Kendrick Meek Zombie Watch: More Crist Democratic Endorsements

Two more Democrats abandon the sinking ship known that is the Kendrick Meek campaign. Palm Beach County Commissioners Burt Aaronson and Shelley Vana have officially endorsed Charlie Crist. The Crist campaign released this statement.

“I am honored by the courageous and generous support of Palm Beach County Commissioners Burt Aaronson and Shelley Vana. The priority of common sense Democrats, Republicans, and independents must be stopping Tea Party extremist Marco Rubio from taking his anti-senior, anti-woman, anti-teacher agenda to the United States Senate, and these two fine leaders understand that. Florida has a once in a lifetime opportunity to change our nation’s capital forever by sending an independent to Washington, and it’s critical we not let that pass us by.”

Earlier this month Aaronson attempted to ask Kendrick Meek to quit the Senate race. Meek caught wind that Palm Beach Democratic clubs were going to ask him to quit. The Real Dem ducked the meeting.

It is hard to be the Real Dem when Democratic elected official are endorsing the NPA candidate. State Representatives Yolly Roberson, Rep. Luis Garcia, Maria Sachs, and Darryl Rouson have endorsed Crist.

Florida Sen. Minority leader Al Lawson's endorsement was big news.

Former Florida Democratic Party chairman Charles Whitehead, Congressman Robert Wexler, the Palm Beach County Democrats and Robert Kennedy Jr have also endorsed Crist.

Immigration Equality and the Florida Pipe Trades have endorsed Crist over Meek. The Sierra Club endorsed both Crist and Meek. The latter refused to accept the endorsement. Team Meek can't say Crist endorsements don't mean anything and then behave childishly when they have to share an endorsement.

The Florida Democratic establishment should study the Meek campaign as an example of how not to run a statewide race. Republicans want Democrats to keep running candidates like Meek. It makes it easier the the GOP to win elections. If you don't believe me then find Republican establishment member that feared a Meek candidacy in 2009. Ask a GOP operative if Republicans feared the Democratic All-Star team of Jim Davis, Skip Campbell or Eric Copeland in 2006. The most likely answer will be laughter.

Kendrick Meek Zombie Watch: Democrats Flee the Real Dem

So much for the meme that Florida Democrats are united behind Kendrick Meek. In a true profile of courage: the Real Dem ducked a meeting with Palm Beach Democrats.

Crist met privately Monday with a group of influential Palm Beach County Democratic clubs, who in turn formally called on Meek to quit the race. The request was suppose to come in a meeting with Palm Beach County Commissioner Burt Aaronson today, but Meek canceled after learning of the agenda.

"We waited this long to see what's happened with Kendrick Meek's fundraising and polling and so forth. I'm 99.8 percent certain it's hopeless for Meek," said Jay Weitz, chairman of the People's Choice PAC, which is made up largely of Democratic clubs representing thousands of voters.

When Kendrick Meek has to avoid members of his own party it means it is over. Meek has campaigned longer than Marco Rubio or Charlie Crist and still has less name-recognition and fundraising dollars. There have been student council races run with better professionalism and maturity. I have heard stories about Adam Sharon being hot-headed. We can see that the pressure of the campaign is getting to him. Sharon unleashed this hysterical and fact free temper tamtrum to political reporter Alex Leary.

"Charlie Crist can't win. He has no pathway. He wants to talk about coalition but this coalition never was and never will be," said Sharon, insisting that the Democratic nominee is the only one who can overwhelmingly win Democratic votes. "Charlie Crist lost to Marco Rubio once, and he wants to lose to him again, and that's the path we're on right now."

I'm going to do some Quinnell-style parsing of words and remind people that Crist announced his NPA candidacy before the Republican Senate primary. Crist did not run in the primary against Rubio or in any previous races. Therefore Sharon is factually incorrect in stating that Crist has lost to Rubio before. I also would like to know if Sharon called Crist to confirm if he wants to lose to Rubio.

SHARON: Charlie, the St. Petersburg Times is interviewing me. I need to know if you want to lose to Marco Rubio.

CRIST: Yes Adam. I wake up every morning and pray to God that I will lose to Marco. It has been a life long dream of mine.

SHARON: Great. I'll use that in the interview.

CRIST: Feel free to tell the media I want to lose to Marco.

SHARON: I will. Bye.

CRIST: Bye.

Sharon is also wrong about Crist not having a path to beat Rubio. A recent Public Policy Polling poll found Crist and Rubio would be tied at 46 perecent if Meek dropped out. Meek would be 7 points behind if Crist dropped out. The best chance to stop Rubio from entering the U.S. Senate is if Meek drops out. Meek is a zombie candidate who can not win. The Palm Beach County incident is another example that the party never was really that behind Meek.