP Photo)

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FLINT, Mich. — Barack Obama’s campaign envisions a path to the presidency that could include Virginia, Georgia and several Rocky Mountain states, but not necessarily the pair of battlegrounds that decided the last two elections — Florida and Ohio.

In a private pitch late last week to donors and former supporters of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe outlined several alternatives to reaching the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House that runs counter to the conventional wisdom of recent elections.

At a fundraiser held at a Washington brewery Friday, Plouffe told a largely young crowd that the electoral map would be fundamentally different from the one in 2004. Wins in Ohio and Florida would guarantee Obama the presidency if he holds onto the states won by Democrat John Kerry, Plouffe said, but those two battlegrounds aren’t required for victory.

Florida, which has 27 electoral votes this year, gave the presidency to George W. Bush in the disputed election of 2000. Ohio, with its 20 electoral votes, ensured Bush of re-election in 2004 in his race against Kerry.

The presumed Democratic nominee’s electoral math counts on holding onto the states Kerry won, among them Michigan (17 electoral votes), where Obama campaigns on Monday and Tuesday. Plouffe said most of the Kerry states should be reliable for Obama, but three currently look relatively competitive with Republican rival John McCain — Pennsylvania, Michigan and particularly New Hampshire.

Asked about his remarks, Plouffe said Ohio and Florida start out very competitive — but he stressed that they are not tougher than other swing states and said Obama will play “extremely hard” for both. But he said the strategy is not reliant on one or two states.

“You have a lot of ways to get to 270,” Plouffe said. “Our goal is not to be reliant on one state on November 4th.”

Plouffe has been pitching such a new approach to the electoral map in calls and meetings, according to several people who discussed the conversations on the condition of anonymity because they were meant to be private. Plouffe confirmed the descriptions in the interview.

Plouffe and his aides are weighing where to contest, and where chances are too slim to marshal a large effort. A win in Virginia (13 electoral votes) or Georgia (15 votes) could give Obama a shot if he, like Kerry, loses Ohio or Florida.

Plouffe also has been touting Obama’s appeal in once Republican-leaning states where Democrats have made gains in recent gubernatorial and congressional races, such as Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Montana, Alaska and North Dakota.

Obama’s campaign has spent heavily on time and money in Virginia, where a Democratic presidential candidate hasn’t won since 1964. In recent elections, however, high-profile Republicans have lost there. And in a sign of how serious Obama is taking the state, Plouffe dispatched to Virginia many aides who helped Obama stage his upset win in the Iowa caucuses Jan. 3.

The key, Plouffe told supporters, will be to register new black voters and new young voters in Virginia.
Likewise, Georgia has many unregistered black voters who could turn out in record numbers to support the first major-party nominee who is black, he argued. Plouffe said the campaign also will keep an eye on Mississippi and Louisiana as the race moves into the fall to see if new black voters could put them within reach.

In a telling bit of scheduling, Obama declared himself within reach of the nomination at the statehouse in Iowa, yet another state he hopes to put in play.

Plouffe is warning Democrats that McCain is an appealing candidate who has proved he can take votes from the middle before and could do so again. McCain won New Hampshire as a GOP candidate in 2000 and 2008, thanks in large part to the state’s high number of independent voters.

Clinton won Michigan’s renegade primary after the national party stripped the state of its delegates for moving its contest to January. Obama’s name wasn’t even on the ballot. Clinton handily won the Pennsylvania primary in April, gaining strong support from white, working-class voters.

Plouffe argues that McCain squandered his opportunity to reach independent voters in the past three months.

McCain’s aides acknowledge frustration among fellow Republicans for the slow-to-start campaign. Even though McCain clinched his party’s nomination in early March, his supporters didn’t name operatives to run the must-win states, let alone open offices in key states. While Democrats hammered each other in their marathon contest, McCain left aides from his primary states sitting still, waiting for orders. It took more than two months for McCain’s national headquarters to approve budgets for the battleground states.

The task, Plouffe said, is to define McCain as tied to Bush on the economy, the war and abortion rights. He said the campaign will go on offense against McCain, besides playing aggressive defense when criticized.

That promise was also given by Obama, who said Friday night, “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.” Critics have questioned why a candidate who promotes a new kind of politics planned such bare-knuckles tactics.

Among independent voters, McCain and Obama are about tied in favorability ratings in recent polls.
Plouffe in recent days has been making his pitch aggressively — part cheerleading, part sales job. Many of Clinton’s supporters remain frustrated with how national Democrats resolved the issue of Michigan’s delegates, agreeing to seat all of them at the nominating convention but penalizing them by half for violating the calendar, and Plouffe has tried to quell that frustration.

He wraps up the pitches by asking Democrats to imagine Obama taking the oath of office. On Friday at the Capitol City Brewery, about a block from where that would happen, Plouffe pointed toward the Capitol steps to reinforce the visual.

