Last month, we wrote about the DCCC’s efforts to recruit challengers for the south Florida districts represented by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and the infamous Diaz-Balart brothers (Mario and Lincoln). Democrats are looking to line up former Hialeah Mayor Raul Martinez to take on Lincoln, and he is supposed to make a decision sometime this month on the race.
But what of the other two districts? I have yet to hear a rumored candidate to take on Ros-Lehtinen, but there is one name floating around to take on Mario Diaz-Balart: Joe García, former executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation and current Miami-Dade Democratic Party Chair. (You can read more about him here and here.) Garcia has been working to recruit strong challengers in these districts, but even went so far as to suggest that he could step up to the plate in a recent interview:
Miami-Dade County Democratic Party Chairman Joe Garcia and other Miami Democrats insist the hard-line approach to Cuba taken by Diaz-Balart is wearing thin, while GOP strategists say those policies remain popular.Garcia is seeking candidates who are well-respected in the Cuban community but who disagree with the hard-line approach taken by the three Republican incumbents on key issues related to Cuba, such as their support for travel restrictions imposed by the Bush administration that allow Cuban-Americans to visit close relatives in Cuba once every three years. […]
Garcia himself is thought to be a potential candidate, and in an interview said he’d consider a race if his party asks him.
Well, it looks like people are starting to ask him.
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.
Will Joe give it a go?
Race Tracker: FL-25
Got off extremely lucky in 2006. They suffered minimal damages.
It’s time to take the game to them this time around. Florida will be competitive on a presidential level, making the congressional races hot for the fight.
Thanks for posting this! I was completely surprised to see this here!
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In 2008, like you mentioned in the comments, Democrats have a great shot of picking up many seats in Florida, particularly Keller’s (good recruit), Feeney’s (good recruit), Weldon’s (no good recruit yet), Young (depends on retirement), and these three Miami districts (no recruits yet). My personal hunch is that we have a better chance of winning the Miami districts if we recruit three strong challengers for the seats and knock all three down at the same time, kind of like the wave effect. This 25th district offers our best chance, because Republican registration is dropping and polls show health care and the war in Iraq to be the most important issues.
We’re as likely to take two or three of the Cubano seats as to take one. Like the aspens, their leaves will turn at the same time because they are all connected at the roots. When the Cubano voters decide to reject the old, failed politicians and policies they will not be distracted by district lines.
How DEEPLY conservative FL-16 is, but that’s not really the case. Kerry won 46% of the vote in the district, and Gore 47%. Definitely a solid D base to work with.
The only reason why Mahoney is potentially vulnerable is that he’s pretty unremarkable as a politician. (Made a dumb statement or two — “This isn’t the best job I’ve had”)
I don’t call losing two seats “minimal” at all. And the Foley implosion helped us nationwide.
Let’s see our targets.
And, of course, FL-18, FL-21 and FL-25.
The defeat of one or more of the Florida Cuban American ultras will have a big impact on reform of anachronistic special interest US policies toward Cuba by an incoming Democratic Administration and should thus be an important national goal for progreessives elsewhere.
While the decisive local electoral issue is ending restrictions on travel by Cuban Americans, if candidates are to receive national support they should also endorse the end of restrictions on travel by all Americans, or at least as a first step embrace non-tourist or purposeful visits for academic, cultural and people to people exchanges.
Should Cuba policy become a big issue, Debbie Wasserman Schultz might wonder about primary challengers. Otherwise a progressive Democrat, she is tightly linked to the Congressional strategy of the Miami ultras and the recipient of $10,000 from their allied PAC. She has been the key person in moving Democratic votes to the Republican column on agricultural sales and funding for regime change propaganda and was in the audience at the State Department for the President’s hard line speech a few weeks ago.
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