Hi all,
This is Kendrick's campaign manager Abe Dyk. I wanted to share our new television ad with you and a campaign memo that explains why we went with this particular ad. Tell us what you think about this one and there will be more to come...
(Transcript and campaign memo below the jump)
Transcript
Kendrick Meek: I'm Kendrick Meek and I approve this message.
Narrator: Check it out.
Meet the real Jeff Greene.
Ran for Congress as a California Republican.
Moved to Florida two years ago.
Became a billionaire on Wall Street betting middle class families would lose their homes.
Helped fuel the economic meltdown.
Warren Buffett called Greene's scheme "financial weapons of mass destruction."
Jeff Greene: "They'll attack me for my friends and past when I was single. Some of it is true but none of that matters. "
Narrator: Betting on suffering does matter
***
Campaign Memo
From: Abe Dyk, Campaign Manager, Kendrick Meek For Florida
Re: "He's the Man"
This week we released a campaign commercial entitled, “He’s the Man.”
The ad highlights some of the very troubling components of Jeff Greene’s candidacy. Chief among them, Jeff Greene was a pioneer of a risky financial product – Credit Default Swaps – that Warren Buffet called “financial weapons of mass destruction.” Greene bet that the housing market would collapse and that middle class Floridians would lose their equity and their homes. Every night, while Floridians went to bed praying to keep their homes, Greene prayed they would lose them so he could profit and become a billionaire. Credit Default Swaps – like the ones Greene pioneered – played a critical part in the financial downfall, the credit crunch, the decline of the housing market and the near collapse of the U.S. economy. Jeff Greene became a billionaire off the backs of middle-class, hard working Floridians and played an integral role in contributing to the economic meltdown that has affected the lives of every Floridian.
Our campaign has no choice but to fight back to make sure Floridians know how Greene made the money he is using to launch false and misleading television attacks. One month ago, Greene ran an advertisement in Washington, DC simply to gin up distorted headlines. He has also sent out a mailer rife with gross mischaracterizations. As the Miami Herald noted in reviewing the mailer, “He [Greene] also makes Meek out to be a supporter of offshore oil drilling, even though he’s not.” This past week, Greene has sunk well over a million dollars into fictious and deceptive television commercials. We know this is only the beginning of Greene’s attempts to mislead voters about his record and Kendrick’s record. As Greene continues to go negative in this campaign, it is important that voters know where his money came from.
Greene is attacking Kendrick because he knows his own candidacy doesn't resonate with Florida voters. A PPP poll out last week has Greene’s favorable/unfavorable rating inverted. More Democratic voters don’t like Greene (22%) than like him (33%). A negative campaign associated with a candidate who is viewed unfavorably by the electorate will only further drive up Greene's negatives. Voters see Greene for who he is: A man who helped wreck the economy and destroy the middle class, became a billionaire in the process, and was never a Democrat until 2008. Greene is incapable of running a positive campaign because his track record is so poor and his past so checkered. He has no option but to go negative.
To conclude this memo and reveal a snapshot of the type of person we will defeat on August 24 are highlights of the top ten lies that Jeff Greene has told in the two months since announcing his candidacy. These statements are simultaneously dizzying and unbelievable, but none of them are made up.
Jeff Greene’s Top 10 List of Lies
On Greene's Yacht Destroying Barrier Reefs in Belize
The St. Petersburg Times reported:
And, oddly, Greene today says the incident never happened, despite extensive publicity about it at the time (including statements from his representatives), eyewitness accounts, scientific surveys of the damage and an extensive case file at the country's Department of Environment.
"Jeff Greene doesn't take a penny of special interest money, so career politicians are attacking him with ridiculous stories about something that didn't even happen five years ago on a boat he wasn't even on,'' said campaign spokesman Luis Vizcaino.
Asked how he could say it never happened when Greene's own employees at the time acknowledged a problem on the reef with Summerwind, Vizcaino declined further comment: "That's our position. That's our quote.
