When I finished my sixth term as Mayor of Miami, the city was healthy and prosperous with a budget surplus of more than $50 million. Today, the city is facing a federal investigation into its finances and a $45-million deficit after years of gross mismanagement. State and local governments across the country must cope with major budget shortfalls, while the federal government continues to dive deeper into debt.
Floridians need a U.S. Senator with a record of sound fiscal public management. Marco Rubio and Charlie Crist, the Republicans in the race, have proven they cannot be trusted to manage your money.
Unfortunately, Kendrick Meek, the Democratic establishment’s pick for Senate, does not have the credibility to take on the Republicans on this all-important issue. Markos Moulitsas himself told the Miami Herald that Meek is "not seen as a credible, electable candidate."
Contribute $25 to my campaign today to give Florida Democrats the chance to elect a proven winner.
Marco Rubio likes to say on the campaign trail that he didn’t request any taxpayer funded pork-barrel projects, but Rubio requested $250 million in pork while he was a leader in the Florida State House. He appropriated $21 million to Florida International University and $20 million to Jackson Memorial Hospital, which coincidentally later both hired him for a total of $165,000 a year.
His primary opponent Governor Charlie Crist approved almost all of that money and vetoed only $3 million of Rubio’s wasteful requests, yet Crist says he’s the guy who can successfully manage your tax dollars – even when Florida has a projected budget deficit of $3 billion this year and might have to cut vital programs.
Rubio and Crist are fundamentally unserious, which is why they’ve descended to the lowest form of mudslinging, attack by innuendo. All Marco Rubio wants to talk about is man hugs with President Obama and socialism. And Crist said this week that the $133 visit to an upscale barbershop that Rubio paid for with his Republican Party of Florida credit card may have been for a "back wax."
This remarkably out-of-touch joke will go down as a classic of Florida political negative attacks, along with "Red Pepper" and his well-known "thespian sister" in the 1950 Senate race between Claude Pepper and George Smathers.
Donate today to help elect a Democrat who can take on the Republicans' records of poor management of taxpayer money.
Not only has Kendrick Meek, my Democratic opponent for U.S. Senate, failed to return tainted money from Ponzi schemer Allen Stanford or ethically-challenged Congressman Charlie Rangel, but Meek continues to defend his involvement in the Poinciana Biopharmaceutical, Opa-Locka, Liberty City disaster that the Miami Herald’s Carl Hiaasen called "another colossal rip-off" of Miami-Dade’s poor.
Congressman Meek attempted to divert $4 million in federal money to the Poinciana Biopharmaceutical Park, while his mother, former Congresswoman Carrie Meek, was being paid $40,000 as a consultant, given free rental office space, and a free use of a Cadillac Escalade by Poinciana’s Dennis Stackhouse, a shady Boston developer and past donor to Kendrick.
Kendrick Meek feigned ignorance of his mother’s involvement. He has never cleared up why, years before all these "coincidental" events, he had approved loans totaling more than $5 million to companies owned by the same Dennis Stackhouse while he was Chairman of the Task Force on Urban Economic Revitalization for Miami Dade County.
Nor has Meek explained why in 2004 he secured $72,750 in federal funds for the park, six months before Miami-Dade County signed off the on the project.
Since Stackhouse has been formally criminally indicted, it’s guaranteed that he will become a major issue for Meek in a general election contest. Meek, who’s never faced an opponent for his district’s seat, will have a hard time explaining away his wheeling-and-dealing.
Pitch in $25 to my campaign today to give the Democrats a chance to win in Florida.
The New York Times recently reported that, from 2004 to 2008, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's political and charitable wings took in at least $55 million in corporate and union contribution, $1 million of which went to the caucus’s Political Action Committee. The rest went towards unregulated non-profit work.
The bulk of this money went to elaborate conventions, dinners, parties, and Congressional golf outings. Meek served as the Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF) from 2004 until January this year.
The Times wrote:
"In 2008, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation spent more on the caterer for its signature legislative dinner and conference — nearly $700,000 for an event one organizer called "Hollywood on the Potomac" — than it gave out in scholarships."
Black America Web reported on Feb. 22 that new CBCF Chairman Rep. Donald Payne "inherited this embarrassing mess from outgoing CBCF Chairman Rep. Kendrick Meek of Florida," who has been "silent on the need for checks and balances inside the CBCF."
Kendrick Meek must discuss his stewardship of the Foundation and how corporate money may have influenced his and his colleagues’ political views. Was it the corporate donations from Diageo that prompted the Black Caucus to back the British liquor conglomerate’s plan to move rum production from Puerto Rico, U.S.A. to the U.S. Virgin Islands in a massive rip-off that will net Diageo a $3 billion subsidy from U.S. taxpayers? Or was it just another coincidence?
Please contribute $25 to my campaign today to elect a Democrat who can win in November.
Floridians deserve the choice to vote for a candidate with a record of responsible administration of taxpayer money, integrity, and credibility.
Thank you,
Maurice Ferre
To learn more about my candidacy, please visit my website.