Free Republic

Two years after Florida helped elect the nation's first black president, Charlie Crist's unrelenting drive to win a Senate seat at the expense of a black Democrat and a Hispanic Republican has forced tender racial sensitivities back to the surface of Sunshine State politics. Crist was involved in getting President Bill Clinton to persuade Democratic nominee Kendrick Meek to drop his own bid and endorse Crist in an effort to deny Republican Marco Rubio the Senate seat. Sources told POLITICO that Meek signaled that he would drop out of the race — twice — before backtracking, a characterization that Meek...

I think this is going to be my last Crist post of the year, guys. I can’t deal with it anymore. Even a devout cynic can only take so much. Mr. Crist, the Florida governor, had called Mr. Meek, a Miami congressman, earlier that morning, about 4:50 a.m., leaving a voice mail asking if they could meet up at the AIPAC gathering. “I’ll call you later this morning and see if we can work out a time to get together just you and me,” Mr. Crist said in the voice mail, which was played for Washington Wire by Mr. Meek....

Republican Marco Rubio now enjoys a 20-point advantage over Independent candidate Charlie Crist in the U.S. Senate race in Florida, with Democratic Congressman Kendrick Meek still running third. A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in the Sunshine State finds Rubio picking up 50% of the vote, while Crist, Florida's current GOP governor, receives 30% support. Meek picks up 16% support, his worst showing since early July. One percent (1%) prefers some other candidate, and another three percent (3%) are still undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.) This race remains Solid Republican in the Rasmussen Reports...

Making the rounds on several television network news shows on Friday morning, Democrat Kendrick Meek lashed out at independent Charlie Crist for fueling what he called false rumors that former President Bill Clinton had asked him to drop out of the Senate race. ``[Clinton] didn't ask me to drop out of the race,'' Meek told Fox & Friends. He said that longtime political mentor had asked him last week about ``rumors'' that he might possibly withdraw from the race. Meek said he told Clinton that he was not going to bow out of the race. ```That's your decision,''' Meek recalled...

With just weeks before the election and Republican candidate Marco Rubio already finalizing plans to make it rain at his victory party, some had rumored out loud that the Democrats might consider dropping out of the race to give independent Charlie Crist a fighting chance at the U.S. Senate seat. Not gonna happen. Democrat candidate Kendrick Meek made it crystal clear that he is going nowhere, both in the polls and as far as leaving the Senate race is concerned. "I'm not going anywhere except the United States Senate," Meek released in a statement today. "Because if they want to...

The race for the U.S. Senate in Florida continues to be all about Governor Charlie Crist and former state House Speaker Marco Rubio, regardless of which Democrat they face. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in Florida shows Rubio with 38% of the vote and Crist at 33% if Congressman Kendrick Meek is the nominee. Meek earns 21%. Only one percent (1%) prefer some other candidate, and seven percent (7%) are undecided. If billionaire Jeff Greene is the Democratic candidate, Crist gets 37% support to Rubio’s 36%, with Greene trailing at 20%. two percent (2%) like another...

There are going to be a lot of races this year where a Republican leaning third party candidate would do Democrats a lot of good. The Florida Senate race is not going to be one of them. If Charlie Crist's independent run has any impact on Kendrick Meek's chances of winning it's likely to be negative. Here are three reasons why: -In a hypothetical three way contest last month we found Crist winning 32% of Obama voters but only 22% of McCain voters. Even before making his departure from the Republican Party a reality he was pulling more from likely...

Broward Politics Meek says he's staying in Senate race By Russell Small October 28, 2010 10:17 PM Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Kendrick Meek denied reports by the Washington, D.C., political website Politico that former President Bill Clinton tried to convince him to drop out of the race and endorse independent Charlie Crist. “President Clinton did not ask me to drop out of the race,” Meek said at a hastily called press conference Thursday night at his campaign headquarters in Miami Gardens. “No one has called to ask me to drop out.”

Bill Clinton sought to persuade Rep. Kendrick Meek to drop out of the race for Senate during a trip to Florida last week — and nearly succeeded. Meek agreed — twice — to drop out and endorse Gov. Charlie Crist’s independent bid in a last-ditch effort to stop Marco Rubio, the Republican nominee who stands on the cusp of national stardom. Meek, a staunch Clinton ally from Miami, has failed to broaden his appeal around the state and is mired in third place in most public polls, with a survey today showing him with just 15 percent of the vote....

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1010/44337.html

Miami Gardens, FL -- Kendrick Meek campaign manager Abe Dyk released the following statement regarding the Politico article. "The article is not true. Kendrick Meek was never dropping out of this race, is never dropping out of this race, and will never drop out of this race. Kendrick Meek will always stand up for the middle class and will not leave Floridians a choice between two lifelong conservative Republicans who only stand with the special interests. Kendrick is the Democratic nominee so if anyone should drop out, it's Charlie Crist."

