Showing posts with label Jeff Greene. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jeff Greene. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

"It's not a sprint, it's a marathon." But sometimes, as with Jeff Greene vs. Kendrick Meek, elections really ARE sprints, and Meek is Wile E. Coyote

With less than two weeks to go until the August 24th Democratic primary, it seems pretty clear to me that, among other things, Jeff Greene's Senatorial campaign is deliberately planning on forcing Kendrick Meek & Co. to burn through all their cash and resources as quickly as possible, knowing that he can always dig deeper than Team Meek at a moment's notice, and leave them gasping and unable to respond to any last-minute Greene attacks or change-up pitches.
That's exactly how I'd play it, too if I had Greene's resources and the lead in the polls.

It's also clear to me that based on Team Greene's smart media buys and frequency thus far, as well as the variety of their very attractive and well-produced direct mail -which seems to come into my mailbox every other day- they've known for a while that Meek's creative team simply isn't capable of turning-on-a-dime and producing and placing the high-quality materials the way that Team Greene can.

The first time my mailbox had Kendrick Meek campaign lit in it, last Thursday, was the same day that the St. Petersburg Times political editor Adam C. Smith wrote this killing with kindness article that featured this in the fifth paragraph:
"Meek, who has been campaigning harder and longer than any other statewide candidate this cycle, grasps the dire position he's in: Three weeks before the primary, he trails by double digits to a last-minute rival with a bottomless campaign account. "

Later, in the first sentence of the 21st paragraph, Smith begins:
"Indeed, while Meek remains little known to most Floridians..."
Now can you see what I mean?

St. Petersburg Times

Trailing in polls, Kendrick Meek chases a U.S. Senate victory in a bus tour of Florida
By Adam Smith, Times Political Editor,
In Print: Thursday, August 5, 2010

DAYTONA BEACH — Kendrick Meek likens his U. S. Senate primary to David against Goliath, but the Democratic underdog wields a weapon that covers more ground than a slingshot: a four-wheel motor coach with his smiling face plastered across the side.

On Wednesday Meek kicked off an 11-day, statewide bus tour aimed at picking up grass-roots momentum against the candidacy of billionaire real estate mogul Jeff Greene.
"The old-school kind of politics — when Bob Graham had his work days and Lawton Chiles walked this state — I think it still means something in this state," a fiery Meek told about 100 people at a Daytona Beach teachers union building.

"Democrats in Florida will give this nation the first example of what hard work means and what it means to run a grass-roots campaign against billionaires who have a shrimp in one hand and a checkbook in the other saying, 'How much does it cost to become a United States senator or governor in this state?,'?'' he said.
Meek, who has been campaigning harder and longer than any other statewide candidate this cycle, grasps the dire position he's in: Three weeks before the primary, he trails by double digits to a last-minute rival with a bottomless campaign account.

But sounding both upbeat and energized, the 43-year-old Miami congressman argued that the momentum is starting to turn back toward him, and that his deep roots among the most loyal Democrats across the state will compensate for Greene's nearly $10-million in TV ad spending.

Greene couldn't pull off a bus tour like his, Meek said. "Who's going to show up? Because his whole campaign is about campaign ads and not about real people."

Meek's campaign received a gift this week after Greene had to keep answering questions — and revising his explanation — about him taking his 145-foot yacht to Cuba in 2007, after a former deck hand told the St. Petersburg Times about guests partying and getting sick on the trip to Cuba.

First Greene said he hadn't been to Cuba in five years, then he said it was a Jewish humanitarian trip, and then he said he went because the yacht needed repairs.

On Tuesday, the Greene campaign released a statement from the yacht's chief engineer, Andy Valero, saying Greene and his fiancee were on the way to a diving vacation in Honduras when hydraulic problems prompted them to veer off to Havana to make repairs.

"With the current rough sea state and winds, Marina Hemingway was the best bet. All the guests were very sick," Valero said in the statement.

Visiting or doing business with Cuba can be illegal and Meek scoffed at Greene's explanation.

"Whichever way Jeff Greene packages his visit to Cuba, it was illegal,'' Meek told reporters, as the "Real Dem Express" motor coach left a facility in Sanford that turns wastewater sludge into energy.