On Paying DNC Member for 'Consulting Services' 6 Days Before Receiving His Endorsement
The Associated Press reported:
DNC member Jon Ausman of Tallahassee sent out a blast e-mail June 13 asking people to take a survey on the Senate race saying it "will guide me in making my endorsement choice."
The next day, Greene, who's running against Rep. Kendrick Meek for the Democratic nomination, wrote Ausman a $4,000 check for political consultation and strategy.
Six days later, Ausman announced his endorsement in another e-mail: Greene.
He signed the endorsement e-mail as a DNC member but didn't mention that he was being paid by Greene. He says he provided 35,000 e-mail addresses in exchange for the money.
...
"The endorsement of Ausman was very welcome but we also wanted to tap into his experience," said Luis Vizcaino, a Greene spokesman. "He offered to do it for free, but we wanted to hire him as a strategist ... He's working as a consultant for the campaign."
On Photos Emerging of Greene Spending New Years On St. Bart's With Lindsay Lohan
The St. Petersburg Times reported:
After Buzz yesterday highlighted Democratic Senate candidate Jeff Greene palling around in St. Bart's with Lindsay Lohan last New Year's Eve, an Orlando TV reporter asked him about it. He seemed to imply he had no idea what the reporter was talking about: "I don't even know what photograph...People stand next to me all the time in photographs. What can I say? This is not what's important. Floridians are worried about jobs, getting results."
Because inquiring minds want to know, Buzz can now report that it appears Lohan was spending time on Greene's 145-foot yacht, Summerwind, at the time.
"She was a guest of (Greene) and his wife," said a Greene spokesman.
On Spending Years As A Registered Republican And Running For Congress As A Republican
Greene told Creative Loafing, "I've always been a Democrat. For one year of my life I was outside the party, but that's really it."
The Palm Beach Post reported:
In February 1982, Greene registered to vote in Los Angeles County, Calif. Asked on the voter registration form to choose a political party, he bypassed the boxes for Republican, Democrat and other parties and checked "Decline to State."
Sometime that year, Greene became a Republican. The Los Angeles County Registrar- Recorder/County Clerk's office could not find a record of Greene's switch, but Greene ran unsuccessfully in a 1982 Republican primary for a Los Angeles-area congressional seat.
...
In 1992, Greene registered to vote again in Los Angeles County from an address in Malibu. He again checked the "Decline to State" box for his political party. On a section of the form that asks "Have You Ever Been Registered to Vote?" Greene checked "Yes" and stated that he'd been registered in Los Angeles as a Republican.
Greene declared himself a Democrat in 2008 when he moved to Miami Beach and registered to vote in Miami-Dade County.
On First Moving To Florida in 2008
PolitiFact reported:
Greene, 55, grew up in Worcester, Mass. When his parents moved to West Palm Beach, he stayed with his aunt to finish high school in Worcester, according to a Miami Herald Dec. 7, 2009 profile. He went to Johns Hopkins for college and spent school breaks in South Florida. Greene later went to Harvard Business School and then moved to Los Angeles in 1980, Forbes reported.
Here's how Greene addressed his South Florida ties on his campaign website:
"For over 40 years, Florida has been a part of my life. When I was a teenager, my family moved to Florida after my father lost his livelihood in Massachusetts. During high school I worked alongside my dad on his vending machine routes throughout South Florida. During college I worked as a bus boy and a waiter in Palm Beach. My father passed away here in Florida when I was a young man, and my 83-year-old mother has lived in West Palm Beach for over 40 years. I was born in Massachusetts and have spent time on both coasts building my real estate business. Since meeting my wife four years ago, we decided to make our home in Palm Beach where we live today with our newborn son."
On Donating to Republican Campaigns:
The St. Petersburg Times reported:
A spokesman for Greene's campaign, Paul Blank, said he donated to Whitman because she was a Harvard business school classmate. "Jeff is an independent Democrat. Jeff grew up a Democrat; his parents and grandparents are Democrats and he is a Democrat. Jeff supported President Obama, attended the inauguration and donated to Obama's Inaugural Committee."
