http://staugustine.com/news/local-news/201... U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, running for a U.S. Senate seat, deflected questions Saturday about whether President Barack Obama would back him less strongly for fear of catapulting Republican Marco Rubio into the Senate.
Meek, D-Fla., is running against newly Independent Gov. Charlie Crist and Republican Rubio, backed by former Gov. Jeb Bush.
"(Obama) has already said he thinks I'll be the next senator from Florida," Meek said. "He has been very supportive."
Meek, of Miami, backed Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary but said Obama was not holding that against him.
Meek is the first statewide candidate to get enough signatures to enter the U.S. Senate race. He spoke to about 100 supporters Saturday evening at the Solomon Calhoun Community Center. Some of those signatures came from the people sitting in the room.
"Northeast Florida has been very good to me," he said.
State Sen. Tony Hill, D-Jacksonville, was at the meeting to endorse Meek.
"We have another teaching moment," Hill said. "This is our opportunity. Shame on us if we can't win ... ."
Once Meek took the stage, he got quickly to his purpose: stirring up optimism and support.
"I am very excited about this race," he said. "It is so important."
He said that with more registered Democrats in the state than Republicans, and the help of the type of "surge voters" that turned out for Obama, he could win the election. The latest count shows registered Democrats exceed registered Republicans by more than 750,000.
The Rev. Rick Torrence, pastor of Gethsemane Missionary Baptist Church of Hastings, said he's sure Meek can win.
Torrence is a member of the county Democratic Executive Committee.
"I have a lot of confidence in Sen. Hill's recommendation," he said.
He said that after researching Meek's career, "I was very impressed ... he was willing to give up his career (in the House) to run for U.S. Senate."
Resident Shirley Hinnau agreed.
"I think he's a very exciting candidate, and I think a lot of people don't know much about him," she said.
Hinnau, a former political science professor, said she liked that he helped pass the class size amendment.
The amendment has been unpopular at the local level, with teachers' unions here saying it should be repealed because it drives up costs.
Either way, Hinnau thinks some Democrats in favor of Crist, who gained popularity by vetoing hated Senate Bill 6, may change their mind.
"Human nature is unpredictable," she said.
What is predictable was questions about a three-year-old scandal about a biomedical park planned for a blighted area of Miami-Dade County.
Meek had endorsed the project and helped land funding. It was supposed to bring 1,500 jobs to one of the poorest neighborhoods in the country and provide health care for 150,000, according to Miami Herald reports.
Those reports say Meek pursued millions in taxpayer dollars for developer Dennis Stackhouse to build the Liberty City park after the developer helped the congressman's chief of staff buy a house and paid Meek's mother $90,000 for consulting. The reports were released in 2007.
But Meek said he fired the staffer long ago and did not know about the transaction.
The staffer, Anthony D. Williams, also told the Miami Herald that Meek didn't know of the transaction.
"If we had known, we would have fired him then," Meek said. "The project failed, the developer was not a good guy and a former staffer did something he shouldn't have done."
The park was never built and Stackhouse is facing charges related to the project.
Meek said investigation into the project began a couple of years ago and new questions about it were a diversion by new Democratic primary rival Jeff Greene.
Meek said he wasn't going to get into negativity, though.
"I'm taking the high road," he said.
KEY ISSUES
U.S. Rep Kendrick Meek, D-Fla., said he:
* Was against the "Drill, baby, drill" push to establish oil drilling off the coast of Florida
* Urged Gov. Charlie Crist to veto Senate Bill 6
* Wants to make veterans' services a priority
* Is against legislation that would require pregnant women to have -- and pay for -- an ultrasound before deciding to abort
* Wants to bring "million-dollar-a-person" soldiers in Afghanistan home by the middle of 2011
* Is against the so-called "Arizona law," which makes it criminal to fail to carry immigration documents and gives police the ability to detain anyone they suspect to be here illegally.
Source: Monday night's talk at the Solomon Calhoun Community Center
For more on the candidate:
kendrickmeek.house.gov
Posted By: Kendrick Meek
Monday, May 17th 2010 at 11:42AM
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