FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. Less than a month from Election Day, Ron DeSantis Marthas Vineyard stunt has been swept off front pages and newscasts by Hurricane Ians floodwaters, giving the prickly, fight-picking Florida governor a reset in the race that could let him cruise into a second term.

Barely two weeks ago, DeSantis was dominating television screens explaining why he had tricked Venezuelan asylum-seekers into going to Marthas Vineyard aboard a flight he had chartered using taxpayer money. Now, the Republican governor is dominating those same screens detailing his response to a deadly storm.

Its a response that even Democratic President Joe Biden has praised, and, perhaps even more problematic for the challenger hoping to unseat him next month, it has burned two weeks and counting off the clock ticking down to the Nov. 8 election that Charlie Crist can never get back.

It is what it is, said Crist, the former GOP governor who is now seeking the job as a Democrat. It doesnt discourage me one iota.

Still, Crists team privately understands that a challenger not in government simply cannot realistically compete for public attention in the aftermath of a catastrophe.

In recent days, Crist loaded his campaign bus with hurricane supplies and delivered them to a hard-hit school and a poor, largely neglected Latino community outside Fort Myers.