Meek gave a blistering assessment of Greene, saying he could never endorse him in the general election because he lacks the character to serve in the Senate and would be an embarrassment to the Democratic Party and the state.

"He's a very, very — in my opinion — bad person and he has stomped on people and shouted people down his entire life, and all of that is going to come home to roost," Meek said, noting among other things, Greene's close friendship with convicted rapist Mike Tyson and Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss.

The Greene campaign responded in a statement: "Kendrick Meek is not only already an embarrassment to Florida but should apologize for lying to Floridians in his ad using Mr. Warren Buffett's image and purposely misusing a quote for personal political gain."

It was a reference to a Meek ad criticizing Greene for making hundreds of millions of dollars on complex financial instruments that financier Buffett had criticized. But Buffett was not referring to anything Greene did personally, only to the type of investment involved.

While Greene only announced his candidacy in late April, Meek has been traveling to at least 50 Florida counties since January, 2009, and spent months gathering signatures in every corner of the state to qualify for the ballot by petition. In an off-year primary likely to have low turnout, that grass-roots effort and his own track record in Florida will make a difference, he predicts.

"I don't think there are many Florida voters saying, 'I need to make sure I get to the polls to vote for Jeff Greene.'?"Meek said.

Indeed, while Meek remains little known to most Floridians, he found plenty of enthusiastic supporters Wednesday in Orlando, Sanford, Daytona Beach and Jacksonville. They recounted him leading the fight to require smaller class sizes, sitting in Gov. Jeb Bush's office to protest sweeping changes to Florida' affirmative action admissions and purchasing policies, and supporting Democratic candidates up and down the ticket.

"If Kendrick Meek is beaten by Jeff Greene in the primary, I will definitely vote for Charlie Crist in the general election, no question," said Gary Morgensen, an Osceola County teacher holding an "I support the real Democrat" placard.
Last modified: Aug 05, 2010 03:00 PM]
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Personally, I'd be extremely surprised if Greene's media team doesn't already have a variety of pre-taped ads and already-produced campaign lit that's just the right combination of positive and reassuring, just waiting for the signal to drop it on Meek's exploding head, like poor ol' Wile E. Coyote.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hz65AOjabtM



My sense of things is that compared to what he needed to have in place, Meek's media is very mediocre and seems designed not to persuade voters so much as to reassure people outside of South Florida.


The two-fold problem for Meek is that he's not a very articulate candidate who can stir voters
to turn out in droves for him if he's an underdog with just one powerful speech.
He never had to persuade voters before to get elected, he just had to not shoot himself-in-the-foot.
That's part of why Greene's decision to run for Senate was so brilliant, even though as I've stated previously, I'd have preferred seeing him run for governor, where he and Rick Scott could've actually had some interesting debates about ideas instead of re-fighting the same old wars, as will happen with stultifying Alex Sink now, to everyone's dismay.


Greene and Co. knew going in that Meek as a brand was still un-tested outside of Miami-Dade County since he has NEVER had to come from behind to win a race, since he's always been not just the presumptive nominee, but the presumptive elected.


That's the rub for his always having been in a gerrymandered congressional district rather than a competitive one: he never had to exercise his campaign muscles.

And now it's showing.

Meek
is heading for a big fall.


So what do you think Meek's next job will be after his term expires?

I've gotten a few emails from you readers, but to be honest, not nearly as many as I expected.
Send your predictions to
hallandalebeachblog-at-gmail.com

New York Times

Florida Starts Primary Vote Marathon

By Damien Cave

August 9, 2010


MIAMI — Nasty television ads and e-mail, campaign workers on street corners, and candidates emerging from the polls declaring imminent victory — is the Florida primary already here?


Not quite, though one can hardly be blamed for making such a mistake. Early voting started Monday across Florida with all the get-out-the-vote stunts once reserved for Election Day itself. In a state famous for electoral skepticism (no, the wounds of 2000 have not healed here), early voting has gone from feared to embraced.

Indeed, the Aug. 24 primary will simply add a final sprint to what experts now describe as an established marathon. And for a nonpresidential year, the stakes are high. Early voting is likely to decide two major Florida races: which Republican runs for governor, and which Democrat takes on Gov. Charlie Crist, the former Republican, and Marco Rubio, the actual Republican, for a seat in the United States Senate.

