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“I really believe he’s a man you can believe in, a man you can trust, and a man you can respect,” Sabina told 
Ladra. “I have a high respect for him that I don’t have for the other three.”
Read related: Carlos Curbelo hides lobbying client list under wife’s skirt
He ranks highly among other serias Republicanas like Adelaida Rosario and Ana Margarita Martinez — these women are all members of the Federated Republican Women’s Club.
“He is totally genuine,” Rosario said. “He’s, like, the real McCoy. There is no mask. He’s very approachable. And he is super experienced — running a business, being the mayor of Cutler Bay, military as well.
“I just wish more people knew about him,” she said, adding that while she lives out of the district, she is helping him and has many family members and friends in the district who she is reaching out to about his candidacy.
Ana Margarita Martinez — a darling of the Cuban community after her husband turned up in Cuba as a Castro spy (she later had the cover marriage anulled) — told Ladra that MacDougall doesn’t have to be Cuban to be right on freedom and democracy.
“I’m voting for a U.S. Congressman. I’m not voting for a Cuban congressman,” she told Ladra.
“He’s right on on all the issues. He’s straightforward and transparent. He’s a true public servant vs. a career politician. He doesn’t come off as rehearsed. He’s sincere. And he’s done a good job in Cutler Bay,” Martinez said. “What more do you want?
“The man is a patriot. And what do we need in Washington? Someone who is loyal and looking out for the best interests of your country, not just your district.”
Ruiz said she also likes MacDougall’s authenticity and the fact that he is the only candidate that comes without any real baggage. After all, a public records request looking to find Mac taking money from the town of Cutler Bay — and filed by Curbelo’s opposition research people — turned up zilch.
“His integrity is something you don’t see a lot of,” Ruiz told Ladra. “After seeing what we’ve been going through with all the politicians here in Miami-Dade, I get to the point where I don’t know who I can trust. And I feel like I can trust MacDougall.”
She doesn’t notice that he’s not Hispanic because his experience overshadows that. “He’s a veteran — a Green Beret — a former police officer, a business owner and a family man,” Ruiz said, adding that several friends who live in Cutler Bay are very pleased with the job he’s done as mayor there for the past eight years.
“I want someone like him to be in Washington, to put these people in their place,” Ruiz said, referring to career politicians.
She says one other candidate (read: Curbelo) is the one who is making it about ethnicity, while a woman wearing a Curbelo shirt who may or may not be related to the School Board member shouted at her and another voter at the West Dade Regional Library on the first day of early voting, calling them racists for voting for the non-Cuban.
“I’m sick of that. It doesn’t matter to me,” she said. “I look at him only as the right candidate to put in Congress.”
There are two other Hispanics on the ballot vying for the Latino vote, besides Curbelo and Rivera: former Miami-Dade Commissioner Joe Martinez and constitutional attorney Lorenzo “Larry” Palomares Starbuck — who is obviously going for both the Hispanic and the gringo vote with his new name.
Joe Martinez told Ladra that he never underestimated Mac’s appeal to some Hispanic voters.
“I’m not one to underestimate anybody,” said Martinez, who reminded me of his first 2000 county commission race, when he was expected to come in dead last and got elected from another pool of five.
“But he has never run in a huge part of this district,” Martinez said about Mac. “If anything would hurt him, it’s that, not that his last name is not Hispanic. That might matter with judge’s races and things like that. But not when you go to commission or state or congressional.”
Still, the bulk of the Hispanic votes will be split between the four candidates cubano — which, by the way, will only benefit MacDougall.
Because, then he only needs some of the Hispanics to go his way. And it looks like he has some.
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