Trouble is, don't see evidence that he did donate to the inaugural committee. http://www.opensecrets.org/...
On Bringing Aboard Ukranian Strippers During A 2005 Black Sea Cruise :
The St. Petersburg Times reported:
Intriguing excerpt from The Greatest Trade Ever, by Gregory Zuckerman, about Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Greene's 2005 cruise into the Black Sea about his 145-foot yacht, Summerwind:
"Greene brought two Ukranian strippers on board to make a cameo appearance and hired stewardesses from coastal towns to serve as his crew. Some doubled as massage therapists, which came in handy after a day of scuba diving, Jet Skiing or kayaking."
"Who knows how many things people are going to make up? Never happened," said campaign spokesman Paul Blank. "Jeff was travelling on his boat with his Rabbi and his younger brother to visit Jewish sites in Romania and Odessa.
On Doctoring A Photo Of Mike Tyson, Attempting To Tie Kendrick Meek to Tyson, Greene's Best Man:
The Orlando Sentinel reported:
When billionaire Democratic senate candidate Jeff Greene got married three years ago - reportedly in a million-dollar affair attended by Hugh Hefner, Oliver Stone and the Earl of Dartmouth - he selected as his best man ...
Wait for it ...
Mike Tyson.
Yes, that Mike Tyson. The former boxing champ, convicted rapist, ear biter and alleged wife abuser.
...
But Monday evening, the Greene campaign chose a curious way to underscore its irrelevance.
It contacted the Sentinel and asked, "Would you like to see a photo of (U.S. Rep.) Kendrick Meek (Greene's chief rival in the primary) with Mike Tyson?"
Sure.
So the campaign sent a digital image of Tyson and Meek standing next to one another and smiling while attending an event to raise money for Haiti.
In a follow-up e-mail, Greene spokesman Paul Blank blasted Meek saying the South Florida Congressman is "being a hypocrite " because "here you have Meek criticizing Greene while Meek is asking for his photo with Mike Tyson. "
But Blank left out a few important facts.
First, Meek hasn't gone after Greene on the Tyson question. As best we can tell, Meek's left that subject untouched.
Second, most voters would say there's a difference between having your picture snapped with someone and asking that someone to be your best man.
And third, this wasn't some random photo of Meek and Tyson palling around. Turns out, it was taken at the relief event in February, a few months before Greene declared his candidacy. The photographer was Jeff Greene's wife. And while it shows Tyson standing to Meek's right, it doesn't show the man standing to Meek's immediate left.
Know who that was? Jeff Greene.
Blank didn't mention any of that until Pulse asked about it.
On Specifically Betting That Florida Homeowners Would Lose Their Homes:
Jeff Greene told the Tampa Tribune, "Not one person in Florida ever lost a penny as a result of the investments I made."
Wall Street Journal columnist Gregory Zuckerman reported in his book, The Greatest Trade Ever:
Greene had spent months picking out especially toxic polls of loans, mortgages with little equity behind them from states where housing seemed to be running into trouble. And yet, his CDS protection on the loans was barely moving.
"This pool has more exposure to Florida and California, has lower FICO scores and more 'liar loans,' and yet is priced higher than the ABX." Greene told [Alan] Zafran, growing more animated. "Why?!?"
On Making Millions Off The Backs Of Middle-Class Families
The Wall Street Journal reported:
(Greene) made his fortune by buying credit default swaps that turned golden after Florida's real estate market collapsed.
"Never did I imagine that the subprime mortgage market would implode, and I would make hundreds of millions of dollars," Mr. Greene told reporters.
If he can get voters to believe that, they'll believe anything and his election to the U.S. Senate is assured.
(Our new media director Kenneth Quinnell will check in tonight and respond to comments, thanks).
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