Read the rest of the story at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/10/us/politics/10florida.html
See also:
Adam C. Smith articles/columns/blog posts:
http://www.tampabay.com/writers/adam-c-smith

The St. Petersburg Times excellent politics blog. The Buzz

http://blogs.tampabay.com/buzz/

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Three weeks from tonight, everyone will be asking, "What's Kendrick Meek going to do for a job now?"


For reasons that are pretty obvious to anyone who's got half-a-brain and who's been paying close attention, the slippery-slope part of Kendrick Meek's political career begins in earnest three weeks from tonight, when I expect him to lose the first competitive election he's ever been in, losing to Jeff Greene in the Florida Democratic U.S. Senate primary.
That will be to the great consternation of condescending liberal Dems all over the state, who were ready to serve the nomination up to him on a silver platter despite his clear lack of accomplishment, almost as an offering of penance.


Sure, because having two people with such low name recognition and actual accomplishment as
Alex Sink and Kendrick Meek at the top of the ticket is such a compelling narrative. LOL!

While it's still indeed possible for people of little-to-no consequence but lots of ambition and a ton of family connections to get elected to the U.S. Senate, especially if you are from a state with a small population -and I met many such people in my 15 years in Washington- Kendrick Meek has finally had his Close Encounter of the Third Kind -Contact- with the new dynamics of Florida being the fourth-largest state in the nation.

That's a lesson that many pols in this state learned the hard way a few years ago, when it was clear that the old ways of creating a working coalition that wins had changed forever, especially when you threw the Internet and Social Media into the mix.

Apparently, Kendrick Meek didn't get the memo.


Perhaps that memo was sent to him in Washington while he was in Haiti immediately after the earthquake in January, playing the role of melodramatic pol for all the assembled network TV cameras, behavior which left a very bad taste in many Florida voters' mouth.

And yes, before you ask, I did, in fact, catch Meek on Fox News in those first few hours after the quake struck, when he was LIVE with Geraldo Rivera and just happened to have a video-camera with him.

(I actually snapped a screenshot or two of that interview with my camera after I got over my initial shock of seeing Meek there, but I wasn't able to pull up the photo from the computer archives before posting this now.)

Meek's
knee-jerk orthodoxy in casting congressional votes with seemingly little thought, his inability over several terms to develop a reputation for being either an expert in some field, a respected deep-thinker, or a person with the personal skills to persuade more independent-minded centrist Members on an important vote, and his general lack of accomplishment has left a wide opening for someone who would exploit those self-evident weaknesses with vigor.

In Jeff Greene, he's met someone who enjoys tweaking him over his mediocre track record and who can call him out on all these things, not just one, and actually put his money where his mouth is.


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So what do you think Kendrick Meek's next job will be after his term is up in January?


Send me your best prognostications, either practical or sarcastic or both, and after a time, but before the August 24th primary, I will run some of them here for the amusement and edification of other Hallandale Beach Blog readers around the world, where of late, our friends in Sweden have come on strong to pass Italy for 8th place. Just chalk it up to the appeal of Timoteij and Molly Sandén.

FYI: The photo of Kendrick Meek at the top of this post is from a piece of Jeff Greene direct mail that I received Tuesday afternoon.
As much as people talk about Greene's vast financial resources, the thing that's most noticeable to me as a former political operative and political junkie, as well as a South Florida voter who has kept all the campaign lit that's been sent this year, regardless of the particular office, is that
his direct mail is simply more interesting, attractive and well-designed than anyone else's.
That still counts for something.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

With 99 days 'til Election Day, POLITICO reports that cynical Obama Nation is sending flacks to FL to help bumbling Alex Sink make hay out of BP spill

Surprise! With 99 days 'til Election Day, The POLITICO is reporting Sunday that the cynical and craven Obama White House is sending flacks and hacks to FL to help bumbling, stumbling Alex Sink and her gubernatorial campaign make political hay out of BP oil spill.

