Tag: Raul Martinez

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.

From the Miami-Herald blog:

Now things are really heating up! Raul Martinez and state Democrats at a Miami press conference today looked to tie Lincoln Diaz-Balart to Puerto Rican senator Jorge de Castro Font, who was arrested by the FBI.

Dems charge that de Castro Font has “implicated” Diaz-Balart by alleging to “have traveled to Miami with Congressman Luis Fortuño of Puerto Rico to deliver a suitcase full of cash for Diaz-Balart’s re-election campaign.” The money was allegedly from a prominent PR family. […]

De Castro Font in an interview with a PR TV station, said the alleged trip took place in 2005 — long before Diaz-Balart’s challenge from Martinez. De Castro Font has been indicted by a federal grand jury on 31 criminal counts including bribery, wire fraud and money laundering. He’s also peeved that Fortuño has tried to distance himself from him since the scandal broke, and even tried to remove him from the November ballot. Fortuño is running for governor, and de Castro Font seeks reelection.

The Florida Democratic Party has more:

In an interview with WAPA TV in Puerto Rico, De Castro Font stated:

“I am not going to remain quiet.  I am here talking with you. If I was quiet . . . just the other day I said that …to ask him … Luis Fortuño said the other day that he was never with me that he has not seen me in four years. Ask him if he went with me to deliver money to Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart of Miami . We sat together in first class.”

In a separate WAPA 680AM radio interview in Puerto Rico, De Castro Font stated:

“I traveled with him [Luis Fortuño] to Miami to give money to a U.S. Congressman. He didn’t tell me anything else. Ask him when you interview him if he went to take money to Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart sitting with me in First Class on American Airlines.”

My friends, this is sleaze that I can believe in. Remember, this isn’t the first time that Diaz-Balart has engaged in illegal campaign financing. In July 2001, he paid a hefty $30,000 fine for accepting excessive contributions in past campaigns. Perhaps this will be Diaz-Balart’s last campaign for a while.

SSP currently rates this race as a Tossup.

I suppose the best way to begin this screed is to thank everyone here.  It is because of us, and other such activism-minded denizens of the blogosphere, that the formerly hesitant Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-20) reached out to the Democratic challengers in districts 18, 21, and 25– Joel Garcia, Raul Martinez, and Annette Taddeo, respectively– by inviting them to a DCCC fundraiser in Aventura, FL, last night.  Apparently, Wasserman Schultz actively introduced the challengers to major donors and Democratic party bigwigs.  For someone who quite recently recused herself from campaigning in these races, this is big news.  And there's no way she would've done it without the fighting spirit of the blogosphere, so, again, thanks and congratulations all around!

With that being said . . . inviting Garcia, Martinez, and Taddeo to one fundraiser isn't enough, especially when that fundraiser is for candidates in other parts of the state and the country, as this one was.  If Wasserman Schultz truly wants to maintain her standing as a rising star in the party, in addition to obliterating the remnants of this controversy completely, she needs to actively campaign with all three challengers, appearing with them at campaign stops and, most importantly, hosting a fundraiser for them, not just introducing them at someone else's.  I think there's a good chance she'll follow through with all that . . . IF we keep an eye on her and hold her to it.   So . . . keep up the good work, folks.  Our fighting spirit pays off! 

On a humorous note: if we keep this up, Wasserman Schultz will get a lot of her repentance out of the way long before Yom Kippur– we got her to start the atonement process just after Purim!