Tycoon to give Meek run for his money for Florida Senate nod

Real estate tycoon Jeff Greene plans to use his personal fortune to
help fund his bid for Florida’s Senate seat, which could drain
resources from the eventual Democratic nominee.

“I have no budget whatsoever,” Greene told The Hill. “I’m going to
do whatever it takes to get my message out to the people of Florida.”

{mosads}Greene, who announced his candidacy April 30, is running for the Democratic nomination against Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.).

The four-term congressman was expected to coast through the primary
and into what’s now a three-way race against Republican Marco Rubio and
Gov. Charlie Crist, who’s running as an Independent. Instead, he is
facing off against Greene in what may prove to be a tough campaign for
the Democratic nod.

In terms of fundraising, Greene said he won’t take “one
penny of special interest money, lobbyist money, PAC money” for his
campaign. “Not in the primary, not in the general election and not
after I go to Washington,” he said. He said he would accept $100
contributions. “That’s going to be the limit.”

Greene is one of the 400 richest people in the country with an
estimated net worth close to $1.4 billion, according to Forbes
magazine.

But money only goes so far in politics. While Greene
has retained the services of some famous consultants, including Joe
Trippi, he has been unable to secure senior campaign staff, despite
offering $50,000 a month to prospective candidates, according to the
New York Times.

The Greene camp disputes the paper’s report.

“It’s simply not true,” said Paul Blank, a spokesman for Greene. “Someone requested that amount but it was rejected.”

Still, Greene plans to open a headquarters in Palm Beach and said he will have a robust campaign apparatus.

He is positioning himself as the pragmatic outsider running against three “career politicians.”

“I think [Rubio, Crist and Meek] have a lot in common, these three
guys, in that they’re all career politicians who are responsible for
the failures we’ve had in Washington and Tallahassee,” he said.

Greene said he’s prepared for a rough campaign.

“I’ve had hundreds of attacks and it’s only a week today that I’ve been in this race,” he said recently.

The
Meek campaign said last week that Greene is “a pioneer of Wall Street
greed” because he bet “against the American economy, and enriching
himself on the backs of middle-class Floridians.”

The Meek camp also pointed out that Greene owns 10 homes, including
several in California. The subject line of the press release was “Jeff
Greene: Billionaire ‘Meltdown Mogul’ and owner of many homes.”

Greene
made hundreds of millions of dollars investing in credit default swaps
that increased in value as the housing market crashed.

In an interview, Greene argued that his business acumen will be an
asset in the Senate race. “I’m the only guy in this race who’s signed
the front of a paycheck and not just the back of a paycheck,” he said.

But
there’s also the issue of Greene’s famous — or in some cases infamous
— friends, which include Mike Tyson and Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss.
“Mike Tyson I’ve known for many years, but this race isn’t about who my
friends were; this race is about the future of Florida, that’s why I’m
running,” he said.

Greene may also get attacked for being a carpetbagger of sorts. He
spent part of his youth in the Sunshine State, but he still has a
Massachusetts accent and a 2008 profile in Forbes referred to him as a
“Los Angeles real estate mogul.” It won’t help that he made a
short-lived bid for a California House seat as a Republican.

Greene now calls himself an “independent Democrat,” and disavows the “one year” he spent in the GOP.

“For
one year of my long, 55-year-old life I did become a Republican, right
after I got out of Harvard Business School,” he said. “I’ve been a
Democrat my whole life. I’m a Democrat through and through.”

Observers are waiting to see how this primary plays out.

“Meek
is well liked and is a known commodity in the Democratic base, though
when you have a guy with an unlimited checkbook, you can’t take
anything for granted,” said Steven Schale, a Florida-based Democratic
consultant.