Kendrick Meek had an interesting Thursday.
Fresh off a feisty performance in Wednesday night's debate, which might have brought more Democratic voters back home to him in contrast to Charlie Crist's uneven performance, the Miami Democrat was insulted when the Sierra Club announced that they were endorsing both him and Charlie Crist, though there is more than enough evidence to indicate that the Club's co-endorsement was more political than usual.
You can read our report on that co-endorsement (and Meek's rebuke of it) here.
In a way, it wasn't surprising. Over the last year and a half, even though Charlie Crist has in many ways reversed himself on his very progressive pro-environment agenda over the first couple of years in his administration, I've found environmentalists in this state, and specifically some Sierra Club members, who fall all over themselves in sticking up for the Governor, blaming many of his actions (or lack of actions) on working with a recalcitrant GOP Legislature.
Though there is probably some truth to that, it seems that when as an environmental organization (or any organization) comes to their endorsement, picking between a candidate who has a steadfast background in supporting your causes vs. one who seemingly picks and chooses, the choice might be obvious.
But let's face it – Crist is considered by most people to be still (barely)viable against Marco Rubio, whereas Meek is not.
And endorsements are, by their nature, blatantly political, as Club officials admitted yesterday in saying their true point was to indicate how dangerous they felt Marco Rubio would be for the environment if he wins in November.
But that doesn't diminish the fact that Meek's rejection of the endorsement was one of his finest moments as a candidate.
(Incidentally, the League of Conservation Voters has yet to weight in on the race, but weeks ago, one of its officials said that they were seriously split between Crist and Meek. That's despite the fact that Meek has a 100% voting record with the group).
This article appears in Oct 7-13, 2010.