Jump to full article: PolitiFact (St. Petersburg (FL) Times, 2010-07-27
Author: The Truth-O-Meter Says
Intro: Congressman Kendrick Meek relishes a good cigar -- Padrons are his favorite, he told Cigar Aficionado magazine in a 2008 profile. He hosts an annual cigar party and is known to hand out cigars to members of Congress and their staff, and the cigar industry has helped fund his recent campaigns, the magazine reported. Padron Cigars, a longtime family business, is headquartered in Little Havana in Miami.
Meek's U.S. Senate Democratic primary opponent, Jeff Greene, attacks Meek for his ties to the tobacco industry in a campaign flier accusing Meek of standing with special interests.
Specifically, Greene wrote in a campaign flier that hit mailboxes around July 23, 2010, that Meek was "#1 in Florida in taking tobacco cash and then opposed a tax on cigars that would have helped pay for children's health care." Greene this week introduced a new TV ad that stated "Meek lobbied for big tobacco against children's health care."
We decided to examine the campaign flier. Did Meek rake in more money from the tobacco industry than anyone else in Florida and then oppose a tax on cigars that would pay for children's health care? . . .
Meek was clearly No. 1 in tobacco donations among Florida candidates for House or Senate in his 2008 race and 2010 race and is at the top among Florida's members in the House and Senate. But Greene's flier didn't specify that the No. 1 label applied only to federal races and there is no simple way to check the tobacco dollars given to candidates across the state for various offices.
Greene also claimed that Meek "opposed" a tax on cigars that would have paid for children's health care. Meek thought that the 2007 version was too high of an increase for businesses and he scored key meetings for a cigar maker with member of Congress, but he voted for the legislation anyway -- twice that year. Meek again voted for the version that passed in 2009 when the cigar industry credited him with helping reduce the amount of their tax burden. We recognize he worked to lower the amount of the tax, but we think it's misleading to say that Meek "opposed" a tax when he voted for it three times. . . .
We considered both parts of Greene's claim and rate it Barely True.
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