Greene attacking Meek in DC

Jeff Greene is running attack ads against Kendrick Meek in the Washington, D.C., market, according The Hill, and is apparently trying to stoke the possibility of an ethics investigation on the Democratic Congressman. I think it is highly unlikely this will have any effect on an investigation, but the fact Greene is going negative on Meek could have a devastating effect on the chances of electing a Democrat to the Senate this year.

I think Greene is aware that Floridians will see this ad regardless of the market where it gets broadcast, and he will probably run the ad in the state before Aug. 24. In this Internet age, though, he doesn't need to reserve ad time to get it into the blogosphere. (I will not link to it because Greene is sleeze) But I think running the advertisements in the D.C. market will subtly suggest to voters something is genuinely wrong with Meek as a candidate, and that the chance of a Congressional investigation is real.

Voters will need to question if this is real mud, and if it is something that will stick to Meek in the general election should Meek become the nominee. The scandal, uncovered by the Miami Herald, involves Meek securing federal funding for a project connected to developer Dennis Stackhouse, who paid Meek's mother as a consultant and who never followed through with the project. It seems Stackhouse is the one who should be in serious criminal trouble for the matter, but it will undoubtedly pose problems for Meek through this campaign.

Then again, virtually every experienced candidate for office has some connection to a shady deal. I seriously doubt Congress will investigate Meek for this, and that no member will even suggest it before the primary is settles. This just isn't a cash-in-the-freezer scandal. At best, you can expect some politically-motivated Republican on the Hill to make noise about this in October, but nobody really wants a tertiary relationship with a crooked businessman to became the threshold for an ethics investigation. There isn't a member in the House without the same sort of grime hanging around them somewhere.

The question is whether voters, who seem very tired this year of "business as usual," will buy this as a deal-killer with Meek. When this ad starts running in Florida markets, it could make uninformed voters weary of Meek if they know nothing else about him. And right now, they don't. I still think Meek will win the primary, mostly because Greene has so much baggage of his own as an unapologetic default swap mogul. Meek has made known again and again the issues with Greene's biography, including a former run for Congress as a Republican and the support of a GOP candidate for governor in Florida earlier this year.

But Meek needs to get on TV in Florida now, and he needs to tell voters more about himself. A former Highway Patrol trooper and an experienced lawmaker with genuine progressive chops, who served in the state Senate as well as the US House, Meek absolutely has the better biography in this campaign. Nobody has heard it though. And if the primary devolves into nothing but mudslinging between Meek and Greene, the eventual nominee comes out with net negative favorability, then faces two candidates with loyal supporters and wide name recognition.

This is getting depressing.

Meek has the opportunity to win this race. The primary should be a cakewalk. But he continues to hoard his money for the general. That is wrong-headed. Even if Meek spends every dollar in his coffer on the primary, coming out victorious, with broad name recognition and a positive reputation among voters, would mean that money gets replenished in a heartbeat. But if Meek looks weak at the end of a fight with a political unknown, win or lose in August he gets no support for the November race. And make no mistake, a loss for Meek is a loss for Democrats.