Members of the rules panel of the Democratic National Committee raise their hands to vote on a proposal on how to count the Florida primary Saturday in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo)

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Democratic leaders struck a long-awaited compromise over the disputed Florida and Michigan primaries Saturday evening in Washington, D.C., flying over objections from the Hillary Clinton campaign and agreeing to give both delegations half their vote at the party’s August convention.

The deal was reached after members of a Democratic National Committee rules panel spent all day bargaining and met privately for more than three hours. Members announced their plan to a raucous hearing room that reflected deep divisions within the party. Both states had their delegations initially stripped for holding early primaries in violation of party rules.

Though Clinton, who won both contests, wanted both delegations counted in full, the campaign seemed satisfied with the Florida plan. The sticking point was Michigan, where Obama’s name was not on the ballot.

“This body of 30 individuals has decided that they’re going to substitute their judgment for 600,000 voters — now that’s what I call democracy,” Clinton adviser and committee member Harold Ickes said in the closing moments of debate, saying the Michigan plan would be “hijacking” delegates from Clinton.

Ickes added that Clinton has “instructed me to reserve the right to take this to the Credentials Committee.”

That means the Clinton campaign may be considering appealing the decision and drawing out the dispute to the August convention, something party leaders dread.

The Clinton campaign echoed Ickes’ remarks in a written statement, saying the Florida decision is a “victory” for them but that they reserve the right to challenge the Michigan deal.

“This decision violates the bedrock principles of our democracy and our Party,” the statement said.

Obama said Saturday evening that Clinton got a “substantial” amount of delegates, and that he hopes the campaigns will put the issue behind them.

“I recognize that there were compromises on all sides in resolving this issue. I’m glad that the DNC worked it through, and I hope that we can start focusing our attention on the substance as opposed to just the process of politics,” he said.

The decision of the Rules and Bylaws Committee does not drastically change the delegate math. Clinton was banking on the DNC meeting as one of her last chances to make up ground against Obama’s huge delegate lead, but Obama is still within striking distance of the nomination.

The resolution increased the number of delegates needed to clinch the nomination from 2,026 to 2,118, leaving Obama 66 delegates short. With the new math, Clinton has 1,877.5 delegates and Obama has 2,052.

Obama picked up a total of 32 delegates in Michigan, including superdelegates who have already committed, and 36 in Florida. Clinton picked up 38 in Michigan, including superdelegates, and 56.5 in Florida.

There were originally 368 total delegates at stake in Florida and Michigan.

Clinton’s camp insisted Obama shouldn’t get any pledged delegates in Michigan since he chose not to put his name on the ballot, and she should get 73 pledged delegates with 55 uncommitted. Obama’s team insisted the only fair solution was to split the pledged delegates in half between the two campaigns, with 64 each.

The committee agreed on a compromise offered by the Michigan Democratic Party that would split the difference, allowing Clinton to take 69 delegates and Obama 59. Each delegate would get half a vote at the convention in Denver this summer, according to the deal.

The deal passed 19-8. Thirteen members of the committee supported Clinton, so she wasn’t even able to keep her supporters together.

The committee also unanimously agreed to seat the Florida delegation based on the outcome of the January primary, with 105 pledged delegates for Clinton and 67 for Obama, but with each delegate getting half a vote as a penalty.

Proponents of full seating continuously interrupted the committee members as they explained their support of the compromise, then supporters of the deal shouted back.

“Shut up!” one woman shouted at another.

“You shut up!” the second woman shouted back.

Hundreds of protesters, mostly supportive of Clinton, lined up outside to urge the DNC to count the votes in full.

Alice Huffman, a Clinton supporter on the committee, explained that the compromise giving delegates half votes was the next best thing to full seating.

“We will leave here more united than we came,” she said.

FOX News’ Major Garrett and Jim Angle and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Florida Sen. Bill Nelson speaks before the Democratic National Committee panel considering the disputed Florida and Michigan primaries Saturday in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo)

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Democratic leaders were still grappling with how to count the disputed Michigan primary results at a high-stakes meeting late Saturday in Washington, D.C., as sources said an unofficial compromise has been reached to seat the Florida delegation at the August convention.

A rules panel of the Democratic National Committee has been reviewing both states’ primaries all day, after they were stripped of their delegates for holding early contests in violation of party rules.

Hillary Clinton, who won both contests, is banking on the DNC meeting as one of her last chances to make up ground against Barack Obama’s huge delegate lead.

The Florida compromise, which according to Democratic sources calls for all state delegates to be seated, each with a half-vote, has the backing of the Florida Democratic Party and Obama’s campaign, though it still must be approved by the committee. The Clinton camp has indicated it would grudgingly accept such a deal, though Clinton wants both states’ delegations counted in full.

But the Michigan case before the Rules and Bylaws Committee is more complicated than the one in Florida, since Obama’s name was not on the primary ballot in Michigan. Clinton prevailed over ballots cast as “uncommitted,” and Obama’s allies claim the large majority of those votes were cast by his supporters.

