How Candidates for U.S. Senate in Florida Compare on Issues

Amy Keller | 7/1/2010

This time last year, Gov. Charlie Crist appeared to have a lock on Florida’s 2010 Senate race, with the National Republican Senatorial Committee breaking its long-established tradition of not getting involved in primaries to declare him the “candidate with the best chance to win.”

How times change.

Candidate
Charlie Crist, 53 No Party Affiliation St. Petersburg Governor	Marco Rubio, 39 Republican Miami Attorney; visiting professor at Florida International University
Kendrick Meek, 43 Democrat Miami U.S. congressman	Jeff Greene, 55 Democrat Palm Beach Real estate developer/financier

One year later, Crist has dumped the GOP, the NRSC has dumped Crist in favor of Marco Rubio, and Jeff Greene, a billionaire businessman with no political experience, is giving Rep. Kendrick Meek a run for his money in the Democratic primary.

Polls show the race is too close to call. A St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald/Bay News 9 poll in mid-May gave Crist a slight edge over Rubio, with 30% of registered voters surveyed saying they planned to vote for Crist, and 27% preferring Rubio. (The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 4%). A subsequent Rasmussen survey, however, finds Rubio with a lead of 8 percentage points.

How this all shakes out with voters is anyone’s guess, but one thing is clear: The race is likely to be the most-watched Senate race in the nation. Following is a look at how the four leading candidates compare on issues, contributions, net worth and more.

Net Worth
Crist While Crist has an individual net worth of $466,063, his wife’s assets boost his total to between $2 million and $4.4 million.	Rubio -$170,002 to -$497,998
Meek $-25,980 to $179,999	Greene- Estimated at $2 billion

Fundraising
Crist- $10.2 million	Rubio- $7 million
Meek- $6 million	Greene- While his campaign finance reports are not yet available, Greene has reportedly told some Democrats he intends to spend $40 million before the primary.

Next page:
Top 5 Contributors; In State/ Out-of-State Contributions; Major Endorsements; Controversy

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Tags: Politics & Law, Government/Politics & Law

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