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Cuban
politicians set sights on higher office
1kd4m
Cuban-American politicians, long dominant
in Miami-Dade County, are now trying to
make their influence felt more in state
and national races.
By Peter Wallsten, [emailprotected].
Posted on Sun, Nov. 30, 2003 in The Miami
Herald.
Florida's Cuban-American politicians, long
limited to success in the state's Spanish-speaking
areas, are about to find out whether the
skills honed on Calle Ocho translate to
the fish fries and possum festivals that
define campaigns in the rest of the state.
The biggest test looms next year, when
two Cuban Americans could face off as their
parties' nominees for U.S. Senate -- a potential
historic moment for a minority that has
lived here in large numbers for 40 years
but has never produced a statewide contender.
The matchup could happen if U.S. Housing
Secretary Mel Martnez, from the
Orlando area, decides in the coming days
to run. If he were to survive a competitive
Republican primary, the Cuban-born Martnez
could face Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex
Penelas, a Cuban-American Democrat who is
running for his party's nomination against
two rivals.
Another major test was seemingly ed
in recent days, when state Rep. Marco Rubio
secured enough votes from his legislative
colleagues to be designated the state House
speaker in 2006. If Rubio, a Miami Republican,
maintains his mandate, he would become the
first Cuban American to achieve that lofty
post, thrusting him into a national spotlight
just as the GOP struggles to appeal for
Hispanic voters nationwide.
The convergence of events marks what Cuban-American
leaders and political experts call a threshold
moment for a group that has long been viewed
as a critical voting bloc for presidents,
senators and governors -- capable of swaying
U.S. foreign policy on Cuba -- but never
actually producing leaders to compete at
the state and national levels.
Al Crdenas, the state Republican
Party chairman from 1998 to 2002 and the
first Cuban American to head the Florida
GOP, calls the coming days pivotal in proving
whether voters on a mass scale are ready
to empower a minority courted by party bosses.
''This is the stage where we see, will
the voter at large feel the same way as
the leadership in our respective parties?''
Crdenas said. "That's what's
going to be tested if Mel jumps in and now
that Alex is in the picture.''
SHIFTING IMAGE
Until now, the prevailing view of Cuban-American
politicians outside Miami-Dade County, experts
say, has been shaped by the community's
ionate concern about the regime of Cuban
President Fidel Castro. That was symbolized
for many by the exile community's response
to the Elin Gonzlez case,
when local leaders tried to block the boy's
return to his father on the island -- a
position viewed with disdain by many outside
Miami.
The new image, they say, is characterized
largely by a generational shift in Cuban-American
politics due in part to term limits in the
Legislature. Gone are the old-guard Miami
exiles focused on Castro, replaced by younger,
more Americanized lawmakers who focus on
education policy, criminal justice, health
and other issues.
They can drink caf con leche in
the Versailles restaurant or, as Penelas
and Rubio have done in their statewide efforts,
glad-hand in Panama City and Jacksonville.
''This is the beginning of the next step
in an evolution of the Cuban-American community,''
said Rubio, 32, a former West Miami city
commissioner who was elected to the House
in 2000 and, for the past year, has served
as a key lieutenant to Speaker Johnnie Byrd.
Experts liken the Cuban Americans' path
to those of other ethnic groups in the United
States, such as Irish Catholics and Jews,
that ultimately gained acceptance from voters.
The 2004 election, they say, could be for
Cubans what 1960 was for Catholics when
John Kennedy was elected president.
''These aren't the old-fashioned Cuban
politicians,'' said Dario Moreno, a Florida
International University political scientist
who studies ethnic politics, referring to
the Cuban legislative delegation in Tallahassee.
"These are American politicians that
happen to be Cuban, just like JFK was an
American politician who happened to be Irish
Catholic.''
As that test unfolds, both parties have
a great deal at stake, both in Florida and
across the country as they work to woo an
increasingly large and unpredictable bloc
of Hispanic voters.
While the traditionally Republican-leaning
Cuban-American bloc that dominates Miami
politics contrasts sharply with the typically
Democratic non-Cuban Hispanics in Central
Florida and other immigrant-heavy states
such as Texas, New York and California,
party strategists say that a high-profile
Cuban American elected statewide in Florida
would still make a big symbolic statement.
