Tag: Mario Diaz-Balart

• MN-Sen: Despite the seemingly increased likelihood that he’d jerk Al Franken around now that he doesn’t have to worry about re-election and how impatient Minnesotans feel about the Senate vacancy, Gov. Tim Pawlenty says he’ll certify Al Franken as winner of the Senate race if the state Supreme Court directs him to do so. Also, many are interpreting John Cornyn‘s comments about how the Senate GOP doesn’t have the votes to filibuster Sonia Sotomayor, even if they wanted to, as being a tacit admission that Franken would be seated soon.

• NC-Sen: It never quite seemed likely, but Elizabeth Edwards silenced any speculation that she might run for Senate against Richard Burr next year.

• KY-Sen: Here’s a new name sniffing out the Kentucky Senate primary. A staffer for Rep. Ed Whitfield from KY-01 just bought both domain names for “whitfieldforsenate.com” and “whitfieldforgovernor.com” (and inexplicably paid $800 for the two names). Maybe SoS Trey Grayson may have some company in the primary if Jim Bunning truly does bail out?

• VA-Gov: Ex-Del. Brian Moran leaked an internal poll from Greenberg Quinlan Rosner to Political Wire. Lo and behold, it shows Moran in the lead, with 29% to 27% for Creigh Deeds and 26% for Terry McAuliffe. (Meaning that in the last week, each of the three primary candidates have led a poll.) (UPDATE: PPP points out a flaw here: this isn’t a topline, but the result from a subsample that’s disposed to do well for Moran: people who’ve participated in Democratic primaries prior to last year’s presidential race.)

Fundraising numbers for the three candidates also just came out: McAuliffe is way ahead on the money front, with $1.8 mil raised last quarter and $1.3 mil CoH ($7 mil total). Deeds raised $676K with $521K CoH ($3.8 mil total), and Moran raised $844K with $700 CoH ($4.8 mil total).

• MN-Gov: With T-Paw getting out, a flood of second-tier Republicans has spilled out in search of the nomination. State Sen. David Hann, state Sen. Geoff Michel, state Rep. Marty Seifert, state Rep. Paul Kohls, and former legislator Charlie Weaver are “interested.” Former Auditor Pat Anderson is going so far as to say she’ll announce in a month or two. Others mentioned include state Rep. Laura Brod, national committee member Brian Sullivan, and former state House speaker and current Labor and Industry Commissioner Steve Sviggum. The Star-Tribune also mentioned former Rep. Jim Ramstad (who’d do well in the general but may be too moderate to survive the nominating convention), state Sen. minority leader David Senjem, and one very big wild card… Norm Coleman, although his dragging-out of the Senate race can’t have helped his favorables. One prominent name who apparently isn’t interested: Rep. Michele Bachmann.

• MI-Gov: The Republican field in the Michigan governor’s race got even more crowded, as Oakland Co. Sheriff Rick Bouchard got in. (Bouchard lost the 2006 Senate race to Debbie Stabenow.) Bouchard’s entry was faciliated when his boss, Oakland Co. Exec L. Brooks Patterson, declined to run — but Bouchard may do exactly what Patterson would have done, which is split the Detroit suburban vote with AG Mike Cox, making it easier for Rep. Pete Hoekstra from the state’s west to sneak through.

• CO-04: Ex-Rep. Marilyn Musgrave fired off a rather unhinged-sounding fundraising letter on behalf of her new employers in the culture war, the anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony List. This may actually work to Rep. Betsy Markey’s advantage; she made reference to Musgrave’s letter in her own appeal for contributions.

• FL-17: Politics1 has an interesting, if a bit unsavory, rumor coming out of south Florida: 83-year-old former Rep. Carrie Meek may get on the ballot in FL-17, essentially to act as a one-term placeholder for her son, Rep. Kendrick Meek. (If he lost the Senate race, she would re-retire in 2012 and thus let him get his old job back. Or, if Meek won the Senate race, she’d still retire and let someone new take over FL-17.) Meek denied the rumor, though, to National Journal.

