The Wall Street Journal article suggesting a massive shakeup in the three-way Florida Senate race is looking more and more like unsubstantiated speculation. Yesterday the Journal reported that Democratic nominee Kendrick Meek might be dropping his third-place bid to endorse the second-place independent candidate Charlie Crist.
Meek’s campaign told me the story was “nonsense” earlier today, and now it’s Team Crist’s turn to throw more cold water on the story, which if true would add some excitement — and competitive spirit — to a race that polls show is now officially Republican nominee Marco Rubio’s to lose.
“Our campaign has had no discussions,” Crist spokesperson Danny Kanner told me this afternoon. But Kanner made it pretty clear that Crist wouldn’t be opposed to the idea of seeing Meek exit the race.
“It’s not surprising,” Kanner said when I asked about the Republican angst over the possibility of a Rubio-Crist race that was at the heart of the Journal piece. “We hear it every day, that we have to stop Marco Rubio and Charlie Crist is the only candidate that can do it. Common sense Democrats, Republicans and independents we expect are going to rally around that cause.”
As I reported earlier, the best way for the “common sense” voters Kanner describes to rally around the cause of defeating Rubio would be to get rid of Meek and focus all their attention on Crist. At least that’s what the polls show. The TPM Poll Average shows Rubio with 43.7% support, Crist with 28.5% and Meek with 21.6%. The trendlines show that as Meek and Crist battle it out for independent and Democratic votes, Rubio is running away with the race:
Though the Journal speculation about Meek seems far-fetched at this point, Team Crist suggested it wasn’t entirely beyond the pale. The campaign confirmed it has heard “whispers” about a deal to get Meek out, but stressed that there have been no formal discussions by either side.
But the Meek campaign doesn’t sound too interested in the Democrat-as-spoiler narrative in the Florida race. It released this statement aimed at Crist this afternoon:
The experts have spoken. Only Kendrick Meek can stand up to Marco Rubio, the Tea Party and the corporate special interests who want to take Florida back to the brink. The only thing that’s standing in the way is Charlie Crist and his desperate campaign. From throwing wild pitches to spreading lies about Kendrick’s campaign, Crist and his campaign are trying to fool Floridians into thinking he will stand up to Marco Rubio and his Tea Party friends. That never was and never will be the case. Kendrick’s in a one-on-one race against the clock with Rubio and Kendrick has to drag Crist’s weight behind him.
