Miami Herald recommends David Rivera apparently because he knows where District 25 is located
Al’s Loupe
Miami Herald recommends David Rivera apparently because he knows where District 25 is located
By Alvaro F. Fernandez
alvaro@progresoweekly.com
The Miami Herald is important. At a time of dying newspapers and an evolving world of media, it is the only game in this town. It sets the tone for what is reported by most of Miami’s other news outlets. This importance should carry a responsibility. Often though, especially since publisher David Lawrence quit the newspaper in 1998, it doesn’t take that responsibility very seriously.
It may be a sign of the times. The economics of newspapers have changed. Therefore, the business side of a newspaper, especially the Herald’s, now tends to dominate a profession where once the editorial side had no contact with those who controlled advertising. Today’s Miami Herald is run by persons who came up on the business side.
Add to this the pressure(s) applied by individuals and businesses who spend large amounts of money advertising with the newspaper, and today’s bottom-line-comes-first bosses bow down to special interests – too often at the expense of the community it is supposed to be defending as a member of the once venerable fourth estate.
I guess I’ve written all of this to try and explain (to myself) why The Miami Herald would stoop as low as recommend State Rep. David Rivera in the U.S. House District 25 Republican primary. On Saturday, July 31, it supported Rivera with one of the blandest recommendation I’ve ever read from that newspaper. I was a bit flabbergasted to think that David got the nod “on the basis of hisfamiliarity with much of his district, which includes his own state legislative turf, and his experience as a lawmaker,” according to The Miami Herald editorial.
That being the case, then I am as qualified as Rep. Rivera based on my knowledge of that district. I have conducted well-executed, non-partisan voter registration and get out the vote efforts in that area of Miami (and also Collier County) since 2000. In fact, I would boast that I probably know the district better than Rivera and have done more good for his constituents based on my empowerment projects in the area. But it’s The Miami Herald’s reference to “his experience as a lawmaker,” that kills me.
His experience! So they’re telling us that politicians that have hurt their community deserve to move up the rung of political success.
What The Miami Herald fails to recognize in their six-paragraph recommendation of Rivera is that several years ago, as state legislators desperately sought billions of dollars to balance the state budget, David was ramming through an unconstitutional law (against charter flights to Cuba) that eventually cost taxpayers at least a million dollars to defend. Still, the state lost. David shrugged it off. He has a reputation for using state coffers as a personal checking account.
Also, as chairman of Florida’s budget committee, Rivera has picked up checks for his campaign(s) from any person or business hoping to work with the state. As chair of the committee, he had the capacity to stop funding through the state anyone who had not contributed…
Then there’s the story about a house co-owned in Tallahassee with political buddy and now U.S. senatorial hopeful Marco Rubio. The Herald has tried to ignore the fact that the R and R boys are in default on payments due the bank on the house. Last thing I heard, they owed three to six months of back-due mortgage payments. I wouldn’t be surprised that until caught, these two had no intention of paying what they owed on a home that no longer serves their purposes. I also wouldn’t put it past them a plan to live for free for at least one or two years while they were being foreclosed on. Or just maybe they expected the Republican Party to pick up the tab with one of those credit cards that ultimately sent former Party chairman Jim Greer to the pokey.
To their credit, The Miami Herald did report recently that Rivera had been (I call it strong-arming) requesting a mailer from certain Florida International University administrators and professors asking for political contribution from every FIU employee. Rivera had funneled a good amount of money to the University in the past — now it was their turn to return the favor…
In the end, if the other two persons, Paul Crespo and Marili Cancio, running for the republican nomination in District 25, did not convince The Miami Herald, the newspaper could have opted for forego a recommendation. Instead they chose the most undeserving of the three, Rivera.
Read the Herald editorial by clicking here (http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/07/31/1754670/congress-district-25.html). You will notice that it never once mentions a David Rivera achievement as a state legislator, this in spite of the fact that Rivera is an ‘experienced lawmaker’ whom, I might add, has held very powerful positions in Tallahassee.
So I ask myself, again, why would The Miami Herald recommend David Rivera in District 25? What’s in it for them?
