Kendrick Meek’s sweet tooth could doom his political campaign for U.S. Senate
By Gimleteye
A recent campaign finance report shows that U.S. Senate hopeful, Democratic candidate Kendrick Meek has already gathered contributions of at least $28,000 related to the Fanjul sugar interests. In a letter to Governor Charlie Crist, Meek — who will face either Crist or Marco Rubio in November — wades into the battle for Everglades restoration; an issue that scarcely piqued the congressman’s interest until Monday’s front page investigative report on the Crist-led purchase by the state of U.S. Sugar lands in the New York Times.
The deal is opposed by the Fanjuls, and not because the state of Florida under Crist’s leadership has pledged to pay too much for sugar lands owned by its competitor. It is about paying too little. The Fanjuls are flinty billionaires who play the high-stakes game of government subsidies (ie. deformation of the U.S. Farm Bill to enforce political benefits from massive corporate welfare) like poker champions at Las Vegas.
Long before the New York Times article, the Fanjul interests understood that blowing up the U.S. Sugar deal could both provide another sugar-friendly U.S. Senate seat from Florida, beholden to them, and also wreck restoration based on acquisition of former Everglades lands, driving the value of their own lands higher — if not beyond the reach of any future acquisition.
The Fanjuls corporation, Florida Crystals, has invented its antipathy to the U.S. Sugar deal and is using the New York Times report in a way that reinforces its advantages. In fact, these corporate interests are aligned in the respect that really matters; to extract as much value for their lands as possible. Fanjul lands in the Everglades Agricultural Area are situated in such a way as to block passage of fresh water that might eventually flow from U.S. Sugar lands converted to cleansing marshes into the remnant Everglades. So they hold the high cards and are betting the house on the low cards. The Fanjuls are richly rewarded by the “fixes” of the 2000 Everglades restoration plan that were based on technologically infeasible workarounds of their property rights, even if the Everglades are polluted from Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay.
Florida Crystals has contributed mightily to defeat Gov. Crist, whose proposed U.S. Sugar acquisition would upend a political order in Florida that is the fruit of decades of campaign contributions. Now Fanjul sugar money is flooding the political campaigns of Marco Rubio, a stand-in for Jeb Bush whose own Everglades restoration plans — including violating the 1994 federal state agreement and law to clean up sugar’s pollution — closely tracks Fanjul interests.
But Fanjul money is also flooding into Kendrick Meek’s U.S. Senate campaign. In a Rubio/Meek confrontation in November, whoever wins will be in the Fanjul’s pockets. This sweet reward could be bitter fruit for environmentalists. Those green foot soldiers of political campaigns who might support a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate have not forgotten that Fanjul and U.S. Sugar money didn’t just flood the state-wide ballot initiative in 1994 to oppose the penny a pound tax on sugar, it specifically lubricated the base of African American churches, leadership councils and influenced the allegiances of Democratic power brokers.
At every turn, Big Sugar has a plan to blow-up Everglades restoration based on land acquisition in large lots. Miami-Dade lobbyists and Tallahassee lobbyists have seized on the New York Times report and are in high gear, trying to blow up the Crist plan. Knowing how little involvement Congressman Meek and his staff have with Everglades’ issues, it is inconceivable that his letter came from any source other than lobbyists representing Florida Crystals. It is also inconceivable how aligning his campaign with forces trying to wreck the U.S. Sugar deal is good for the future of his political campaign for U.S. Senate.
Gimleteye is the name used by Alan Farago in the Eye on Miami blog. For the past 20 years Farago has written, worked and volunteered to advance civic engagement and issues related to the environment and politics.
