Florida candidates seeking election to statewide or federal offices could benefit by watching the Jeff Greene campaign.
Greene, running for the United States Senate, has garnered a surprising endorsement. Greene got an endorsement from a prominent Liberty City neighborhood organization recently.
Why is the endorsement surprising? It shocks some people because Greene’s main Democratic Primary opponent is Black Congressman Kendrick Meek and Liberty City is perhaps the largest Black neighborhood in Kendrick Meek’s Miami, Florida Congressional District and is an area where his mother Carrie Meek is a political icon and community heroine.
Now, what would make Blacks in Miami endorse Greene, a white candidate, over Meek, an African American?
Could it be green? I’m talking about Greenbacks, dollars, dinero, scratch or cheddar, if you will.
It appears as though Jeff Greene has spent, or promised to spend, money in Liberty City and other communities to generate Black voter support. If you don’t know, somebody gets paid whenever anything political happens in Black communities south of Florida’s I-4 corridor.
Research suggests that candidates have no problem when family members are hired to do political related work but scoff at the idea of paying Black professionals or patronizing Black businesses.
At a recent debate, Greene accused Meek of “producing only one job” and said that job went to Meek’s mother. Meek responded strongly and told Greene, “How dare you attack my mother?” and Greene replied, “I’m not attacking your mother, I’m attacking you!”
I know Carrie Meek. I consider her a friend and I agree she should not be attacked. However, I also agree that candidates of all colors should generate as many jobs as possible for people other than family members.
The bottom line is candidates that take Black votes for granted in the Democratic Primaries across the nation will get what they deserve which is fewer Black votes than they should get.
A white candidate running against a Black in a Democratic Primary doesn’t need every Black vote to win. All a non-Black candidate needs is a significant percentage of the Black votes cast.
For example, if Jeff Greene gets 30% of Blacks votes he just might win…..in a landslide! Such a scenario would require Kendrick Meek to get about 60% of all of the non-Black votes cast.
The hiring of an all-white campaign staff will not insure that a candidate will get white votes. You must consider hiring campaign workers that can deliver, campaign workers that can generate votes and campaign professionals that can develop a winning strategy.
Those days are over where Black voters run to the polls in huge numbers and just blindly vote for candidates that pretend to have their best interests at heart. You have to get Black votes the hard way, you have to earn them or in some cases purchase them!
By Lucius Gantt
The Gantt Report
