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Meek makes Tampa stop

Posted Feb 9, 2010 by William March

Updated Feb 9, 2010 at 04:20 PM

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Kendrick Meek made political rounds in Tampa today, escorted by former congressional colleague Jim Davis.

Meek went to a meet-the-candidate forum held by the Tampa Bay Partnership, then talked to reporters downtown.

Meek, a congressman from Miami, has been campaigning hard to build a base in the politically vital Tampa Bay area, where he’s comparatively little known.

In a talk with the Tribune, he took some thinly veiled shots at potential Republican opponent Marco Rubio, who increasingly looks as if he could win the GOP primary battle against Gov. Charlie Crist.

“I’m not going to be a candidate who says we don’t need help from Washington,” Meek said. “The help is needed.” Rubio has bashed Crist for backing the Obama administration’s economic stimulus plan, and has opposed $1.25 billionn grant for a Tampa-Orlando high speed rail system.

But Meek is also increasingly willing to show his independence from Obama and national Democratic leaders. He called the president’s plans to eliminate the space shuttle program “unacceptable,” and noted, “I wasn’t recruited by national leaders to run for the Senate.”