Kendrick Meek Zombie Watch: Clinton Asked Meek to Drop Out

Bill Clinton spokesman Matt McKenna confirmed to Politico that the former President asked Kendrick Meek to drop out and endorse Charlie Crist. Clinton asked Meek to drop out during October 19 and 20. Another source told Politico that Meek agreed to drop out.

“It was a completely done deal,” one source said.

The Crist, Meek and Clinton camps even set a date for an endorsement rally: the following Tuesday, October 26. Meek was to give Crist his blessing and explain to his disappointed supporters – many of whom deeply distrust the governor, who was elected as a Republican – that their votes could save the Senate for the Democrats and save America from the rise of Rubio, who is viewed both as a hard-line conservative and a potential national figure.

Doug Band served as the intermediary between Meek and Crist, and Clinton. It seems Stephen Moore's Wall Street Journal article may have been closer to the truth than expected by many. (Including myself.) The date of Moore's article is 11 days before Clinton first asked Meek to drop out.Team Meek would not respond to Politico's request for an interview. That is a clear sign they do not want to go on-the-record refuting a story that is true.

Obviously, Meek changed his mind. What is interesting is Clinton's endorsement cleared the path for Meek nomination and thereby killing any chance of Democratics picking up the Senate seat. Even Clinton came to the conclusion that Meek's campaign was hopeless. I wish Clinton realized this before endorsing Meek.

Update: Crist Crist campaign spokesman Danny Kanner confirmed to Joy-Ann Reid that the Politico story is true.

“While this story is accurate, the Governor’s focus is on uniting common-sense Democrats, independents, and Republicans behind his campaign because he is the one candidate who can defeat Tea Party extremist Marco Rubio and deliver bipartisan results for Florida in Washington.”

Update: Eric Jotkoff of the Florida Democratic Party released this statement.

“Kendrick Meek is the only candidate who has fought for middle class families, he is the only candidate who stood up to George W. Bush’s attempts to privatize Social Security, and is the only one who has always showed up to defend our Democratic values by standing up to the extremist Republicans. Because Kendrick Meek is the leader we need in the U.S. Senate to fight for us, the Florida Democratic Party is proud to continue fighting to elect Kendrick Meek to the U.S. Senate so he can continue working for everyday Floridians and to bring jobs to the Sunshine State,” said Eric Jotkoff, Florida Democratic Party spokesman.

The press release doesn't mention the Politico article. It is pointless to do push back against factual statements. It appears the D.C. establishment is torpedoing Meek in the hopes of holding onto the Senate majority. The internal polling numbers must be horrible for the Senate races.

Update: RNC chairman Michael Steele is suddenly a Kendrick Meek fan.

"One can only imagine the response if GOP leadership tried to force out...a qualified black candidate like Kendrick Meek”

Steele will find out when the Republican establishment won't let him have a second term at the RNC.

Update: Dave Hoffman from the Meek campaign confirmed part of the Politico story. Hoffman contends that Meek never agreed to drop out. Hoffman does confirm Clinton brought up the subject of Meek dropping out.

Dave Hoffman said “that was discussed, yeah,” but Hoffman denied that Meek had ever agreed to drop out.

Hoffman said he could not characterize what Clinton said, but then said, “I think ’suggest’ is probably the best … not ’suggest’ … but that (getting out) was discussed yeah.”

Hoffman said the issue was raised as, “Hey, if you want to do this … That was more of the nature of the conversation.”

Hoffman said Meek “never agreed to drop out” and was committed to fighting through Election Day.

Update: Peter Schorsch tweeted this.

Kendrick Meek to hold, um, emergency press conference tonight at 9:30.

I am not a Charlie Crist fan. That being said, the best chance to keep Marco Rubio from gaining a Senate seat is for Meek to drop out. I'm not counting on it. Meek seems content on burning his bridges with the Democratic establishment. I have said this repeatedly and said by it. Meek does not have the support of the Democratic establishment and voters. The Politico leak was designed to force Meek out of the race. Democrats don't love Crist. They are terrified of Rubio becoming a major political star.

Update: Joy-Ann Reid blogs that Meek is denying Hoffman's confirmation that Clinton discussed dropping with him. McKenna and the Crist campaign have gone on-the-record on this. So has Meek's own campaign. Meek is denying conversations with Clinton that his campaign confirmed. If you want proof that the entire Meek campaign has been amateur hour then look no further than this. This shitty campaign's confusing message during the entire cycle can be blamed on a man who has no business running in a statewide race.

Update: Meek statement to CNN.

"The president came down to do an event for me in Orlando and St. Petersburg. We talk politics all the time. He said I heard this thing about you getting out. I said, 'I'm not getting out.' I said Charlie Crist needs to get out of the race. And that was that," Meek said.

That doesn't sound like an actual conversation. That sounds like Meek's increasingly passive aggressive campaign rhetoric. Remember Meek yelling during a debate that he is 6'4 and Senators would have to go through him in order to change Social Security. Is Meek going to challenge Chuck Grassley to a fight? The guy has a temper as bad as John McCain's.

Update: Campaign manager Abe Dyk is now walking back Hoffman's confirmation. This is like watch a car crash in slow motion.

"The article is not true. Kendrick Meek was never dropping out of this race, is never dropping out of this race, and will never drop out of this race. Kendrick Meek will always stand up for the middle class and will not leave Floridians a choice between two lifelong conservative Republicans who only stand with the special interests. Kendrick is the Democratic nominee so if anyone should drop out, it's Charlie Crist,” said Meek campaign manager Abe Dyk.

