Andrea Saul, until last week press secretary for Senator Orrin Hatch, is heading to Tallahassee to serve as communications director for Charlie Crist's Senate campaign, as the Florida governor and early favorite for Florida's open Senate seat faces an increasingly serious primary challenge from Florida speaker of the House Marco Rubio.

Prior to her job with Hatch, Saul worked media affairs for McCain before moving over to the RNC as director of media affairs after the McCain campaign all but collapsed in late 2007. She returned to McCain in the spring of 2008 where she ran broadcast media and surrogate operations.

Rubio is a favorite among the same grassroots conservatives who energized the Hoffman campaign in NY-23, and the Club for Growth has already gone on the air with ads knocking Crist for his support of the Obama stimulus. The most recent numbers show Rubio within 15 after trailing by 30 over the summer.

Saul's hiring is another sign that Crist is starting to take the Rubio threat very seriously.