I wrote a diary last week asking everyone to help Kendrick Meek win the FL Senate race. Kendrick Meek wants to be the first person in history to get on the FL ballot by obtaining petition signatures from registered FL voters. If you live in Florida, or you know someone who lives in Florida, I need you to click here to download a petition, print it, and mail it in.
I need you to sign up to follow Kendrick Meek on Facebook.
And if you can spare a donation, contribute here. Donations are helpful in this "very expensive media market" state and we all know that the Republicans want this seat and are ready to do anything to get it - including spend millions.
Kendrick Meek has been endorsed by the Firefighters, the Fraternal Order of Police, the Florida Education Association, the AFL-CIO, AFSCME, and SEIU as well as a bunch of locals. The NYT had a story on the race this week and it talked about Meek's chances:
The polls, of course, may not be destiny. In a state dominated by expensive news media markets, Mr. Rubio is still behind in fund-raising, with $3.37 million collected, according to state records, compared with $4.96 million for Mr. Meek and $8.99 million for Mr. Crist.
The challenge for Mr. Meek is that he is generally unknown outside Miami. According to the January poll by Quinnipiac), 72 percent of all those surveyed, and 60 percent of Democrats, said they did not know enough about him to form an opinion.
Many of his supporters say this can be solved by Election Day. They praise Mr. Meek as a methodical campaigner who is building his organization and visiting small gatherings all over the state.
Sound familiar? It certainly does to me. Particularly the "methodical campaigner who is building his organization and visiting small gatherings all over the state." This is exactly how Barack Obama won in Illinois when he ran in a primary for U.S. Senate against 8 other Democrats and it's exactly how he won the Democratic primary in Iowa and dozens of other states.
Former Lt. Gov. Buddy MacKay, who hired Mr. Meek as his driver when Mr. Meek was a state trooper in the 1990s, said that at some point, the retail politicking would pay off.
"Kendrick’s got it right — let them fight it out," Mr. MacKay said. "You don’t want your campaign peaking too early."
The primary here in FL is August 24th, so we may not know the Republican candidate until then. For all we know Charlie Crist could decide to run as an Independent tomorrow. Rubio could end up being forced to drop out over the credit card/spending scandal in the FL GOP. Regardless, there is one Democrat who can win this Senate seat in November - and that's Kendrick Meek. He needs our help to do it. Donate here.
Want to know where Meek stands on the issues important to you? Here's some information from my last diary:
There are several issues that are important to Floridians right now - in addition to the job and health care concerns. One of those concerns is funding cuts to NASA. Kendrick addressed potential funding cuts in an Op-Ed recently. Another important issue in the news recently is an attempt by the FL legislature to undermine a Constitutional Amendment, passed in 2002, that limits class-sizes in FL schools. Kendrick talks about why class size is so important here and illustrates the improvements Floridians have seen in schools since this class size amendment passed.
Check out Kendrick's voting record on the issues and you will see that he is one of the most progressive members of Congress. Kendrick is a reliable vote on all of the issues we care about so deeply. He has voted time after time to protect the environment (something Floridians care about because so much of our economy is tourism-based), he has voted to protect Civil Rights and increase protections for those who are discriminated against. Kendrick consistently votes to protect Medicare and help Senior Citizens. He was one of the first Democrats in Congress to speak out about the genocide occurring in Darfur. He went to Haiti just days after the devastating earthquake there (I encourage you to look at his videos of the trip to Haiti). Kendrick has a great voting record on reproductive rights. He has voted to regulate banks and he is acutely aware of the impact of the housing crisis because 1 in 5 FL houses are in foreclosure. He knows that the solution to that problem - and every other problem is NOT further deregulation.
We need voices like Kendrick Meek's in the Senate. He is a strong candidate. He has a history of fighting for Florida and we need to ensure that he continues to fight for Floridians in the future.
Have you heard of question time? Kendrick Meek supports "question time" with the President. He guest-blogged on 538.com to state his position on this:
On the occasion of today’s White House Health Care Summit, I would like to offer my full support for Question Time – a bipartisan effort to hold regular, unmediated, and open exchanges between the President and members of Congress, the direct representatives of the people.
Over 18,000 Americans, representing all political stripes, have joined the online movement for Question Time and many young supporters have approached me about getting behind the idea. After seeing the success of the President’s appearance last month at the House Republican retreat in Baltimore and his subsequent Q&A with Senate Democrats, I’ve become convinced that Question Time will both strengthen our governance and help revitalize our political process.
