National Review: Kendrick Meek’s Changing Fortunes

National Review: Unlike his neighbors along the mean streets of inner-city Miami, Kendrick Meek was born sucking on a silver spoon, at least politically speaking. He was the son of the legendary Carrie Meek, who built a political career from the ground up, picking her way from door to door across the cracked-window desolation of Liberty City. She became the first African American to win a place in the Florida congressional delegation and, after years of nit-pick constituent service to the majority blacks and minority Haitians in her impoverished district, she managed to lock down the 17th CD for life. And then for a bit longer, as it happened. In July 2002, just days before the filing deadline, Representative Meek unexpectedly retired. The only candidate prepared to jump into the race at that late date was her son, Kendrick, at the time a highway patrolman and part-time state legislator. The campaign was no pick-and-shovel chore for young Meek. He ran unopposed in the Democratic primary, and then unopposed in the general election. Just as he did in the subsequent elections of 2004, 2006, and 2008. Life, at least in its political dimension, has been more than fair to Kendrick Meek. Continue reading here.