"his mother was a Hebrew teacher"
"Billionaire launched in Mass. shakes up Florida’s Senate race" by Matt Viser, Globe Staff | August 19, 2010
MIAMI — He is a Massachusetts-born billionaire who built his first fortune buying and reselling Somerville triple-deckers. He moved from California to Florida two years ago, bought an oceanfront mansion in Palm Beach, and had boxer Mike Tyson as best man at his wedding.
Now he has become a surprising factor in one of the nation’s most-watched Senate races.
Meet Jeff Greene, 55, Democratic candidate for the US Senate seat in Florida. The Worcester native is upending the Democratic Party’s plans here by using his fortune to wage what has become a bitter and competitive race against four-term US Representative Kendrick Meek, 43. The primary — in which President Obama backs Meek — will be held Tuesday.
“I was fed up and frustrated with the direction our country’s heading in,’’ Greene said in an interview here at a luxury hotel downtown. “These professional politicians in Washington can’t get anything done.’’
One of those politicians in Washington, Obama, yesterday made clear he was distancing himself from Greene. The president flew aboard Air Force One to Florida and was greeted with a hug from Meek at an airport tarmac before his motorcade rushed to a state party fund-raiser in Miami Beach.
I'm tired of all the global-warming politicking on taxpayer dime.
Related: Obama on Vineyard Vacation
If he keeps going the way he is he will be receiving one in about two years.
Obama then hailed Meek at the Fontainebleau Hotel fund-raiser as “the next senator from the state of Florida,’’ and later joined him for an unannounced trip to Jerry’s Famous Deli for corned beef sandwiches.
Meek said in an interview yesterday that he hopes Obama’s appearance will “give Democrats some direction here.’’
Meek supporters are concerned that the primary fight will weaken their candidate for what is expected to be a three-way general election battle against Republican Marco Rubio and Independent Charlie Crist. But first Meek will have to overcome the onslaught by Greene, who has used his personal fortune to finance a flood of TV advertising.
Some polls in recent weeks have shown Greene leading, although a Quinnipiac University poll released yesterday showed Meek ahead by seven points.
The race provides a key test of whether Democrats, like Republicans, are in an anti-incumbent mood and ready to cast their lot with a political newcomer running a campaign based on anger at Washington. In the final push, Greene has had television personality Star Jones making phone calls for him, while Meek has relied on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Representative Barney Frank, of Newton, and Senator John Kerry have both had fund-raisers for Meek’s campaign.
Greene’s résumé could cause him problems. He profited mightily during the housing crisis, during which many Americans lost their homes, by investing in credit default swaps whose value rose as subprime mortgages fell; he says he saw the economic crisis coming and made the right investment.
Then he should feel RIGHT AT HOME in Washington!
Related: Congressional Hypocrites Were Betting Against Stocks As Country Collapsed
Yup, THEY PROFITED off your demise -- but they are fixing it for YOU, Americans.
He’s also a onetime Republican congressional candidate — running unsuccessfully in Southern California in 1982 — who wants Democrats to nominate him.
Yeah, HOP the fence whenever it suits!
And he has been a resident of this state for less than three years and now wants to represent it in Washington.
They used to call that carpet-bagging.
“In any other year, a lot of what’s come out would make him a subject for caricature and cartoons in Saturday Night Live skits,’’ said University of Miami political science professor Christopher Mann. “But in a year where people are looking for outsiders, it seems that people are willing to overlook those things.’’
That's what is wrong with the incumbents out message.
The Zionist controllers of Congress have bought both sides.
Actress Lindsay Lohan spent a couple of nights on Greene’s yacht early this year (“If her name was Lindsay Smith, no one would even care,’’ Greene said), and Greene allowed Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss to stay in his guesthouse for nearly a year after a domestic dispute (“What am I, going to let her get beat up?’’ Greene said).
I at least hope he was serviced with sexual favors.
Related: LiLo's Next Project
I wonder if she ever stayed on John Kerry's boat.
At nearly every stop on the campaign trail this week, Greene is asked about his past.
About 10 minutes into his standard stump speech at a diner in Miami’s Little Havana on Tuesday, a woman piped in with a question about Greene “partying’’ on his “yacht in Havana.’’
“First of all, I was not partying in Cuba. OK?’’ Greene said. “We were there because we had a mechanical problem.’’
Later in the day, reporters asked Greene about new photos posted online by a former stewardess that show women topless aboard his yacht.
Jeff Greene, Gary Hart, what's the difference?
“These are all sideshows,’’ he said. “I’m a married man, 55 years old, with a 10-month old baby. . . . We have a zero tolerance policy, always have, always will, with anything illegal. There’s never drugs or firearms or anything illegal around me or on my yacht, under any circumstances. Never.’’
Last week, the St. Petersburg Times ran a lengthy story that said Greene was involved in the kind of loan deals that “decimated the market.’’ Greene threatened to sue unless the story was retracted; the newspaper said it stands by the article.
Greene was born in Worcester, where his father worked as a textile machinery dealer and his mother was a Hebrew teacher. He shoveled snow — $2 for sidewalks and $5 for driveways — and played the trumpet in the school band. He also had a paper route delivering the Worcester Telegram and Gazette. He unsuccessfully tried to purchase the paper from the
Is that why he is getting the front-page props?
Related: The New York Times is the Exception to the Rule
Also see: A Case of Newspaper Rape
Globe got f***ed!!!
While attending Harvard Business School in the late 1970s, Greene began purchasing homes in Somerville, amassing 18 properties. He continued in the real estate business in California and eventually landed on Forbes magazine’s list of wealthiest people, before moving to Florida in 2008.
I wonder if he knows "Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, who is tied for number 468 on Forbes Magazine’s list of the world’s billionaires."
Meek, who took over a congressional seat formerly held by his mother, has had a controversy of his own. Developer Dennis Stackhouse allegedly paid Meek’s mother $90,000 in consulting fees and provided a Meek staff member with $13,000 to buy a home. Around the same time, Meek supported congressional funding for Stackhouse’s proposed biopharmaceutical park in his district.
Stackhouse is now awaiting trial on charges he stole nearly $1 million in public and private funds from the failed development. Meek has not been accused of wrongdoing in the case.
So it REALLY DOESN'T MATTER which on-the-take PoS you elect, Florida?
The two candidates often trade sharp barbs.
More SHOW for you, American!
Meek says of Greene: “I have a record, he doesn’t. I represent millions, he represents how to make millions.’’
Yeah, you should have held out for more.
Actually, maybe you go with the Meek in this case.
The LESSER of TWO EVILS seeing as he is not as good at gaming the system.
Greene responded that Meek is a “get-along-to-go-along, professional politician who just goes from office to office.’’
Yeah, so are most of them.
The outcome of Tuesday’s primary is “really anyone’s guess,’’ said Kevin Wagner, political science professor at Florida Atlantic University. “It’s been a surprisingly issueless debate. It’s been nasty.’’
Not really.
That IS AmeriKan politics these days.
