Crist offers tiny ray of hope

Al’s Loupe

Crist offers tiny ray of hope

By Alvaro F. Fernandez
alvaro@progresoweekly.com

There is an important senate race in Florida this year. Last year at this time I would have probably told you that my vote in this race would probably be a NO vote — in other words, I would skip over the candidates running. As of today, my opinions have changed. Chances are I will cast my vote for Governor Charlie Crist. This in spite of the fact that I must admit to owing a debt of gratitude to whom will probably represent the democrats in November, Kendrick Meek

congressman Meek helped me once. He was then a well-known and -regarded state senator from Florida. He was also then-Governor Jeb Bush’s political nemesis in the legislature.

Bush’s disdain for Meek is well known. He is one of the few politicians in the state who has managed to derail the former governor’s plans. In 2002, Meek, a democrat, managed to help pass the class size amendment, vehemently opposed by Bush, which limited the maximum number of students allowed per classroom in Florida public schools. Before that, Meek had embarrassed Bush when he staged a sit-in, together with Jacksonville State Rep. Tony Hill, at the governor’s office. The two football player-sized legislators were there protesting Bush’s stripping affirmative action protections from state contracting and university admissions.

Today Meek is waging an uphill battle to become Florida’s first African American U.S. senator. At the moment polls show him running a distant third, behind Crist and former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio.

My 2002 story with Meek is long and convoluted. In short, he came to my rescue in Tallahassee before a joint committee discussing redistricting. At the time I represented a national Latino organization advocating for fairer districts inclusive of Latin American and Caribbean communities as new (based on census population numbers) political lines were being drawn at the state capital. That day I had flown to Tallahassee, was supposed to testify before the committee and then fly back to Miami that night. On the committee were a number of Cuban American republicans who did not want me to testify. They were pulling all stops to make sure of that. Leading the redistricting committee in the legislature was Mario Diaz-Balart. Making sure I did not get to the podium that day were State Senators Rudy Garcia and Alex Diaz de la Portilla.

Cognizant of what was happening, Meek stepped in. Turning to the committee chair, he said (as best as I can remember), ‘Mr. Chairman, there is a friend from Miami who has been waiting since morning to speak before the committee. Why haven’t we allowed him to offer his testimony?’ Meek’s status, as well as his close relationship with Mario Diaz-Balart, saved me from a potential embarrassment that day.

But… as Meek’s ambitions grew, so did his need for political contributions which helped grease his slide upwards. And that’s when the Cuba situation became important to him. Meek, along with another South Florida U.S. representative, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, are the darlings of the U.S. Cuba Democracy PAC, a group of wealthy, mostly from Miami, Cubans who have distributed thousands of dollars over the past decade assuring a congressional stand against most everything I believe in when it comes to the relationship between this country and Cuba.

Sadly, Kendrick Meek in the U.S. senate would be another vote for Mauricio Claver-Carone and his anti-Cuba PAC. Which, by the way, does not mean Charlie Crist would be any better. But, there may be a tiny ray of hope.

There are a number of things to consider with Crist. First, he left the Republican Party — mostly because he had to. Enamored with Marco Rubio’s surge with Tea Party types, the party basically threw Crist under the bus and has tried to back it over him to make sure he was dead. Then Crist sealed the deal with privatize-everything republicans, by vetoing a law (whose main strategist in getting it passed through the Florida legislature was Jeb Bush, who happens to be Rubio’s Frankenstein) which would have destroyed Florida education as we know it — for the worse. And would have slowly led to privatizing and in some cases ‘religionizing’ the state’s public education system.

I found the Crist veto interesting. It demonstrated, I believe, that this politician, characterized as wishy-washy, is willing to take a stand (against his own party), because it was the right thing to do. Some will argue that it was the practical thing to do for a politician who was being turned out by his own party. Maybe… In the end it was the right thing to do, though.

Finally, Crist may not be any better for any of us on Cuba. Then again, based on what I’ve seen from this man, who is to say that he may not determine that what Florida’s economy needs, for example, is the jolt the lifting of the Cuban embargo would signify for this state?

This, by the way, may also be practical for Crist. Hard-core Cuban republicans in Miami will vote for Marco Rubio this November. Crist knows that. But as President Obama learned in 2008, the Cuban American community is not a monolithic voting bloc. And a more open stance on Cuba by the newly independent Crist during this campaign may win him Cuban votes Obama quickly learned to cultivate.

One last thought to ponder. In Florida you don’t need a majority to win the senate seat. With three heavyweights running, a plurality of the votes is all Crist needs to earn his seat in Washington. It’s interesting to note that runoff elections were eliminated by a republican-led Florida legislature as a tactical move they thought would benefit them.