Rep. Kendrick Meek is not seeking reelection to the House. He is pursuing the Democratic nomination for one of Florida’s two U.S. Senate seats. The Hill makes an interesting catch:
Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.) on Wednesday abruptly withdrew his support from a controversial trade bill and legislation to create a single-payer health insurance system.
The decision to remove himself as co-sponsor of the two bills suggests that Meek is moving to the political center…
…As is required by House rules when backing away from legislation that a lawmaker has previously supported, Meek announced on the floor on Wednesday that he was removing his name from a bill requiring the review and renegotiation of U.S. trade agreements, which has won the support of nearly half the House Democratic Caucus.
The Hill reported on Wednesday that the bill had gained 124 co-sponsors and would put pressure on President Barack Obama’s administration as it prepares for an important World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in November.
Meek also dropped his sponsorship from Rep. John Conyers Jr.’s (D-Mich.) bill to create a single-payer health insurance system. That legislation has 87 co-sponsors.
I don’t like to lecture supporters of single-payer health care. I am a supporter of single-payer health care. But this move shows how a politician can support it when they represent a safe House seat, but go running away from it when they have to run state-wide. Same for trade policy, apparently. Single-payer is just not a policy that can win support from our Congress. We can barely pass a cobbled together public option.
In any case, there is another interesting bit in that Hill piece.
Polling released Wednesday by Quinnipiac University showed Meek trailing Gov. Charlie Crist (R) 51-31 in a potential general election match-up, but leading former state House Speaker Marco Rubio (R) 36-33.
If Meek, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, can win state-wide in a southern state like Florida, that would be another big sign that racism is declining as an obstacle to political power for African-Americans in this country. I think I can count on one hand how many blacks have won state-wide elections for federal offices and governor. Yet, there Meek is polling ahead of the conservative champion in the GOP’s Florida primary. The rabid base of the Republican Party seems convinced that their Palinistic tea-bagging shock troops are popular and will win elections where moderates fail. But there just isn’t any evidence for that. If they nominate Gov. Crist as their senate candidate, they’ll probably win in a walk and not even have to spend too much money doing it. If they nominate Rubio, they could easily lose the seat to a second-tier candidate.