Great, I'm sure that's exactly who respected and well-read Florida reporters and columnists like Steve Bousquet, Adam Smith, William March, Aaron Deslatte, Craig Pittman, Bill Cotterell, Jeremy Wallace and Dara Kam want to hear from about the Florida political campaigns: people who don't live here and who only know what's going on based on what they see and hear on TV, newspapers and blogs.


The POLITICO
W.H. sends 2012 rescue team to Fla.
By: Carol E. Lee
July 25, 2010 07:02 AM EDT

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The White House has quietly launched an effort to confront the political backlash along the Gulf Coast over its handling of the BP oil spill – giving special attention to Florida, the only state in the region President Barack Obama won in 2008 and one he will need again when he runs for re-election in 2012.

The White House dispatched political and communications aides to the Gulf Coast states on July 12, with Alabama and Mississippi each receiving one, sources familiar with the effort said. Some aides went to Louisiana. Florida received four. Read the rest of the article at: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/40184.html This article also has this delicious pot-meets-kettle quote:


“It was just so off-target and out of touch with the reality of what’s going on over there,” Sink said in an interview at the Florida Democratic Party headquarters in Tallahassee.
Actually, being off-target and out-of-touch is the common talking point among Florida voters, Democratic and Republican, in describing Alex Sink's dismal gubernatorial campaign to date.

Savvy but honest and well-informed Republicans I've talked to from around the state are almost as confounded -
but more delighted!- by her repeated failure to launch as the Democratic activist community, who, rather foolishly, have deluded themselves into imagining that that Sink would be a strong, poised and polished can-do candidate like Meg Whitman, the former eBay CEO who is running to be governor of California, and whom most of my friends in Cali are currently supporting.
http://www.megwhitman.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VekQ1F9J-C8



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShZEPayRDA8


And that's
Meg Whitman, by the way, NOT Mae Whitman, as some news articles with bad editing have written that Mae would be a great candidate! LOL!
Mae
is the very talented twenty-two year old American actress who has, literally, grown-up before our eyes in one good film or TV show after another, as the daughter of, among others, Sandra Bullock, George Clooney and Bill Pullman.

She's currently appearing in NBC's Parenthood, which as I've written here previously, is a TV show that started-off far too slowly for me, due to the need to establish all the character's story arcs -and there were SO many characters!

But after the first 6-8 slow-moving episodes, the show's finally picked-up some momentum and has gotten dramatically better, with some compelling story lines that seem realistic to me.
Especially the tension between high school cousins, Mae's 'wild child' character Amber and 'good girl' Haddie, played by Sarah Ramos, who was so tremendous as the youngest daughter in another fave of mine that got cancelled far too soon, American Dreams.I would watch either one of them in anything because there's never a false note when they're on the screen.

That seething hurtful anger on the surface that Haddie had towards Amber at the end of the first season was SO realistic, that when they finally had to reconcile, because they were always going to be connected, it was almost awkward to watch.It deeply resonated with me from my experience of being in the middle of watching female friends get into it with other female relatives about old slights, both real and imagined.

Result: Me driving us back home to D.C. area on the Sunday after Thanksgiving at her family's home, and hours-and-hours of quiet punctuated by bouts of crying over in the passenger seat. Talk about a no-win situation.

It also helps greatly that the show also stars another longtime personal favorite, Lauren Graham, as Mae's mother. Mama Mia!
http://www.nbc.com/parenthood/bios/lauren-graham/index.shtml

Here's a short NBC video that features Lauren and Mae:

http://www.nbc.com/parenthood/bios/mae-whitman/index.shtml

See also http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0926165/ and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tow-ovrl2_U



Experience and the realities of the campaign have clearly proven that
Sink is anything but a Meg Whitman.

If anything, she's more like a
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, but without either the royal Kennedy magic and name recognition.

Whatever else the many faults and weaknesses of GOP candidates Rick Scott and State Attorney General Bill McCollum may be, and there are plenty of self-evident ones to choose from, Alex Sink has proven that she is Not Ready for Prime Time.

Sorry, when you are governor of the fourth-largest state in the country, you have to have gravitas, and even though Charlie Crist has proven to be such a colossal disappointment and waste of a vote, doesn't mean we have to accept such a low threshold.

