Adam Smith of the St. Petersburg Times delves into Jeff Greene's history. It's telling stuff about the would-be Democratic candidate for Florida Senate. Here's just one of many anecdotes:
Harlan Hoffman, 37, was in a Fort Lauderdale yachting apparel store in 2007 when he saw a help wanted ad for Summerwind.
“There were two people from Australia there who said, 'Oh, good luck with that one… . We're still waiting to get paid by Summerwind.' I should have listened,” Hoffman said.
The deckhand was shocked while buffing Greene's yacht and wound up hospitalized.
A boat's owner is supposed to take care of on-the-job medical costs, but Hoffman said Greene — whom he never met — told the insurance company he had never heard of Hoffman and that he didn't work on Summerwind. It took eight months and legal action that included affidavits from other crew members vouching for Hoffman and trashing Greene to get his bills paid.
“This guy Jeff Greene threw tons of money into new diving gear, but the crew's basic equipment — food and supplies — he didn't want to spend any money on. Summerwind has a terrible reputation,'' Hoffman said. “Mr. Greene's yacht is known to be a party yacht. When it went to Cuba, everybody talked about the vomit caked all over the sides from all the partying going on.”
Just what Florida needs in a Senator: contempt for the working man so deep that he has to stiff them.
Poor Kendrick Meek. He was husbanding his resources, expecting to coast through the Democratic Senate primary, when three problems ganged up on him.
The first problem was predictable: low name recognition outside South Florida. But there are ways of dealing with that if name recognition your only problem. (To the extent that there was also lingering animosity among South Florida progressives for Meek’s very weak support of South Florida 2008 congressional candidates such as Annette Taddeo, well that was just the cost of positioning Meek as a middle-of-the-road candidate who could win votes upstate.)
The second problem was less predictable: Governor Charlie Crist got hammered by Tea Party fellow traveler Marco Rubio in the GOP primary polls, so he decided to run as an independent. Between that and his grandstanding on the gulf oil spill, Crist sucked up most of the media oxygen in the race. Plus he started leading in the polls, winning many independents and even some Democratics (see problem one above).
The third problem is just gross: a sleazy billionaire named Jeff Greene decided to try to buy the Democratic nomination. It’s hard to exaggerate just how bad Greene is. Here are a few choice facts.
Jeff Greene has been a Florida resident for all of three years.
Jeff Greene is not really a Democrat. He’s been a Republican for much of his life, and even ran for Congress as a Republican in California 1982.
Jeff Greene made his billions betting that people would lose their homes in foreclosure. (Personally, I don’t hold this economic savvy against him — it might even be a positive — but it sure won’t win votes.)
Jeff Greene’s personal life suggests he is completely unsuitable for the Senate.
Jeff Greene spent a year living with famous madame Hedi Fleiss
There is a mixed message here. Neither a “meet Kendrick” nor 100% an attack ad, the spot tries to do both at the same time, and maybe flails a bit at both. And any time you have to pay money to say “Kendrick Meek is not part of a fraud case,” you are in trouble.
Given his lackluster record on progressive issues, Meek is a difficult candidate to get excited about; only the abysmal quality of his opposition spurs one to sympathy. Charlie Crist has to be laughing: if Greene manages to buy this nomination, people like me may have to vote for Crist, even though he’s as principled and as reliable as a weathervane, just to avoid getting a hard-core rightist in Marco Rubio. Or we may sit that race out. Either way, if Greene wins, then Crist wins.
Lawton “Bud” Chiles' run for governor is good for precisely one thing: screwing Alex Sink.
<pedantry>While I find The Reid Report's political analysis admirable, I wish to register a protest to the use of an apostrophe without an “s” to indicate a singular possessive for names happening to end in an “s”.</pedantry>
Chiles to run for Fla. governor. That's Lawton Chiles III, son of the legendary walkin' governor. And he's running as an independent, making it a three-way race.
Lawton Chiles III announced Thursday he would run for governor of Florida as an independent, setting up a potential three-way race in November.
Chiles, the son of the former Democratic governor and senator of the same name, told reporters in Tallahassee that he would accept only small contributions and that he would not take funds from political action committees.
I suppose the idea behind this run as an independent is to squeeze the Democratic vote and add in what there is of the sensible Republican vote and hope it makes the biggest pile.
Or is the plan to ride on Crist's coattails? Will there be coattails?
So, what does Chiles stand for? Children, it seems. Hard to find much else so far.
Even so, the Florida Governor's race could use some livening up, as it currently seems likely to feature two unexciting candidates, Sink and McCollum. Neither has their party's nomination yet, however, and both are being challenged in primaries by somewhat weird multi-millionaires. And on the Republican side, Rick Scott (the less sleazy and more extreme of the two millionaires) is making enough gains thanks to a bottomless-pocket self-financed TV ad campaign that McCollum must be sweating.
So maybe that's the Chiles strategy (if there is one): if Rick Scott wins the GOP nomination, there could be more than a few Republicans looking for an alternative and their number could be added to Democrats unenthusiastic about Sink. Whether a former Democrat could provide an alternative Republicans would swallow is unclear, but this is a weird state and a weird year. Plus the Chiles brand has some nostalgia value in Florida.
On the other hand, Democratic concerns about Sink are either that she's dull, or that she's too right-wing; running to her left won't pick up any Republicans; running to her right won't pick up many Democrats as there isn't that far to her right among the Democratic party mainstream. There are, though, all those independents, and in a three-way race it takes less to win….
Democrats win the congressional special election in PA-12, despite GOP claims that this would be their bellweather victory. This is a pattern:
For those keeping score, there have been seven special elections for U.S. House seats since the president's inauguration 16 months ago: NY20, IL5, CA32, CA10, NY23, FL19, and PA12. Democrats have won all seven.
The Democratic wing of the Democratic party also won in the Pennsylvania Senate primary, defeating ur-DINO ex-Republican Arlen Specter. Progressives tied in Arkansas, forcing incumbent and sometime corporate shill Blanche Lincoln into a runoff (although if I had to bet, I'd give odds she'll win the runoff, having better access to funds and likely winning more votes from the third candidate's supporters). And Democrats won the Republican primary in Kentucky, as the GOP voted down the bland establishment candidate supported by the party leadership, in favor of extremist anarcho-libertarian candidate Rand Paul, a man whose graciousness and charm are already winning deserved plaudits.
I was a big fan of Gov. Dean's “50-state-strategy”. Running candidates all over forces the other side to spread its resources. Allowing anyone to go unopposed means that their campaign funds can go to more marginal seats. Plus, by running candidates even if they don't win you build up infrastructure and good will, and that makes it easier to win when the tides and demographics turn.
So I was disappointed to see that the Democratic party failed to field a congressional candidate in four Florida congressional districts: the 1st, 4th, 6th and especially the 21st (where Mario Diaz-Balart is switching from the 25th district).
In case you are wondering (I was), the only Democratic candidate here in Florida's 18th is Rolando A. Banciella. I sure hope he ups his web presence soon — I couldn't find anything worth linking to.
Incidentally, there are “Tea Party” candidates in the 8th, 12th and 25th Districts — the latter being the one where Joe Garcia is making a second try, at what is now an open seat since Mario Diaz-Balart has jumped to the 21st. Will Joe Garcia hire Joe Trippi again, despite Trippi's taint of working on the sure-to-be-destructive Jeff Grenne campaign?