The basic options before the panel are to count all the delegates, count some of them or uphold the original 100 percent penalty.

Mark Brewer, the state party chairman, urged the panel Saturday to award Clinton 69 delegates and Obama 59 — an allocation that neither candidate has endorsed publicly.

Not long afterward, former Rep. David Bonior of Michigan, speaking on behalf of the Obama campaign, said the delegates “should be split evenly between the two candidates.”

But former Gov. Jim Blanchard, representing Clinton, said the former first lady should receive 73 delegates, with 55 awarded to uncommitted, in accordance with the primary vote. “Respect the voters of our great state. They deserve respect,” he said.

Clinton supporters are angry about the proposal from the Michigan Democratic Party. Brewer told the rules committee that the numbers were derived from exit polls showing most of those who voted uncommitted in Michiganwere in fact Obama supporters.

But Clinton supporters protested, saying delegates have never been allocated based on exit polls — and sources tell FOX News that exit polls were never part of the calculation. It was more of a compromise between the two other plans.

The at-times heated meeting Saturday drew representatives from both states and both campaigns, as well as hundreds of protesters.

In the opening hours of the meeting, Clinton’s designated spokeswoman urged the panel to grant a full vote for each of Florida’s 211 disputed delegates.

“In life you don’t get everything you want. I want it all,” Florida state Sen. Arthenia Joyner said with a smile.

But moments later, Obama’s campaign called for half-votes for each of the 211. Rep. Robert Wexler of Florida said that marked an “extraordinary concession, in order to promote reconciliation with Florida’s voters.”

Obama supporters cheered loudly when he spoke, but there were boos from some in the audience who back Clinton.

DNC Chairman Howard Dean kicked off the meeting calling for “healing” and “party unity” in the wake of a primary campaign season that he said has brought out high emotions, as well as racism and sexism.

Dean said that the protracted contest between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama has made the party and the candidates “much stronger,” but he gave a clear sign that it is time to set aside differences.

“This is not about our candidates. This is not about Barack Obama. This is not about Hillary Clinton. This is about our country,” Dean said in Washington, D.C. “Over the course of this primary there have been some very tough disagreements and some ugly moments in this campaign.

“Emotions have run very high and heated discussions have led at times to blatant sexist comments, particularly by some members of the media, and blatantly racist remarks. And we know that those comments have no place in our society and certainly no place in our party. … Your actions today will put us back on a course of party unity,” Dean said.

Hundreds of protesters, many supporting Clinton, were bussed in to demonstrate outside the building where the meeting was being held.

They carried signs that said “Count my vote or Count me out” and “Enough is enough. Count the votes. Every single damn one!”

Obama discouraged supporters from demonstrating but the Clinton campaign invited them. There were nearly 500 protesters on the sidewalks as the meeting was set to begin.

“They’re exercising their right to protest, to make sure that every Hillary Clinton vote is counted,” Michigan Rep. John Conyers Jr. remarked as he arrived at the meeting Saturday.

Dean called for a compromise that respects both the voters who personally did nothing to violate party rules, and the candidates and states that abided by party rules. If each state has half its delegates restored, that probably would add fewer than 30 more delegates to the total that Obama needs, with three more contests to go — Puerto Rico on Sunday and Montana and South Dakota on Tuesday.

In all, there were 368 delegates in limbo.

That totaled 211 from Florida, including 185 who would have been elected if the primary had counted, and an additional 26 superdelegates, who are party leaders. If they are all seated with a half vote, Clinton will likely gain a net 19 pledged delegates.

For Michigan, the breakdown was 128 delegates who would have been elected if the primary had counted and an additional 29 super delegates.

Members of the committee discussed their options over a lengthy dinner with Dean that began Friday night and lasted until 2 a.m. Saturday. People who attended said no deals were reached, although there was a widespread sentiment that they should try to come up with some resolution that would put the issue behind them.

All candidates agreed not to campaign in either state in January.

“It’s important to send the right signals to them and the people living in those states that we Democrats value those states, value those voters and want them as full partners in a general election in assembling 270 electoral votes,” said Clinton strategist Harold Ickes, a member of the rules committee.

Obama could afford to allow Clinton a few delegates — going into the meeting, he was just 42 away from the nomination out of more than 2,000 required. Clinton was more than 200 delegates behind.

Obama campaign officials, eager to move on, said they were willing to give Clinton the edge in delegates, but they were not willing to accept the Clinton camp’s hard-line stance that all the delegates should be fully seated in accordance to the January elections.

“We have both fought hard throughout the country, both of us, for delegates and the fact that we’re willing to essentially cede her delegates we do not think is an insignificant gesture on our part,” Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said.

“But we’re willing to do this in the interest of trying to bring this to a close so we can focus on the general election.”

FOX News’ Major Garrett and Jim Angle and The Associated Press contributed to this report.