http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2010/04/f... ABC News’ Teddy Davis and Matt Loffman report:
If Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) abandons the Republican Party and runs for the US Senate as an independent, the Democratic candidate in the race thinks that it could have the unintended consequence of helping him by drawing more attention to his candidacy.
“The only thing that will change in our race if he does decide to run as an independent is accelerating the surfacing, the public surfacing of my candidacy, because then I will be included in all of the debates and I will be considered if you’re going to pull the candidates together,” Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Fla., told ABC News.
Meek spoke with ABC News on Friday after participating in a panel discussion on “The Tragedy of Oklahoma City 15 Years Later and the Lessons for Today.” The panel discussion, which was moderated by Atlantic Media political director Ron Brownstein, was held at the Center for American Progress immediately following a speech on the same topic by former President Bill Clinton.
Meek voiced confidence about his chances in the race regardless of whether Crist stays in the Republican primary against former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio.
“Whichever way you slice this orange, if I can put it that way, it’s going to enhance my ability to win in Florida because . . . Rubio and Crist will continue to fight one another,” said Meek.
Meek’s candidacy has been largely overshadowed by the hotly contested Republican Senate primary.
He said, however, that he is indirectly benefiting from the slug fest because general-election voters are “turned off by the discourse in the Republican primary.”
“I don’t know how that turns around for the Governor or Mr. Rubio,” said Meek. “ If I wake up on the first of May to read that the governor has qualified as a Republican, then our campaign continues to move on. If I read that he qualified as an independent, I think that there will be some changes as relates to the operations of my campaign, but I don’t believe that that’s something saying we need to start buying confetti.”
Posted By: Kendrick Meek
Sunday, April 18th 2010 at 1:32PM
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