Dems Defecting in FL Senate Race

Wikimedia Commons/<a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RWB-donkey.png">David Ball</a>

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Florida politics, as usual, are a hot mess. Republican tea party favorite Marco Rubio is starting to pull away in his three-way Senate race with Democratic Rep. Kendrick Meek and Gov. Charlie Crist (no party affiliation this week). But since the last televised debate—in which Meek and Crist took turns blasting the frontrunner—there’s been a not-so-subtle gameplan by Crist’s camp to win converts from the Democratic ranks. And it looks like it’s starting to work.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—environmental activist, liberal ex-congressman, brand-name Democrat—endorsed Crist today, calling him “the only candidate who can do what we need to defeat Marco Rubio in November.” But that’s nothing compared to Meek’s long Tuesday. First, Kennedy cousin and Republican California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger gave Crist his seal of approval. Then, the St. Petersburg Times reported the story of Ellie Forte, an 80-year-old Broward County native and ex-Meek volunteer who’s never not voted Democratic in her life; she’s now telling all of her friends in the condo community to abandon Meek for Crist. Then, Public Policy Polling released results showing that Crist could match Rubio in a two-way race, while Meek could not. Then, the defensive state Democratic Party chairwoman and enigmatic Cajun operative James Carville held a “train wreck of a pro-Kendrick Meek conference call,” raising questions about whether the wheels were falling off of his campaign.

All this comes on the heels of a lightly sourced report in the Wall Street Journal last week that said Meek would be pulling out of the race soon to endorse Crist. Meek laughed off the story. “I’m the only candidate who’s fighting for the middle class and I’m not going anywhere except the United States Senate,” he said. “Because if they want to go back to the Bush years, they’re going to have to go through this six foot three inch former state trooper.”

Nevertheless, the damage is adding up. Kennedy’s endorsement isn’t exactly fatal to Meek, but it hurts a lot. It’s no secret that Crist sounds more Democratic than Republican on the environment (at least, these days). He’s lobbied hard against the Obama administration’s plan to resume offshore oil drilling. He’s picked up an endorsement from the Sierra Club. (Meek, too, was endorsed by the group, but he refused to accept it jointly with Crist.) And now he has a pro-green Democrat—a Kennedy, no less—singing his praises.

As the Florida Independent points out, much of this is academic: Even if Meek were to withdraw now, his name would still be on voter ballots. The Democrats typically could pledge all Meek votes to another candidate, but Florida laws bars the party from handing those votes to Crist, since he was actively campaigning as a Republican earlier in the year. (Despite all this, the St. Pete Times‘ ed board still saw fit to endorse Crist in the race, as did the capitol city paper, the Tallahassee Democrat.)

So what’s the upshot? Dems are in disarray—at least for this election cycle. Meek’s in no real position to win the Senate race, but Election Day won’t be the last time you hear from him. The scion of South Florida Democratic royalty, an ex-cop and a civil-rights activist who picked plenty of fights with former governor Jeb Bush, Meek has succeeded in raising his state and national profile as a standup guy. In fact, expect that fact to shape Crist’s final appeal to Florida voters: “You can vote for me, and Kendrick will do just fine in the future.” 

He’s at least half-right: Win or lose, Kendrick Meek has a serious future in politics. Charlie Crist? He may end up just being another dude who’s out of work.

WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate