Florida republicans fear Raul Martinez

By Weekly Archive On Sep 18, 2007

Florida
republicans fear Raul Martinez

Will
he decide to run against Lincoln Diaz-Balart in 2008?

By
Alvaro F. Fernandez

Raul
L. Martinez, former mayor of the city of Hialeah, has never lost an
election. Last year Martinez retired from public life. He opted to
not seek reelection in the second largest municipality in Miami-Dade
County. But the former mayor still seems to garner more publicity
than most elected politicians and shows up regularly in The Miami
Herald and other media.

There
is speculation, and hope in certain circles, that Martinez will
challenge U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart in the 2008 November
elections. If so, it would become a heavyweight battle. More than one
year out, many odds-makers and pundits I’ve spoken to have the
former mayor defeating Diaz-Balart, who has held the West Miami Dade
(and a small piece of Broward County) congressional seat — which
includes a large part of Hialeah — since 1992. Although I too
believe Martinez would beat Diaz-Balart, I would warn that it will
not be as easy as some people tend to want to believe.

Rep.
Diaz-Balart is a seasoned politician. He will have more than a
million dollars going into the race and his district was drawn during
the 2001 redistricting process by his brother, Mario Diaz-Balart.
Along the way, Mario also drew himself the adjoining district when he
oversaw the process as a state legislator in Florida. He later won
the District 25 congressional seat.

With
more than 304,000 voters registered in District 21 as of November
2006, the breakdown may surprise some: 129,302 are republicans,
101,156 are democrats, but most interesting is the fact that there
are 70,927 voters in this district registered under No Party
Affiliation (NPA). Anyone who has spent time registering voters —
something I do on a regular basis and as part of my work — knows
that the largest number of new voters is registering under the no
party designation. I believe most people are fed up with few or no
solutions from either major Party.

District
21 numbers have changed dramatically since 2000 when Mario helped
assure the brothers’ congressional legacy. If the trend should
continue the NPAs will soon outnumber both republicans and democrats.
The south Florida political landscape is not
the same one we knew in 2000. And when you add the Cuba issue to the
formula, things start to change even more — changes one may not have
imagined even two or three years ago.

I
told a friend recently that if there is a silver lining to the
cruelty of the Bush measures imposed on the Cuban family in June 2004
limiting visits to once every three years (and defining who a family
member could be), it is that it opened people’s eyes to the
insanity that is U.S.-Cuba policy. Add family into the mix and even
most republicans start to admit that we’ve stepped over the line.

Yes,
as sad as the situation has become, these barbaric regulations made
the Cuba issue in Miami discussable from differing viewpoints. And
that represents change.

Fear
of Raul

If
Raul Martinez decides to challenge Lincoln Diaz-Balart in 2008, the
Cuba family issue will
be high atop the many subjects to be debated. He has openly and
fiercely opposed the 2004 regulations limiting family visits. In the
past Martinez has also been critical of U.S.-Cuba policy.

Lincoln
will probably tread lightly on those points with an experienced
debater like Martinez. For Diaz-Balart it may be a losing battle: How
can you stand against family. And that’s the point Raul will drive
home.

Also,
there are already signs that republicans don’t want Raul stepping
into the political fray. Last week we were informed of two.

First,
Raul held a political fundraiser for Sen. Hillary Clinton at his
Hialeah home. Florida Republican Party Chair Jim Greer issued a
statement critical of Mrs. Clinton warning that she should watch the
company she keeps and the people she accepts money from. The senator
had just finished a week where she had turned back $850,000 in
contributions raised by political fundraiser Norman Jsu who was
jailed and charged with grand theft. In the same press release, Greer
called Martinez an “embattled fundraiser.”

Raul,
as he is prone to do, blew his stack and fired off a response laced
with juicy language. He made headlines. For once I was glad to see
Raul get mad and tell Greer off — even in off-color language.

If
you’ve followed Martinez’ career one would understand he was
reacting to a republican attempt to discredit him by reminding voters
of his past. At one point a not-yet-40-year-old Raul may have been
the most powerful politician in Miami-Dade. In the late 1980s a
questionable indictment brought on by U.S. Attorney Dexter Lehtinen,
husband of Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, turned the mayor’s life into a
yogurt gone sour.

Martinez
beat the rap, came back and won reelection as mayor of Hialeah. But
he had paid a big price. Many (especially voters outside of Hialeah)
still question his integrity. Mrs. Ros-Lehtinen went on to become the
first Cuban ever elected to Congress.

Then
late last week we found out the former mayor had given up hosting a
radio program he had just started with Univision’s WQBA (1140-AM).
After less than a week on the job the station was demanding he sign a
waiver promising not to seek political office. Martinez said no.

Demos
must want it if Raul is to run

For
Raul Martinez to run for the District 21 congressional seat the Party
must get behind him. If they don’t, Martinez will not run. And when
I mention behind him, I mean raise him at least a million dollars.

Like
I said at the beginning, Raul has never lost an election. Now
retired, I assure you his plans don’t include running a race he
cannot win. And without money, Raul will not beat Lincoln
Diaz-Balart.

I
have little faith in the Democratic leadership. I would love to be
proven wrong with Raul Martinez. But I doubt it. Remember this is the
Party that after taking back Congress in 2006 was going to bring our
boys home from Iraq, reform the Farm Bill, fix immigration and so
many other promises that have all fallen by the wayside. The
democratic leadership too often has turned out to be simply
Republican-lites and in some cases (Cuba comes to mind) they’ve
acted worse than republicans.

But
if they want to start turning back this Cuban republican stronghold
in Miami, the leadership will have to commit to Raul. It would
actually be a pretty safe bet. Or have we forgotten that a
ridiculously under-funded and unknown candidate in 2006 managed to
scratch, claw and wrest 41% of the vote from Diaz-Balart. And with
all due respect to Frank Gonzalez who I take my hat off for having
the guts to take on Lincoln with $10,000 (while doing a commendable
job), Raul Martinez is a proven winner, a tireless campaigner and
although cocky at times, connects easily with people on the street. I
think they call it charisma — and he’s got it. He also
continuously won over and over again in Hialeah, a heavy republican
city.

Raul
versus Lincoln would be a political race for the ages. Lincoln, I
assure you, not used to being challenged much less questioned, will
lose sleep at the possibility.

And
under the right circumstances, as I’ve mentioned, I’m sure Raul
would not shy away from the challenge. I just hope the Democratic
Party is up to the task. Or, as in dominos, will they pass one more
time?