• FL-25: Here’s a potentially big name to take on Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, who beat Joe Garcia by a small margin in 2008. Miami Mayor Manny Diaz is reportedly taking a look at the race; his name has also been mentioned in connection with the open Lt. Gov. slot.

• NC-11: PPP’s Tom Jensen looks at possible Democratic successors in this R+6 district if Rep. Heath Shuler gives up the seat to run for Senate. He cites state Sens. John Snow and Joe Sam Queen as likeliest. (He also links to a great map from Civitas that calculates the PVI for all of North Carolina’s state Senate districts.)

• SC-01: Rep. Henry Brown threw a “thank you” party in Myrtle Beach for his supporters, and at least 11 people walked away with the best possible tokens of his gratitude: diarrhea and nausea. State health officials are investigating to see if it was the result of food poisoning or just of the Republican rhetoric. Also, 2008 challenger Linda Ketner, who came close to knocking off Brown as an openly lesbian candidate in a dark-red district, may not be looking to run again. She did a refreshingly honest interview with FireDogLake, maybe a little too refreshing vis-a-vis her future viability, in terms of referring to “the conservative, religious crazy vote” and outing several prominent South Carolina politicians.

• UT-LG: A third generation of Romneys is getting warmed up (in a third state). Mitt Romney’s 33-year-old son Josh has been in talks with soon-to-be-Gov. Gary Herbert about the open Lieutenant Governor’s position.

• AL-St. Senate: Democrats can still be a downballot force in Alabama, managing to hold a state Senate seat in a deep-red part of rural Alabama north of Mobile. State Rep. Mark Keahey (who’s only 28) narrowly defeated Republican former state Rep. Greg Albritton, in a special election triggered by the January death of Democratic Sen. Pat Lindsey. (UPDATE: Actually, it turns out that the margin wasn’t so tight. Keahey crushed Albritton by a devastating 58-42 margin.)

• NH-St. House: In another special election, Democrats held a state House seat based in Lebanon, New Hampshire, as fire captain Andy White beat Republican Randy Wagoner. It’s Democratic-leaning turf, but the GOP turned this into a proxy battle over gay marriage (White is a vote in favor of it), and out-of-district money enabled Wagoner to outspend White at least 4-to-1.

Research 2000 for Daily Kos (10/20-22, likely voters):

Raul Martinez (D): 44

Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-inc): 45

(MoE: ±5%)

Research 2000 for Daily Kos (10/20-22, likely voters, 9/23-25 in parentheses):

Joe Garcia (D): 43 (41)

Mario Diaz-Balart (R-inc): 46 (45)

(MoE: ±5%)

Two last stragglers from this weekend’s poll blitz to discuss: both the South Florida races involving the Diaz-Balart brothers are almost neck-and-neck as we near the finish line. They’re similar districts (the 21st is R+6, the 25th is R+4, both are more than 60% Hispanic, most of which is Cuban-American), obviously similar incumbents (Mario is the slightly more conservative one), and the challengers are similarly close.

Raul Martinez, the former mayor of Hialeah (the population center of the 21st), is trailing Lincoln Diaz-Balart by one point. Among the 17% who’ve voted already, Martinez leads 55-42. While it’s not surprising that the locally well-known Martinez is performing well in this one-time reliable GOP stronghold, it is very surprising that Obama is leading in this district 50-45 (and 55-42 among early voters). (Although given dramatic changes in registration numbers, maybe not that surprising.)

In the 25th, a district which is further out in the suburbs (and includes a whole lot of empty territory in the Everglades), Joe Garcia is back by 3, a slightly closer race than one month ago, and is leading among independents 42-41 (much better than the 4-point deficit among indies last month). Of the 12% who’ve voted already, Garcia leads 52-46.

