NEWBERRY -- Radio talk show host Laura Ingraham was the keynote speaker Thursday at the Alachua County Republican Party's annual fundraiser, but Florida's U.S. Senate race was the main event.

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and his opponent in the Republican Senate primary, former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, both spoke at the 7th Annual Ronald Reagan Black Tie and Blue Jeans BBQ. The event, held at Canterbury Equestrian Showplace, typically serves up plenty of red meat for the party faithful.

The high-profile Senate race provided an extra helping this year. Rubio gave the event's invocation, but first made comments along his campaign theme of being the race's true conservative.

"It's very simple: We already have a Democratic Party in America," he said. "We do not need two Democratic parties in America."

Crist gave a speech running through a long list of positions to prove his conservative bona fides, from support of gun rights to tax cuts. But he received a less enthusiastic greeting than Rubio from the grassroots activists in attendance, even getting a small smattering of boos.

In comments to reporters before the event, Crist said party members should put aside differences. He invoked Reagan's old saying that a "person that agrees with you 80 percent of the time is a friend."

"I think the message is we need to be unified," he said.

Ingraham, for her part, said the time was right for the party to fight for its beliefs. She criticized Democrats for "budget-busting" proposals such as health care reform and the climate-change plan.

"What we are seeing now is a full-frontal assault on you," she said.

Washington has become addicted to "boondoggles and bailouts," she said. Democrats didn't like people in the audience, she said, for lifestyle choices such as driving big cars, being too fat or living in suburbia.

"You have all become very inconvenient to those who seek to remake America and I'm here to tell you tonight let's continue to be inconvenient," she said.

Earlier in the day, Ingraham was among thousands gathered on Capitol Hill to protest Democratic health care proposals. She mocked U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for saying she didn't see the crowds.

"Apparently there was a meeting she had to preside over with the manufacturer of Botox cosmetics," Ingraham said.

The event appeared more crowded and energized than last year, when it was held less than a month before Barack Obama took the White House. This time around, Republicans said they were mobilized by a growing concern over the direction of the country and energized by Tuesday's gubernatorial victories in New Jersey and Virginia.

"You can feel it everywhere you go," said Florida House Speaker Larry Cretul, R-Ocala. "When Republicans gather, there's a sense of urgency."

Attendees dismissed the idea that the battle between Crist and Rubio would divide the party. State Sen. Steve Oelrich, a Cross Creek Republican and Rubio supporter, said it was healthy to have a contested primary.

"Politics is a competitive sport," he said.

Fully embracing that idea, Rubio attacked Crist for positions such as his support of the stimulus in comments to reporters before the event. He continued along the same lines in his speech.

"We know that government spending does not stimulate our economy, especially money that is borrowed and printed," he said.

Crist questioned what Rubio would have done about the stimulus if he had been governor.

"Wouldn't he have taken it to help the people of Florida?" he said. "Every Republican governor in America did ... It saved 20,000 teachers their jobs."

For more information, contact Nathan Crabbe at 338-3176 or nathan.crabbe@gvillesun.com.

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