(Gravitas, yet another reason why I will vote enthusiastically for Marco Rubio in November, despite disagreements on some policy issues.
I know with certainty he's loyal to the Framer's intentions, smart-as-a-whip, hard-working and really sweats the details, some traits that CAN'T honestly be said for the other three candidates hoping to go to D.C. this Fall.)


And when you think about it, how could it be otherwise for Sink, when even now, with less than four months to go until November 2nd, both the St. Petersburg Times and Miami Herald are STILL mentioning in the first few paragraphs of their news coverage of her campaign the fact that a large portion of Florida voters not only don't know who she is, but, even more tellingly about her failure to make herself known and give a logical rationale for her candidacy, DON'T even know that she is a SHE.
Let me repeat that: DON'T even know that she is a SHE.
Yes, that's a real identity problem that even wheelbarrows of money and TV campaign ads can't undo the damage of.

Frankly, if Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Greene was smart, he'd have actually run for governor, as he'd have carved-up Alex Sink even more methodically and brutally than Scott or McCollum plan to do, and would have a better chance of actually improving the state for the better, especially since the Dems in Tallahassee now may be among the dumbest and least-accomplished in generations.

And not that you asked, but since I last mentioned it, I have received more emails from folks throughout the state saying that they agree with the well-founded rumor that State Rep. Joe Gibbons, who is supposed to represent me and other HB residents, as well as those from here westward in Broward County towards Miramar, actually lives in Jacksonville with his family when he is not at work in Tallahassee, NOT South Florida.

Sort of like a less geographically-challenging version of the problem Steve Geller confronts now living apart from his family in Cooper City, and hanging his lawyer/lobbyist hat in Hollywood Beach at night in order to meet the legal residency requirements of his battle against incumbent District 6 Broward County Commissioner Sue Gunzburger.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

FL Senate Race: Marco Rubio on Fox & Friends, CNN's "The Situation Room"; WSJ articles on Rubio vs. Crist; Rubio video: "Ideas To Reclaim America"

Much to the consternation of the MSM, the "Anybody but Marco" campaign is not working despite the summer swelter and Charlie Crist 24/7 TV. Very soon we'll ponder in this space what Kendrick Meek's next job will be based on his experience as an inherited rubber stamp.
I invite suggestions to this space.

Rasmussen Reports

Poll of Likely Voters, Florida Senate Race, July 6, 2010


Marco Rubio
37%


Charlie Crist
33%


Jeff Greene
18%


500 Likely Voters
, MOE +/- 4.5%


Marco Rubio on 7/21/10 Fox and Friends

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_ojR45bbMo



Wall Street Journal

Crist Uses His Old Party as a New Foil
Senate Push Gains as Florida Governor Sets Himself Off Against State's GOP, With Some Firepower From Obama Camp
By Peter Wallsten

KEY BISCAYNE, Fla.—Florida's Republican-led legislature will gather Tuesday on the order of Gov. Charlie Crist—and then is expected to quickly refuse his call for a state-constitution ban on offshore oil drilling in Florida waters.


While no real legislative action seems likely to come of the special session, the showdown has become a signal event in Mr. Crist's campaign for the U.S. Senate and in his transformation from a rising Republican star to a political free agent.


Read the rest of the article at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704229004575371810495691530.html

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Wall Street Journal

Washington Wire
blog
Fla. Senate Race: Intrigue on the Democratic Side

By Peter Wallsten

July 20, 2010, 7:00 AM ET

Among the many intriguing aspects to the Florida Senate race is the drama unfolding on the Democratic side. Polls show a dead heat between the party’s establishment favorite, four-term Congressman Kendrick Meek of Miami, and political neophyte Jeff Greene, a billionaire former derivatives trader.

There are competing schools of thought within the party about what result to hope for from the Aug. 24 primary, and what the result might mean for the general election.

Read the rest of the post here:
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2010/07/20/fla-senate-race-intrigue-on-the-democratic-side/

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Marco Rubio on 7/20/10 "The Situation Room" on CNN

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7YRpFkypSk



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Rubio Launches "Ideas To Reclaim America"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAh0R-HlXlE



Rubio campaign web site: http://www.marcorubio.com/ideastostrengthenamerica/