Mario Diaz-Balart, attacking SCHIP:

In a flame-fanning tirade on Spanish-language radio last week, Díaz-Balart called the tax hike [to pay for SCHIP] an “attack on the Cuban-American community.” He added: “It would hurt an industry specifically in Miami-Dade, in South Florida, an industry that is almost entirely Hispanic: those who make cigars by hand, which is a cultural tradition. That industry will not survive.”

Lincoln Diaz-Balart, disrupting Tom Lantos’s memorial service:

The House had a meltdown today in the middle of the memorial service for the late Rep. Tom Lantos, a Holocaust survivor who was chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The service, in the Capitol’s historic Statuary Hall, was disrupted when a Republican House member unexpectedly called for a procedural vote.

And that’s when all hell broke loose.

House Democrats were furious, charging the procedural motion was disrespectful. “Very bad taste, very” as one senior House Democratic aide put it.

Republicans were apparently worried that Democrats were about to force debate on contempt-of-Congress citations against White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) is the member who hit the panic button, so to speak, and called the procedural vote. His real purpose in calling the procedural motion was to protest the lack of a vote on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act – before the contempt debate started.

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, grandstanding about that stupid Petraeus ad:

The chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., said the ad “is outrageous and it is deplorable” and called upon her “colleagues on both sides of the aisle” to condemn the ad and, somewhat inexplicably, to apologize to the general for the impugning of his integrity.

Democrats everywhere know that we don’t need people like this in Congress. It goes without saying that the DCCC leadership should realize this, too.

Over the weekend, people have been talking, activists have been working, and momentum has been building. Now it’s time to act.

It all started a few weeks ago. Joe Garcia, who serves as Miami-Dade Democratic Party Chairman and Cuban American National Foundation Executive Director (as well as a host of other activities), was interviewed by The Hill. In the interview, he said he would consider running for Congress in the 25th district, if he was asked to.

So last week I posed the idea, “FL-25: Republicans in Trouble, Should We Draft Joe Garcia?”

Basically, the Republican machine and stronghold in Miami-Dade is falling apart. What were once solidly Republican-leaning traditional Cuban-American districts are now becoming integrated districts with immigrants from around other parts of the US. And the new generation of Cuban-Americans from the districts is not buying the old Republican rallying tactics of anti-Cuba rhetoric. Polls taken in the district have shown health care and Iraq as the major issues. Republican registration is down and once solidly safe local Republican incumbents are facing the challenges of their lives, including from the Florida Netroot’s own Michael Calderin, in the 119th Florida house district. With the current political winds in our favor, we need to take advantage of this situation.

…

So the questions is, should we start asking? Should we draft Joe Garcia into the race?

Word started spreading all around Democratic circles in Miami and Florida, in the media and in the blogs.

From local Florida blog Stuck on the Palmetto:

I’ve liked Joe Garcia ever since I heard him hand Henry Gomez his a** during a debate on one of the babalu Radio Hours. It really was a thing of beauty and revealed Garcia to be articulate and forward thinking, particularly on Cuba foreign policy matters, and not mired in the failed policies of the past 40 some odd years.

[Listen to Joe debate hysterical Cuban-American hardliner Henry Gomez here. Let the broadcast download and advance it to about 19:00 when the conversation begins. The debate ends abruptly when Henry mutes Joe at 54:00.]

Joe has said he would run if he was asked. Let’s ask. Let’s start tossing out relics of the past and start looking forward.

A facebook page was created and already has over 50 members!

James L right here at Swing State Project also covered the election prospects of this run, in “FL-25: A Foe for Mario?”“

I think this could be a fun race, and I don’t think that the GOP is well-situated to appeal to the Cuban community in the long term, where the Iraq War and S-CHIP are as big of a set of concerns as they are everywhere else.  And, let’s face it, the GOP’s Latino outreach hasn’t been exactly spectacular in recent years.

Still more commented at the draft blog, Gloria wrote:

Joe Garcia is exactly what we need for the Democrats to get a voice in South Florida. I am totally behind this effort and I have personally told him to run in the past and am doing so again – Please Joe, run run run and give some other voice a chance to be heard besides one of the Diaz Balart brothers.

…

Even though I live in Lincoln’s district, Mario’s is next door and we have to start somewhere and Joe Garcia – would be great.

And Sandra said:

I will be another HUGE supporter of Joe Garcia. I write Mario Diaz Balart constantly and I am frustrated and sick of him ignoring the needs of his constituents He just repeats the talking points and the lies of the administration. I will be more than happy to volunteer my time if he decides to run.

We desperately need a change.

Meanwhile, a Republican chimed in:

I am a lifelong republican and a conservative yet I am also a Cuban-American who believes that we need new blood and ideas on the debate over Cuba policy.

Go Joe!

And one of the latest comments comes from Bonnie:

As a voter in the 25th, I urge you to run for Congress so that we will finally have a rational voice. You will have my vote and can count on my help as a volunteer.

Then Joe responded!

On Friday, Joe spoke with Nicole Sandler on WINZ radio (Media Player). In the interview, which you can listen to at the link above, Joe said he was considering the decision with his family and would likely make a decision in a couple months. He spoke positively on the Party’s efforts to get challengers running in all three districts currently represented by Republicans. On a side note, he also endorsed the idea of Publicly-Financed Elections in the interview. I think many of us couldn’t agree more.

If this wasn’t enough, in an email sent out by Joe Garcia himself to the Miami-Dade Democratic Party’s mailing list, Joe had this to say:

“While I am still far from making a decision, I do want to say that your kindness and support are very humbling and much appreciated!”

I was extremely thrilled to hear this from Joe. He would make a terrific Congressman. No longer in FL-25 would we have a vote for more war. No longer would we have a vote against SCHIP and children’s health care. No longer would there be a vote against life-saving Stem Cell Research. We could actually send a Congressman to Washington who would vote for allowing negotiation for prescription drugs. We would have a Congressman who would support publicly-financed elections. But most importantly, we would add a progressive voice in Washington, who isn’t afraid to say the truth.

So now the real fun part begins. We need to let Joe know if enters this race that he will have real grassroots support to win the election. As an experienced leader, who has served his community all his life, who has stood up for those in need of help, I know he would be a worthy Congressman. But we need to step up and let Joe know we want him in Congress. Joe said he would consider running if asked. Well true to his word he is considering. Now we need to ask him to run.

The Draft Joe Garcia website/blog has been gradually launched over the weekend. Now it’s about up and running at full speed.

An Act Blue Page has also been set up and the goal is to reach 100 contributors of $5.00 each. The amount has two benefits. It’s small, so it’s not going to break anyone’s piggy bank, but it will also have an impact well beyond its monetary value. It’s about showing Joe the grassroots wants him to run and he will have our support should he enter the race. The goal is actually a bit ambitious, but I think we can reach it. This victory would be particularly sweet for the Florida netroots, which has been growing very rapidly over the last couple of years. So please contribute to get Joe in the race, if you are able.

Why I Ask Joe to Run

The reason why I’m asking for Joe to run is quite simple. Miami and surrounding counties are changing. No longer are these areas the Republican strong-holds that they once were. The 25th district’s constituency simply does not reflect the right-wing and Bush rubber-stamp votes being made by Mario Diaz-Balart. So 2008 offers us the chance to pick up the district and we need someone to run who is going to stand up for basic Democratic Party and progressive principles, like expanding health care coverage, voting to get money out of politics, and ending the war in Iraq. This is our chance to take back this seat, but not only that, send someone to Washington who is going to do the right thing for the people of the district, Florida, and America. Recently in November, Joe led Democrats to record victories in Miami-Dade elections. Now let’s lead him to victory, but first we have to get him in and build a strong grassroots network for the campaign.

Will you ask Joe to run? Will you add your voice to the many already asking Joe to give Mario the political challenge of his life?

Four Things You Can Do Right Now

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