Florida Senate Race in Total Chaos

Maybe, it's something in the water, or perhaps, it's a case of statewide sunstroke. Whatever the cause, politics in Florida has been a nightmare since at least November 2000, and more evidence cropped up yesterday that the state is the Twilight Zone of American politics. Not only has the sitting governor abandoned the attempt to win his party's nomination for the available US Senate seat to run as an independent, a billionaire Democrat has thrown his hat into the ring. If anyone seriously believes he understands what will happen next, there are many volunteer organizations that can help in the recovery of his sanity.

Republican Governor Charlie Crist should have had the GOP's nomination sewn up ages ago. Unfortunately, he is a sitting governor, and therefore, he has had to make actual decisions. One included accepting the stimulus money from the Obama administration. The photo of him embracing the 44th President of the United States seems to have been his undoing.

Taking advantage of this has been Marco Rubio, a former speaker of the state's House. He's the son of Cuban refugees (like a significant number of Florida Republicans) and has a political ideology not quite to the right of Genghis Khan, but certainly aligned with the Tea Bag bull (except on immigration, where he is suddenly Hispanic). Because he has no political responsibility now, he can play the ideological purity card, and he has done so most adeptly. He was so far ahead in the polls (a 23% lead) that yesterday, Mr. Crist pulled out of the Republican primary and announced he would seek the Senate seat as an independent. Thus, it became a three-horse race.

The Democratic primary frontrunner, Representative Kendrick Meek, appeared to have his party's nomination in hand until yesterday. Then, billionaire real-estate investor, Jeff Greene of Palm Beach, decided he wanted the job and the Democrats' backing. "I am an outsider, the only candidate who isn't a career politician. I've succeeded in the real world of hard work -- the others have only succeeded at running for political office after office,'' he claimed in a video. This sells well in America despite the evidence that shows business people make crappy political leaders (the worst president in history, George W. Bush, had an MBA from Harvard).

To say that Mr. Greene is colorful is like saying hurricanes are breezy. The Miami Herald noted, "Mike Tyson was best man at his 2008 wedding, ex-Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss lived in his guest house after prison, and he made many of his millions betting on the housing collapse that killed Florida's economy."

On the latter point, he invested in credit default swaps to hedge his real estate holdings. He confessed, "Never did I imagine that the subprime mortgage market would implode, and I would make hundreds of millions of dollars." In other words, he got lucky (hardly a great testament to his business acumen) -- merely proving that Lord Keynes was right in that making $110 from $100 is work, making $110 million from $100 million is inevitable.

So, the race gets confusing as the plot thickens in the Sunshine State. The Democrats will see a real primary fight that ends with the voting in August, with Mr. Meek's support from the party matched up against Mr. Greene's millions. Meanwhile, Mr. Rubio will be able to move to the center if he chooses (even money says he won't but will keep throwing red meat to the Tea Party yobs), and Mr. Crist will struggle to prove himself relevant to financial backers.

One hopes that, at a minimum, Florida has learned how to count votes. The chaos of the current situation needs no enhancement.

© Copyright 2010 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.

Kensington Review Home