Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) today joined the growing group of politicians who have officially announced a run for higher office via Twitter — but like all things on the Internet, one has to be careful to access the real thing.

[IMGCAP(1)]While the real-life Crist revealed on his official Twitter page Tuesday morning that “After thoughtful consideration with my wife Carole, I have decided to run for the U.S. Senate,— an imposter Crist has been hinting a Senate run via the social messaging Web site for weeks.

In an April 28 message, the faux Crist writes, “Bye Sen. I’ll miss you when I am fundraising for my Senate race in philly.— And on April 30, the fake Twitterer messages the Florida GOP: “Don’t steal my finance guys before I announce for Senate!—

The imposter Crist has been Twittering since late March, posting messages pretending to be the Florida governor on a page featuring a beach at sunset in the background.

It’s actually understandable to see how one might be fooled by the faux Crist. Not only does the faker maintain more followers than the real one (322 to 170 as of about noon Tuesday), the imposter’s Twitter name is simply “charliecrist,— whereas the real one is “charliecristfl.—

And the faux Crist’s Twitter posts aren’t particularly outlandish, either — although they can be pretty funny.

Among our favorites is this March 26 post: “I am not doing anymore interviews with the hometown paper’s video camera — no one looks good on it— another the following day: “Note to self: less scotch, less late night twittering, more gambling, more indian money for Florida,— and an April 28 message, “Seersucker day. My favorite day in Tallahassee.—

Crist isn’t the first politician to be a victim of Twitter theft, of course.

Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) contacted Twitter earlier this month after discovering an imposter had been posting on the site using his name. Twitter suspended the account and handed ownership of the page to the Congressman.

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