The gubernatorial primaries are over, so it's time to talk running mates. Democrat Jim Davis and Republican Charlie Crist have until Thursday to make their picks, and speculation is rampant in political circles. Crist has been focused so much on that decision that throughout the campaign he has had an unsettling tendency to ask reporters their running mate suggestions.

Among the prospects often mentioned for Crist: state Rep. Jeff Kottkamp, R-Cape Coral; state Sen. Lisa Carlton, R-Osprey; and state Rep. Jennifer Carroll, R-Green Cove Springs, an African-American with a military background. Republicans have also talked up former House Speaker Allan Bense of Panama City, but he's also in the mix of contenders to become the next Florida Republican Party chairman. The pickings from Miami-Dade are slim because, given the bitter intraparty politics there, any selection is sure to infuriate others.

For Davis, who took a beating in the primary for voting in 1990 against compensating two black men wrongly convicted of murder, many Democrats think he needs to pick an African-American. State Rep. Chris Smith of Fort Lauderdale and former state Sen. Daryl Jones of Miami are frequently mentioned, as well as former Miami-Dade commissioner Jimmy Morales and Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle.