Greene crashes Democrats' party

Jeff Greene, a self-made billionaire real estate investor, is threatening to upset the Democratic establishment by taking the U.S. Senate nomination away from the party-backed candidate, U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek.

Greene, 55, is new to Florida's political scene - he moved to Palm Beach permanently about two years ago.

He has spent almost $6 million of his own money on his campaign, on television ads and mailers to Democratic voters. Although he has roughly been tied in polls with primary opponent Meek, a recent Quinnipiac University poll shows Greene with a 33 percent to 23 percent lead in an increasingly bitter campaign.

Greene won't discuss his net worth, but it has been estimated to be about $1.4 billion.

It can't be determined from his Senate financial disclosure form, which doesn't ask specific amounts of assets and debts, but lists ranges, such as "$1,001-$15,000" or "$25,000,000-$50,000,000."

Still, Greene's form lists nearly 400 assets and income sources, some worth more than $50 million and many bringing him more than $1 million a year income. They include a broad assortment of stocks and government bonds, plus scores of investments in the business that built his fortune, rental apartments.

Rental property

Greene comes from a working-class background in Worcester, Mass., where his father sold textile machinery until the collapse of the region's textile industry.

The family moved to South Florida when Greene was a teenager. He finished high school in Massachusetts, spending summers here.

He graduated from Johns Hopkins University, working as a busboy and a waiter, then went to Harvard's business school. He began his real estate empire at Harvard, buying old homes and renting rooms so he could live free and pay his tuition.

By 1991, living in Los Angeles, he owned thousands of Southern California rental units and had a net worth of $700 million, plus a mansion famous for all-night parties, according to a Forbes magazine profile.

Greene's celebrity lifestyle has drawn criticism from Meek.

That lifestyle changed, he said, when he married and moved back to Florida in 2007. He and his wife, a former Manhattan real estate saleswoman, have a baby son.

"I didn't live my life looking over my shoulder worrying about who my friends were in case I'd run for office one day," Greene said. He said voters don't care. "The only people talking about these things are the politicians."

Meek questions Greene's commitment as a Democrat because Greene ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1982 as a Republican.

Already wealthy from his apartment empire, Greene joined the ranks of the super-rich during the 2008 housing market collapse, using a complex and innovative investment tool called "uncovered credit default swaps."

In essence, Greene found a way to make a profit when investments owned by other investors failed. He used that technique to bet that financial securities based on subprime mortgages would fail when homeowners couldn't repay the mortgages. Greene didn't hold the mortgages or own the securities; he just made money when they defaulted.

Meek calls Greene a "meltdown mogul" who "made millions off the backs of middle-class families." Greene responds that his profits came from financial institutions that backed the subprime mortgage-based securities, not from the defaulting homeowners.

"Not one person in Florida ever lost a penny as a result of the investments I made," he says.

Party line

Greene has said little on issues that differs from most establishment Democrats.

The major thrust of Greene's campaign is to paint Meek as a corrupt, entrenched politician and assert that his own business background means he knows how to create jobs and boost the economy.

Other major campaign stands: