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Billionaire Democrat Jeff Greene has leaped into the Florida Senate race on April 30, 2010, just as we all started to get a better idea of the race as a whole; but great, what does this mean? Greene moved from California to a Miami condo only two years ago, but he makes an effort to vocalize his longtime connections to the state. Greene attended Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and Harvard Business School. He is married with a 7-month-old son. In his announcement, Greene notably said, “I am an outsider, the only candidate who isn’t a career politician,” said Greene, 55. “I’ve been a job creator. I’ve worked in the economy myself. I’m the only one among the four of us who ever signed the front side of a paycheck. Those guys have only signed the backs of paychecks.”

In a Senate race where Democratic front-runner Kendrick Meek is little known to most voters and Governor Charlie Crist’s nonpartisan candidacy making harder predictions for November, Greene’s ability to bank roll Florida Television with commercials could make him a major contender along with Republican Marco Rubio. “I’ll spend whatever it takes to get my message out and to be competitive with these career politicians,” Greene told the Times/Herald in a telephone interview. “I’m not going to take a penny of special interest money.” Considering that Forbes last year estimated Greene’s net worth at $1.25 billion, shunning special interest money and limiting donations to $100 is no big sacrifice. Greene’s pitch is similar to another obscure multimillionaire candidate who recently popped up in Florida, Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott. Both are touting their outsider status. “Like a lot of people in Florida, I share their anger and their frustration about what is going on in Washington and the lack of progress,” Greene said. “Things aren’t getting better, and I look around to see three career politicians running for office and it’s more of the same, so I thought it’s time to get involved.”

Multimillionaire candidates have a mixed record in self-funded campaigns. Governor Jon Corzine of New Jersey and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg succeeded, while presidential candidate Steve Forbes and California Senate candidate Michael Huffington went nowhere. Greene, who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in California as a Republican, said he’s the personification of the American dream and that his wealth allows him to focus on what matters most. “When I get to Washington, the people of Florida are going to know I’m not going to spend my first year having fundraisers to pay off a campaign debt,” he said. “I’m not going to have fundraisers to get re-elected. I’m not going to have meetings and dinners with lobbyists and special interests. I’m going to get to work.” Greene said he invested in complex credit default swaps to protect his real estate investments when he saw the real estate bubble looking shaky. “I was able to use credit default swaps to protect not only my investments but the hundreds of jobs that exist because of my investment,” he said. “I understand the dangers of credit default swaps and the benefits of credit default swaps.” Should we see this as good thing or bad thing, I ask?

The Florida Democratic Party issued a statement that it stands behind Kendrick Meek. Greene made hundreds of millions of dollars betting against the sub-prime real estate market, which devastated Florida. “This state needs a hard-working leader who puts middle-class families first as we steer our state from recession to recovery, and not our Republican opponents who were both co-conspirators of Florida’s economic collapse,” Meek spokesman Adam Sharon said. “Kendrick is focused on building up what Governor Crist, Speaker Rubio, and others like Mr. Greene helped tear down.”

The Democrats haven’t been seen as a viable option for this November’s election in Florida. As such, hopefully Greene’s entrance into the race doesn’t make to much of an impact for Liberty candidate Alexander Snitker, who seems to have captured the most recent momentum in him being the first Libertarian to be on the ballot in Florida U.S. Senate election history.

In Liberty,

Jonathan Raof