Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-FL), who is running for Senate in Florida, sought earmarks to help a developer who gave a top Meek staffer $13,000 in 2003 for a down payment on a house, and paid Meek’s mother, former congresswoman Carrie Meek, $90,000 plus use of a Cadillac Escalade for consulting services, the Miami Herald reports.
The developer, Dennis Stackhouse, is now facing fraud charges associated with the Poinciana Park project in Liberty City, Miami, a proposed biopharmaceutical complex that was never built.
Two other Florida Senate candidates, Republican Marco Rubio and independent Charlie Crist, each have their own ethical issues connected with a wide-ranging spending scandal at the Florida Republican Party.
The Herald story lays out in detail how Meek sought to help Stackhouse while Stackhouse plied Meek’s mother and then-district director, Anthony Williams. Meek denies impropriety, and says he didn’t know about the $13,000 given to Williams — which Williams says was a loan that he later paid back.
The police records show that Stackhouse engaged in an elaborate campaign to curry favor with Meek as the builder sought the congressman’s help in obtaining federal funding for the project. …
Meek twice sought congressional earmarks to benefit the project, but has insisted that was unrelated to his mother’s work for the developer.
Read the whole thing.
