Florida Governor Charlie Crist is running for US Senate in 2010--and darned if he’s going to let power utilities’ need for capital during a recession stand in his way.

On Thursday, Crist effectively fired two long-standing members of the Sunshine State’s Public Service Commission, replacing them with wholly inexperienced former editorial page editor David Klement and Benjamin Stevens, the chief financial officer for the Pensacola Sheriffs’ Office.

It doesn’t take PhD in political science to get the message here: Florida utility regulators will, in Crist’s words, “put consumers first”--i.e., reject the pending rate hike requests from FPL Group (NYSE: FPL) for $1.3 billion and Progress Energy (NYSE: PGN) for $500 million or else.