Democratic National Committee Chairman
Terry McAuliffe met recently with Cuban-American
leaders during a party gathering in New
Mexico to discuss strategy, while several
of the nine Democratic candidates for president
have been honing their stances on policy
toward Cuba in the hope of winning votes
in South Florida.
For their part, Rubio, Martnez
and Penelas are well positioned to ease
Cuban Americans into the mainstream of Florida
politics. But each, too, faces complications
tied to his ethnicity.
Martnez is considered a moderate
on Cuba issues, and he doesn't have the
of many of Miami-Dade's Cuban-American
leaders. Penelas is likely to face questions
from Democratic primary voters about his
comments during the Elin crisis.
And Rubio has been criticized by some within
his party for pressuring the Bush istration
on Cuba issues.
TEENAGE REFUGEE
Martnez, 57, fled Cuba in 1962
as part of the Roman Catholic relief program
Pedro Pan, which helped thousands of children
escape the island. He grew up in Orlando,
not Miami, and went on to be elected chairman
of Orange County, a region where politics
is dominated by non-Hispanic whites, blacks
and Puerto Ricans, and where Castro is not
an issue.
The White House -- eager to shore up Hispanic
across the country and soothe tensions
with South Florida exile leaders as the
president faces reelection -- has been urging
Martnez for months to enter the
Senate race. If he does not run for the
Senate, Martnez is seen as a likely
2006 candidate for governor.
But Martnez, who could not be reached
for comment, is considered a moderate on
Cuba issues such as the U.S. trade embargo
-- a point that could give him trouble in
a GOP primary in which old-guard exile voters
still play a vital role. Martnez
says he would win broad among Cuban-American
voters, but he would have to campaign without
the help of many key elected leaders.
Cuban-American state House are
sticking by Byrd, a non-Hispanic white legislator
from rural Plant City who is also running
for the Senate. Cuban-American senators
have made it clear they will back a non-Hispanic
white colleague, state Sen. Daniel Webster
of suburban Orlando. Lincoln Daz-Balart
and Mario Daz-Balart, brothers and
Republican of Congress from Miami,
are ing former U.S. Rep. Bill McCollum,
from the Orlando suburbs.
MAYOR'S PROSPECTS
Penelas, one of only a few high-profile
Cuban-American Democrats in Miami-Dade,
is considered by many in his party to be
an underdog in the primary against U.S.
Rep. Peter Deutsch of Pembroke Pines and
former state Education Commissioner Betty
Castor. A recent Mason-Dixon poll showed
Castor with a wide lead.
More than most, Penelas remains saddled
with the Elin affair, thanks to
a highly publicized threat to stand up to
federal officials if they tried to remove
the boy. In recent months, though, Penelas
has acknowledged that he ''let my emotions
go'' in the controversy, and has moved to
build a statewide network of non-Cuban Hispanics
and blacks.
Rubio says that his ethnicity was rarely
an issue as he crisscrossed the state looking
for votes.
Still, there were signs that electing a
Cuban American to a job long dominated by
white men from Orlando to the Panhandle
was a point of discomfort in some circles.
As Rubio netted more votes this month,
an anonymous flier was distributed to lawmakers,
accusing him of ''crimes against Republicans,''
noting that he signed a letter to the White
House suggesting that the president risked
losing his in the community if he
did not stiffen his policies against Castro.
Nevertheless, Rubio secured the votes for
the speakership days later when several
rivals stepped aside. Now he has three years
to keep his coalition together -- meaning
that he will be a major political player
in state House campaigns next year and in
2006.
Rubio could well encounter Martnez
and Penelas -- each facing far different
challenges and goals but with a unifying
significance in the history books.
''Penelas, Martnez and Marco Rubio
are not happening in isolation,'' said Moreno,
the political scientist. "These things
are connected.''
ELECTORAL INFLUENCE
o Numbering about 915,000 in Florida, according
to the latest estimates by the U.S. Census
Bureau, Cuban Americans are the largest
single bloc of Florida's 3 million Hispanic
residents.
o About 400,000 Cuban Americans voted in
the 2000 election, with eight in 10 of them
backing President Bush.
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