Democratic Senate candidate Kendrick Meek is still sanguine about his low general election poll numbers, seven weeks before his August 24 primary election against Palm Beach billionaire Jeff Greene.
In a column written by Steve Benen in the Washington Monthly, the Miami Congressman, who is getting pummeled in three way match up scenarios against Charlie Crist and Marco Rubio, comments on a few subjects, including the fact that he is still suffering from low name recognition, though he's been in the race for over a year:
"There's so much attention on Rubio-Crist through quarters three and four of last year, and now quarter one and two of this year. Quarter three is going introduce me through earned media to the state of Florida… People will hear from me and see the support that other groups bring to the table.
Quarter three has just begun of course, and so we'll all be keen observers to watch whether Meek's scenario comes true. The fact that he does now have competition from Greene has definitely increased news coverage, and that should continue to escalate in anticipation of August 24 (and conversely take away media time from Marco Rubio, which is already happening).
Meek expects to win and take that momentum to new heights. But I'm curious as to what the latest polls will show in terms of how well Jeff Greene is doing in comparison to Meek. And I'm wondering if the Meek camp might have to do what they have shown they don't want to – start spending some of their hard earned money on television in this primary, and not wait until the fall to begin making their case to the Florida electorate, especially those Democrats enamored by Charlie Crist.
In a story in today's USA Today on independents making runs for governor this year in New England, Massachusetts independent Tim Cahill, the state treasurer and former Democrat, was tied a year ago with Democratic Governor Deval Patrick in a three way race, and still tied with Republican Charlie Baker until this spring.
But after $1 million was spent attacking him, he's now garnering only 9% in a recent poll. So what's he doing about it? Going on the tube.
"It has become more difficult," Cahill acknowledges in an interview. "I had a very formidable positive-negative rating, and they were successful in turning it upside down; now it's a net negative." He had hoped to save his resources until the fall, but he launched his first TV ads last week to try to rebound.
No doubt it's much cheaper to spend state wide in relatively tiny Massachusetts vs. the 4th biggest state in the country in Florida. But there is still the real possibility that if Meek is able to win in late August and finally turn his attention to the entire electorate, it will be too late.
This article appears in Jul 1-7, 2010.