The problem for Dyk and the Meek campaign is two sources confirmed to Jake Tapper of ABC News that Clinton asked Meek to drop out. It is hard for Team Meek to do push back when people within the Democratic Party are telling the media the story is true.

From Beth Reinhard of the Miami Herald.

"I am running. The press report was inaccurate at best."

And he's losing in the polls.

Meek is already a zombie candidate. I didn't think it could get worse. Boy, was I wrong.

Kendrick Meek Zombie Watch: Real DEM Says Bye to DEM Voters

I wrote a post on Democratic voters leaving Kendrick Meek. Kenneth Quinnell decided to fact-check my post.

"

"Also, your post says "Democrats Flee the Real Dem," despite the fact that Meek's numbers are about as high as they've been in the entire election cycle."

State of Sunshine blogger Jim Johnson had fun putting Quinnell's nonsense to rest.

"Ummm... polling shows that Meek is getting around 40% of Dems. That is not "as high as they've been" since he did win the primary."

You're referring to his apallingly low overall vote numbers. Marco Rubio has to be quite pleased that Meek is staying in this race. I have as much change of winning the Senate seat as Kendrick Meek."

Quinnell also maintains that Marco Rubio "beat" Crist even though the latter never ran in the Republican primary.

When I parse words, it's for the sake of more clarity and accuracy, which isn't quite what you did here. While it may be technically true that Rubio didn't beat Crist, in reality he did beat him, since the fact that Rubio was winning is why Crist left the party and went indy.

Kenneth, when you parse words is because you want to them to fit your own narrative. The truth is the latest Zogby poll is evidence that Democrats are leaving Meek.

Rubio - 39.6 percent

Crist - 33.3 percent

Meek - 18.1 percent

During this campaign cycle, I noticed one can tell if Team Meek is concerned by how stupid they sound.

“This race is ... not about polls, and the Democrats will come home making Kendrick Meek the next U.S. senator,” Dyk said.

Actually, Democrats may decide Meek doesn't have a chance and instead vote for Crist. The latest Public Policy Polling numbers (a Democratic firm) show Crist pulling away from Meek.

Rubio - 44 percent

Crist - 33 percent

Meek - 21 percent

The Quinnell narrative is bogus. Meek is losing Democratic support. A Mason-Dixon poll from earlier this month shows Meek with 42 percent to Crist's 37 percent support with Democratic voters. The difference narrowed from 9 percent to 5 percent. It is a joke when the "Real Dem" cannot pull over 80 percent of Democratic voters.

Kendrick Meek Releases the Kraken

Democrat Kendrick Meek has released the final message he will use in his attempt to be elected to the United States Senate. This is the message Meek will repeat in the final days of the election.

"I will not drop out of this race for any reason," Meek said. "I am nominated by the Democrats of the state of Florida. I am in this race to run to be the next United States senator. And no, I am not running for second."

RELEASE THE KRAKEN!



The previous campaign message of Meek, Abe Dyk, Adam Sharon and Kenneth Quinnell has been the political equivalent of Chip Diller in Animal House shouting, "Remain calm. All is well." The message now is no longer being the "Real Dem" since real Democrats are asking Meek to quit the race. The message is Meek is not going to quit even though members of his own party want him to. Release the Kraken.

Kendrick Meek Zombie Watch: The Blog Ad Buy No Deal

Peter Schorsch has a great take on what went wrong with the Kendrick Meek campaign's new media outreach program. Schorsch checked for reactions of Team Meek no longer having a new media director.

“Kendrick Meek had a new media director?”

That was the first reaction I received when I asked a few politicos to discuss the implications of Kenneth Quinnell’s announcement last night that he has left the Meek campaign.

Kenneth Quinnell lamented that I didn't know what he did. Kenneth, most people in Florida politics didn't know you existed. For the record: I couldn't figure out what you did. At least give me credit for acknowledging your existence.

Schorsch goes into detail about how the Meek campaign reneged on the promise to buy ads on blogs. I heard bits and pieces of this, but was never in on it. Abe Dyk, in his brilliance, pulled the plug on the blog ad buy deals. I don't know which blogs were part of the deal, but A list blogs are going to blow off Team Meek after reneging on buying ad space. The mistake was fatal and shows how Dyk doesn't understand the lefty blogosphere.

Side note: thanks to Peter Schorsch for the nice words about this blog in his post.

Kendrick Meek Death Watch: The Jim Davis Strategy

Campaign manager Abe Dyk has stumbled upon a winning strategy for his man Kendrick Meek to beat Charlie Crist. Dyk is going to use the game plan from Jim Davis's failed 2006 gubernatorial campaign.

“No one who voted for Davis will vote for Rubio, and it is unrealistic that more than 15 percent of Davis voters would vote for Crist this time,” said Dyk. “This gives Kendrick 38.25 percent of the vote, enough to win.”

The problem is not enough people voted for Davis in 2006 and Charlie Crist won the election. The Jim Davis strategy didn't work so well for Jim Davis. I find it hysterical that the Meek campaign is using Jim Davis's defeat as a positive talking point for Meek. Nevermind the poor fundraising or sinking poll numbers. The Meek campaign will be victorious in November. Is it me or is the Meek campaign starting to sound like the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.