The blows from conservatives have softened Crist's inflexible-sounding "Chain-Gang Charlie" image, which he acquired by talking tough about criminals as a St. Petersburg state senator more than a decade ago. That image had threatened to get in the way of his wooing independents and other swing voters in his new fight with a political moderate, Jim Davis, the Democratic candidate for governor.

On Thursday, Crist set about pitching himself as a populist who has already gotten past the bitterness of his primary battle. In what was billed as a unity tour, he made appearances at South Florida rallies alongside Gov. Jeb Bush and Gallagher, the state's chief financial officer whom Crist defeated by a 2-1 ratio in Tuesday's voting.

"I want to be the people's governor," Crist said to a group of supporters in Hialeah. "I want to invite Republicans, I want to invite Democrats, I want to invite independents. We need all of them to help us win."

While Crist and Gallagher put on a friendly face Thursday, they didn't talk so kindly about each other in the weeks leading to the primary. Gallagher's campaign spent more than $10 million, much of it in trying to paint Crist as a liberal by focusing on his opposition to a 24-hour waiting period for abortions and his support for same-sex civil unions and public funding of stem-cell research with human embryos.

"The primary moderated Crist and positioned him just right for the general," says Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political scientist who follows Florida politics.

Social conservatives dismiss suggestions that the defeat of Gallagher and others signals that their ideology is fading in Florida, or at least among Republicans.

Bush, in an interview Wednesday with the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, also denied that is the case. He noted that Crist "vows to maintain" his policies as governor.

Richard Pinsky, a Republican campaign expert in Palm Beach County, said Tuesday's results do not indicate a shift in people's views on issues like abortion and gay marriage.

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