Here are some of the issues that are important to me (I'll stress some because there's just no way for me to be comprehensive on this. I care about way too many things. But some highlights (link):
- Voted YES on expanding research to more embryonic stem cell lines. (Jan 2007)
- Voted NO on restricting interstate transport of minors to get abortions. (Apr 2005)
- Voted NO on banning partial-birth abortion except to save mother’s life. (Oct 2003)
- Rated 100% by NARAL, indicating a pro-choice voting record. (Dec 2003)
- Focus on preventing pregnancy, plus emergency contraception. (Jan 2009)
- $800B stimulus helps, while 95% get tax cuts. (Dec 2009)# $800B stimulus helps, while 95% get tax cuts. (Dec 2009)
- Voted YES on $192B additional anti-recession stimulus spending. (Jul 2009)
- Voted YES on modifying bankruptcy rules to avoid mortgage foreclosures. (Mar 2009)
- Voted YES on additional $825 billion for economic recovery package. (Jan 2009)
- Voted YES on monitoring TARP funds to ensure more mortgage relief. (Jan 2009)
- Voted YES on $60B stimulus package for jobs, infrastructure, & energy. (Sep 2008)
- Voted YES on regulating the subprime mortgage industry. (Nov 2007)
- Voted YES on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation. (Nov 2007)
- Voted NO on Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman. (Jul 2006)
- Voted NO on making the PATRIOT Act permanent. (Dec 2005)
- Voted NO on protecting the Pledge of Allegiance. (Sep 2004)
- Voted YES on constitutional amendment prohibiting flag desecration. (Jun 2003)
- Ending racial profiling is part of fight for justice. (Jan 2001)
- Rated 100% by the HRC, indicating a pro-gay-rights stance. (Dec 2006)
- Re-introduce the Equal Rights Amendment. (Mar 2007)
- Washington favored Wall Street over Main Street for too long. (Dec 2009)
- Voted YES on letting shareholders vote on executive compensation. (Jul 2009)
- Voted YES on more funding for nanotechnology R&D and commercialization. (Jul 2009)
- Voted YES on enforcing against anti-gay hate crimes. (Apr 2009)
- Distribute sterile syringes to reduce AIDS and hepatitis. (Jan 2009)
- Voted YES on $40B for green public schools. (May 2009)
- Voted YES on enforcing limits on CO2 global warming pollution. (Jun 2009)
- Voted YES on tax credits for renewable electricity, with PAYGO offsets. (Sep 2008)
- Voted YES on expanding the Children's Health Insurance Program. (Jan 2009)
- Voted YES on giving mental health full equity with physical health. (Mar 2008)
- Voted YES on Veto override: Extend SCHIP to cover 6M more kids. (Jan 2008)
- Voted YES on adding 2 to 4 million children to SCHIP eligibility. (Oct 2007)
- Voted YES on requiring negotiated Rx prices for Medicare part D. (Jan 2007)
- No US contracts with companies linked to Darfur genocide. (Dec 2009)
- Supports minimum wage, organizing unions, and R&D. (Dec 2009)
Compare that to Charlie Crist's record, who, just in the area of choice believes that parental notification should be upheld and that late-term abortion should be illegal. What Democrat votes for a guy like this? Crist wants to replace income tax with a flat tax or national sales tax. That's horrifying. His Republican primary opponent Marco Rubio is just as bad.
I've heard a lot of people talk about how un-winnable this race is. I've heard the same people suggest that Meek isn't a good candidate (based on the record above, I think he's a damn good candidate). Markos himself prefers Charlie Crist in this race. I don't see how "more and better Democrats" means that we should support Republicans who believe in a flat tax, who cut services to the poor in FL in order to give more tax cuts to the rich, and who want to restrict my reproductive rights, among other things. If you believe in "more and better Democrats" you will join me in helping to elect Kendrick Meek to this U.S. Senate seat. If he were in the Senate today he'd be voting for a much more liberal health care bill and he'd be pushing for more legislation on bank & Wall Street regulation and he'd sure as hell be focused on creating jobs.
This seat is far from un-winnable. Democrats in Florida have an 800,000 voter registration advantage. If we do the work on the ground, that "methodical" work that was mentioned above in the NYT article, then we can absolutely win this seat.
If you live in Florida, or you know someone who lives in Florida, I need you to click here to download a petition, print it, and mail it in.
I need you to sign up to follow Kendrick Meek on Facebook.
I also need you do donate here - whatever amount you're able to spare. I'm not rolling in the money here these days myself, but I'm tossing $5 and $10 towards Meek whenever I can and every dollar matters. When I did that for Obama I ended up donating over $550 in the end.
We need more than 125,000 signatures to get on the ballot. Help Kendrick Meek be the voice of Floridians in the United States Senate.