In a bruising Senate debate, independent candidate Gov. Charlie Crist brought up that Republican Marco Rubio has "turned his back" on his Hispanic family. Crist threw the jab citing a newspaper article about Rubio's stance on immigration. The claim came during a televised between Florida state Speaker Rubio, Crist, and Democratic Rep. Kendrick Meek, set to air on the FOX Tampa affiliate WTVT at 6:30pm ET Friday. "These are their [the newspaper's] words, not mine speaker, that you have turned your back on your Hispanic family, and they think that is inexcusable," Crist said. Rubio, who is of Cuban heritage...

Well, they did stop short of presenting him with a ceremonial seppuku sword . . . But other than that, MSNBC's Daily Rundown duo of Chuck Todd and Savannah Guthrie did their best to convince Florida Dem Kendreck Meek to get out of the senatorial race to give Charlie Crist a shot against Marco Rubio. Todd tried the cold-hard-numbers route, while Guthrie made an emotional appeal, literally asking Meek if he "can live" with himself if his continued candidacy resulted in the election of Rubio. View video here.

Republican Marco Rubio "is in the catbird's seat" in the race for Florida's U.S. Senate seat, with Gov. Charlie Crist stalled in second and Democrat Kendrick Meek lagging even further behind in third, according to a Mason-Dixon poll released Thursday. Rubio has pushed his lead to 15 percentage points, attracting 42 percent of voters, compared with 27 percent for Crist, an independent, and 21 percent for Meek, the poll showed. Ten percent of voters remain undecided. If Rubio can stay above 40 percent, it will be difficult for Crist or Meek to catch him, said Mason-Dixon pollster Brad Coker. "Most...

(Reuters) - Florida Governor Charlie Crist's strategy of taking the best ideas from Democrats and Republicans in his campaign as an independent for a Senate seat is failing. The slight edge Crist held over Republican "Tea Party" favorite Marco Rubio in August has evaporated and turned into a wide deficit as he courts what appears to be a fast- shrinking moderate vote. A Reuters/Ipsos poll on Wednesday showed Rubio far ahead in the three-way race to succeed Republican Senator George LeMieux, with support from 40 percent of likely voters. Crist had 26 percent while Democrat Kendrick Meek had 21 percent....

TAMPA - A new poll shows Marco Rubio slipping ahead of Gov. Charlie Crist in the U.S. Senate race for the first time. It also suggests that Rep. Kendrick Meek of Miami is turning around his race against Palm Beach real estate investor Jeff Geene in the Democratic Senate primary, moving to a double-digit lead after trailing Greene by substantial margins for the last several weeks. The poll also indicates that Crist, a no-party candidate, is heavily dependent on support from Democrats, and if Democratic voters move toward a nominee of their own party, Crist's support will erode. Crist has...

Democratic Senate frontrunner Jeff Greene is backtracking on his claim that he had visited Cuba as part of a Jewish humanitarian trip, and a former deckhand says he's still not telling the truth. Greene spokesman Luis Vizcaino said Tuesday that the real estate mogul's 145-foot yacht Summerwind docked for two days in Havana's Hemingway Marina in 2007 while awaiting repairs. In Sunday's debate against Democratic rival Kendrick Meek, Greene said he went to Cuba on a Jewish mission. ``During the debate Jeff misspoke,'' Vizcaino said after receiving media inquiries about the trip. ``What he meant to say was that in...

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel will hold a fundraiser for Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.), who’s running for the Democratic nomination in Florida’s Senate race. The event will take place Monday, Aug. 2, in Washington D.C., according to the Orlando Sentinel.  The administration officially supports Meek in his primary against billionaire Jeff Greene, but there’s been grumbling that the White House hasn’t done all it can to help the congressman. Part of the problem could be Gov. Charlie Crist, who’s running as an independent candidate and giving Republican Marco Rubio a tougher race than either Democratic candidate is, according...

Charlie Crist received a bounce in the polls when he left the Republican Party to run for the U.S. Senate as an independent. New numbers suggest that the bounce for the governor is over. A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters in Florida finds Republican Marco Rubio with 39% support, while Crist earns 31% of the vote and Democrat Kendrick Meek trails at 18%. Twelve percent (12%) are undecided. Two weeks ago, just after Crist announced that he was running as an independent, he held a 38% to 34% advantage over Rubio. The latest numbers parallel the findings...

Gov. Charlie Crist holds an early lead as an independent candidate in the U.S. Senate race, but his edge is a ``proverbial house of cards,'' according to a new poll, because support from Democratic and black voters is unlikely to hold up through the Nov. 2 election. The Mason-Dixon poll released Thursday found Crist receiving 38 percent of the vote, compared to 32 percent for the likely Republican nominee, former House Speaker Marco Rubio, and 19 percent for the leading Democratic contender, U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek of Miami. Eleven percent are undecided. More than half of Crist's supporters are Democrats,...