U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek is in the home stretch of what he hopes will be a history-making signature drive for a ballot spot in Florida's U.S. Senate race this summer.
"This election is going to be all about who can get their voters out," Meek said in an interview. "I believe that when someone signs on the dotted line, it means something. I believe no other candidate can say they spent more than 15 minutes talking to one voter in a supermarket parking lot like I've done many times in the past year."
While Gov. Charlie Crist and challenger Marco Rubio have drawn nationwide attention in the Republican primary, Meek has quietly toured Florida with an aide or two at his side, handing out petition forms. His campaign Web site also features the forms, complete with a clock counting down to the deadline.
If county elections supervisors verify 112,476 signatures of voters — 1 percent of the registration in the past general election — Meek will be the first candidate to qualify for a statewide race by petition. If not, he can still pay the $10,440 filing fee, but the more than $13,000 and the year of effort he spent on signature verification won't be wasted.
"You'll notice that on Kendrick's signature forms, there's a little tear-off portion that asks for your phone number and e-mail address," said Jon Ausman, a Democratic National Committee member. "That's going to be a mailing list, for asking people to volunteer and give money."
Meek will face former Miami Mayor Maurice Ferre in the Aug. 24 Democratic primary.
"I think it's a wonderful thing that he's done, and I congratulate him," Ferre said. But he said the one-on-one contact with petition signers doesn't necessarily translate into votes.
"It's like a poll. Does a good poll mean you're going to win?" Ferre said. "By that logic, Governor Crist was leading Marco Rubio by 30 points, but now he's 18 points behind, a 48-point swing. When she started running, Hillary Clinton was unbeatable but guess what, she got beaten."
Despite Meek's optimism, he has a significant signature gap. Late last week, Secretary of State Kurt Browning's elections office showed only 52,825 petitions verified.
"We are extremely confident of making the ballot by petition," campaign manager Abe Dyk said. "The whole idea is we want to do it by tremendous grass-roots support instead of writing a check. Kendrick wants to ask the people of Florida for permission to be on their ballot before he asks them to vote for him."
Meek said a finish-line ceremony is scheduled for March 29 in his Miami-Dade congressional district, where he will sign a symbolic final petition himself. He said he will then go to Jacksonville to hand in a last batch of petitions before the elections office closes.
Meek is no stranger to petitioning. He helped run the 2002 voter initiative for a constitutional amendment lowering class sizes in public schools, which required far more signatures.
"We're going to have more than enough signatures to withstand any challenges," Meek said.
State Sen. Al Lawson, D-Tallahassee, just did what Meek is aiming for. Last week, Lawson qualified for the Democratic primary in North Florida's 2nd District against U.S. Rep. Allen Boyd by filing more than 6,000 petitions, about 1,300 more than he needed.
"The major advantage of doing it that way is getting out and talking to people, getting people excited about your campaign," Lawson said. "You feel these people are more likely to vote for you, when they sign your petition."
Some voters refused to sign his petition, Lawson said, "but at least I got a chance to carry on a conversation with them and explain why I'm running."
Posted By: Kendrick Meek
Sunday, March 21st 2010 at 11:08AM
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