Did The Democrats Snub Meek, Again?
President Obama might have grabbed a corned beef sandwich with Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.) last week in South Beach, but that hasn’t stopped the whisper
Jul 31, 202060.4K Shares1.9M Views
President Obama might have grabbed a corned beef sandwichwith Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.) last week in South Beach, but that hasn’t stopped the whisper campaign that Democrats aren’t truly behind Meek’s run for Florida’s open Senate seat. The latest blip comes today in an Organizing for America email sent out to Democratic grassroots supporters today, in which deputy director Jeremy Bird urged voters to back a number of Democratic candidates in Florida tomorrow — but didn’t mention Meek:
“„“Please be sure to show up and vote for Alex Sink for governor,” wrote Bird. “We need to show strong support in the primary so that this November we have the momentum to send gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink as well as CFO candidate Loranne Ausley and agriculture and consumer services commissioner candidate Scott Maddox to represent us in Tallahassee.”
Sunshine State News tookthe email to mean that it “looks like the Obama team is hedging its bets just in case Jeff Greene pulls off the upset on Tuesday.” They later updated the story, however, with a response from OFA:
“„UPDATE: “The President, the DNC and OFA have made clear their support for Kendrick Meek on numerous occasions,” wrote Joanne Peters with the DNC and OFA. “Just last week, the President was with Kendrick Meek in Florida and Chairman Kaine has repeatedly stated in interviews that the DNC supports Meek. This is just one of several get out the vote emails OFA will send in Florida. Each email will look different and too much shouldn’t be read into this one email.”
It’s hard to read into OFA’s intentions, but it’s clear that the issue is still a sensitive one both in Florida and among Democrats in Washington. With Gov. Charlie Crist leading in the polls, some Democrats admitted to hoping his challenger Jeff Greene might winthe primary, if only to have a legitimate excuse to back Crist in the general election. Whether Meek gets a big bump in the polls from his expected primary win tomorrow, or Crist continues to steal Democratic voters away from him, remains a subject of open contention.
Paula M. Graham
Reviewer
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