All the talk about the U.S. Senate race between Gov. Charlie Crist and former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio is inescapable in the conservative stronghold of Northeast Florida.
But just this morning, some numbers were released suggesting another force is very much in the race, this one from the Democratic side of the ticket.
In announcing a historic petition drive to secure a place on the Democratic ballot, U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek also announced that more than 10,000 of the 145,000 nominating petitions he'd collected statewide came from Duval County.
That means about 7 percent of the support came from just one of Florida's 67 counties - an area far removed from the Miami area that Meek represents in Congress and a place where the Democratic Party is often criticized as misdirected. But now it's an area, statistically, to be considered responsible for a large chunk of Meek's support.
Meek said he's put a large emphasis on Duval County, an area where Democrats outnumber Republicans but votes tend to lean right. He said he doesn't only want to be competitive here. He wants to win.
"This is not about party. It's about leadership and understanding the issues," Meek said. "I run toward issues. Not from them. The issue as a Democratic candidate is for everyone in the state of Florida to know and feel that I'm going to be there for them."
Campaign manager Abe Dyk also noted that 10,000 of the 145,000 petitions statewide came from registered Republicans.
Posted By: Kendrick Meek
Tuesday, March 30th 2010 at 1:58PM
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