With only a month until the primary election, the two leading candidates for the Democratic nomination in the U.S. Senate election are getting nasty, increasing the barrage of attacks against one another -- while polls show that Gov. Charlie Crist may be getting more Democratic support than either billionaire financier Jeff Greene or U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, and national pundits speculate whether Crist will join Democrats in the Senate if elected.
While polls show that both Greene and Meek are far behind Crist -- who is running as an independent candidate -- and former House Speaker Marco Rubio, the likely Republican candidate in the race, the two Democrats continue to rip into each other.
Responding to a new mailer launched over the weekend by the Meek campaign,Greene threw down the gauntlet to his rival in a letter that was released on Monday morning.
When I first entered the Senate race, I wrote to you to express my desire to run a campaign based on the issues that Floridians care about, including jobs, the environment and health care, wrote Greene. I proposed that we have a healthy debate on the topics that would help voters understand the clear difference between our candidacies.
Now, with just over a month before the primary election and less than 24 hours after Democrats united at the Jefferson-Jackson dinner, you have resorted to vicious personal attacks against my character with your most recent mailer, continued Greene. This desperate and negative assault is a new low, even for you, Kendrick, and I have no choice but to respond in kind.
Greene continued to go on the attack. I can only conclude that you are attempting to distract voters from the fact that as a congressman you failed to protect Floridians from two of the biggest crises in recent time, continued Greene. You failed to regulate the lenders that offered the sub-prime home loans that caused the housing crisis, and you failed to regulate Wall Street that caused the economic crisis which resulted in thousands of families across Florida losing their homes and livelihoods.
Meek has played up that he is the real Democrat in the race but Greene is taking some exception to that -- even hinting that Meek may not back Greene if he wins the nomination.
The recent polls illustrate that Floridians are tired of the status quo and want a proven jobs creator that is independent of special interests to be their senator, wrote Greene. And regardless of the outcome of the primary, I am committed to supporting the Democratic Senate nominee and will do what I can to ensure Democrats win in November -- something you have not pledged to do.
With polls showing Democrats increasingly open to backing the governor, Greene hinted that Meek, if he lost the battle for the nomination, would be one more Democrat on the Crist bandwagon. Indeed, national pundit Charlie Cook speculated on MSNBC on Monday morning that, if elected, Crist would caucus with Democrats in the U.S. Senate.
Later on Monday, the Greene campaign launched a new television ad, attacking Meek as a career politician beholden to special interests and responsible for Floridas continued high unemployment.
Greene had warned Meek in the letter that the race would get increasingly nasty.
In the final weeks of this primary, I will continue to campaign across the state on the issues Floridians care about, but I will not let vicious personal attacks against my character go unanswered, wrote Greene to Meek. I am responding quickly, forcefully and truthfully.
Meeks team quickly responded, taking aim at Greenes claim that he helped create jobs.
"Jeff Greene made a massive fortune on the backs of the middle class using dangerous Wall Street investments Warren Buffett called 'financial weapons of mass destruction.'Greene's speculative deals with Wall Street banks didn't create jobs, said Adam Sharon, communications director for the Meek campaign. They only helped destroy the middle class by weakening the economy and helping cause the economic collapse. Now, by spending millions on TV ads, Greene is trying to create a fictional record of job creation. Where are the employees who can attest to his managerial skills? Where is the proof that he did, in fact, create jobs? Middle-class Florida families deserve leaders who will fight to create good-paying jobs, not Wall Street billionaires who helped wreck the middle class.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
