FL-Sen: "Billionaire Challenging Meek In Dem Primary Has Republican Past"

[Clio the Leo]

I've thought this whole thing sounded fishy since it was announced yesterday. He just pops up out of nowhere the SAME day Crist announces he's running as an Indy? Please.

Billionaire Challenging Meek In Dem Primary Has Republican Past

By now you’ve heard that flamboyant real estate billionaire Jeff Greene is shaking up the already-wild Florida Senate contest by launching a Dem primary challenge to Kendrick Meek, who is the Dem establishment’s choice to make the race.

Greene has a couple of liabilities: He made his fortune by betting against subprime loans, and Mike Tyson was the best man at his wedding. But Greene’s camp is vowing to spend “whatever it takes” to win, making him a potentially serious threat.

Now add one more liability for a Dem primary: He has a Republican past. From a Miami Herald profile of Green in December of 2009 (via Nexis):

After getting his Harvard degree, he decided California would be a great place for real estate. There, he bought apartment buildings, small office buildings, shopping centers, then became a developer.

He also dabbled in politics. After growing up a rock-solid Democrat, the Harvard Business School had made him a middle-of-the-road Republican in the 1980s. He ran in a Congressional primary in the San Fernando Valley and lost. He soon returned to his Democratic roots and became a major donor to party candidates.

<snip>

Greene will probably explain away his Republican past as proof that he’s an independent politician. And it’s unclear how much of a liability this will be for him. But it suggests there may be plenty more in his past we don’t know that will be coming out sooner rather than later. More when I learn it.

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/senate-dems/billionaire-challening-meek-in-dem-primary-has-republican-past/

[flpoljunkie]

1. More on Mr. Greene...

Just in case Florida’s Senate race wasn’t interesting enough, Palm Beach billionaire Jeff Greene plans to file papers this morning to enter the contest as a Democrat.



Best man

Greene, 55, rose from middle-class origins to make millions investing in real estate. Then he made hundreds of millions by betting that the real estate bubble would burst and investing in credit-default swaps. He’s running as an outsider, and his bio is unconventional for a politician, with cameos by Mike Tyson as best man at Greene’s 2007 wedding and Heidi Fleiss as a yearlong houseguest. (”We weren’t dating,” Greene told Forbes in a 2008 profile.)

http://www.postonpolitics.com/2010/04/will-palm-beach-billionaire-jeff-greene-shake-up-senate-race-even-more/

[Clio the Leo]

2. well there you go....

... what more ammondoes Kendrick need?

The amount of money he has at his disposal scares me though. How many attack ads can a billion dollars buy?

[LiberalFighter]

3. He might have the money but his liabilities at this time IMO are too much.

[ClarkUSA]

4. This sounds like a vanity run. n/t

[Cha]

5. A purchase

run, if you will.

[Dappleganger]

6. So he's a typical FL Democrat.

No surprises, anyone.