One has to wonder why Miami-Dade School Board Member Carlos Curbelo is running so hard so soon.
Curbelo, who is arguably the frontrunning GOP candidate in the Republican Party’s effort to take back the seat won last year by U.S. Rep. Joe Garcia, has been on a fast track to the ballot — more than a year before the Congressional primary.
He announced an “Congressional exploratory committee” in early June. A month later, their work was done and the support was solidified, Curbelo said the day earlier this month that he announced his candidacy officially (because it was so official unofficially already he almost had to). Immediately afterwards, we get notice of his appearance on FOX. And then he already has to defend himself against past allegiances with an immigrant hater for whom he worked (more on that later).
Then, today, he announces his kick-off on Aug. 15 at an El Novillo on Bird Road.
Could this gung-ho stream of announcements be an effort to scare off another potential rival?
Rumors about State Rep. Jose Felix “One More Pepe” Diaz wanting to jump from Tally to Washington have not subsided since Curbelo announced his “Congressional exploration committee” was looking into a challenge of Garcia in 2014.
In fact, they’ve gotten louder.
Diaz, who did not respond to repeated messages left at his office, may have already filed paperwork for re-election to his state House seat, but that could be an easily lifted smokescreen and the $11,500 raised so far — only $2,500 in the last quarter — could be legally transferred to a federal campaign account. Interestingly, Diaz has spent almost $5,000 of that, including a $60 or so monthly fee for a storage unit in Kendall (more on that later, I hope). Plus, Ladra has spoken to three people close enough to Diaz to have broached the subject and both said he seems determined. He is also said by some to hate Tallahassee and be bored with the House. And while Ladra thought that Curbelo and One More Pepe were pals, I’ve been told that friendship is not so solid. And political aspirations trump sentimental bonds around here anyway, from past experience.
Which might make this a real free-for-all after all.
When asked, Curbelo said he would not do anything to scare away another candidate and that this has been his timeline all along (even though I think the investigation into AB fraud in Garcia’s campaign may have given him a push). Ladra may have initially thought that Curbelo, a student of the Diaz-Balart Duo and Republican political campaign insider, would have the Republican Party’s support — as evidenced by many of the heavy hitters listed on his “exploration committee” — that might not be as solid as I thought, considering Curbelo once worked to elect former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who later became a GOP turncoat who ran against party darling Sen. Marco Rubio.
Egads and gasp! This is Republican primary campaign gold that has been used before. But Curbelo campaigned for Crist before the Silver Fox jumped the Republican ship and he has worked for Rubio as well. He has consistently supported Rubio’s initiatives, even appearing with the Great Cuban Hope Senator on TV newscasts on the immigration reform bill, repeatedly.
So if Diaz sends mailers with paly-waly pictures of Curbelo and Crist, Ladra is quite sure there will be some with snapshots of the school board member with Rubio, the district’s favorite homeboy in Washington mugging for the cameras.
Also, expect Curbelo’s people to remind folks that Diaz became a Republican later in life. Not officially, of course. He said earlier this month when he announced his bid, from the backyard of his Kendall home, that his campaign would not focus on his opponents.
“Our campaign will not be about other politicians. It will not be about petty politics. My candidacy will be about people, and making sure that my generation and my children’s generation can continue living and working in the greatest nation that the world has ever known. Our efforts will be driven and motivated by my family and by yours, and our focus will be on offering solutions for the challenges all of us face,” Curbelo said.
He said his campaign would focus on ethics, education and the economy and that he would work to build consensus — as he claims to have done on the school board — to turn the economy around.
He did, however, take a disguised dig at the president for his healthcare overhaul and another jab at Garcia and maybe even fellow Republican and former U.S. Rep. King David “Nine Lives” Rivera, who many think Garcia beat by default after the longtime Congressman became the center of yet another investigation, this one into breaking campaign laws by financing an Democratic opponent. Sort of like Garcia has been accused of doing — and maybe now investigated for — in the 2010 race with Jose Rolando “Roly” Arrojo (more on that later).
“Congressional District 26 has been plagued by scandal and controversy in recent years; from allegations about illegally financed ringer candidates to the resignation of the incumbent’s chief of staff due to a scheme to manipulate absentee voting,” Curbelo said, trying to draw a distinction about himself.
“I first ran for the School Board in 2010 inspired by the birth of our daughter Sylvie and believing I had something to contribute. While I have always found public service fulfilling; unlike the incumbent, I have never had an obsession with elected office. For me, this is not about starting a career. Rather it is an opportunity to turn the page on the recent history of scandal and fraud that has plagued our district, and to help preserve the wonderful nation that we have all inherited.”
About a half hour before his anticipated announcement, Garcia’s people issued a statement tooting their own horn about the massive support they have received and the $1-million plus that the Congressman raised so far, including $440,000 in the last quarter.
“Congressman Garcia, who has the second highest fundraising total of the nearly 70 freshman members of the house, feels the support is a reflection of his focus on the issues important to voters,” read a statement from his chief of staff, Raul Martinez Jr. (son of the former mayor of Hialeah).
Total contributions reached $995,000 in federal campaign reports. Garcia has spent $230,000 of that so far. Curbelo filed on July 9, past the quarterly deadline, so we won’t have reports til October.
Curbelo said the fundraising shows that Garcia’s priority is what he called an obsession with elected office.
“It shows he’s been doing two things,” Curbelo said. “Number one, he’s been focused on raising money and number two is he has been explaining how the scheme to manipulate absentee votes was well intentioned and just part of the politics,” the school board member said, referring to Garcia’s lame initial excuse that the investigation into a computerized virus that generated AB requests was just part of the political game we play and that was, indeed, “well intentioned.” His words.
But Curbelo is no slacker when it comes to fundraising. He’s worked in Congressional campaigns and while it’s not the same as asking for money for a Diaz-Balart brother, he’s formed relationships over the last 15 years or so that he can tap for assistance. The announcement Tuesday also shows he may have pledges of support that give him the confidence to come out so early.
But would the Republican infighting help one or both of the other two experienced GOPpers in the contest? Cutler Bay Mayor Ed MacDougall or former Miami-Dade Commissioner Joe Martinez? could benefit from a Diaz on the ballot and the maliciously negative campaign that is likely to bring.
Ladra says the person to benefit the most is Miami-Dade Commissioner Lynda Bell — if she dares to throw her hat in as some have urged her to do. A female Republican, even a gringa who also appeals to the Hispanic conservatives in the southern reaches of the district, which extends to the Keys, could steal the show in this crowded primary. She has been difficult to reach (probably helping her hubby campaign for mayor in Homestead). But people close to her say she had mulled it over at one point and will likely stay out.
So, if she stays out, MacDougall could certainly benefit most. Especially if another Cuban Republican or two jump into the race and divide that vote even more. Ladra would not be surprised if he is pushing — via third parties — for Diaz to announce and get that fight going.
Diaz in the race could hurt front runner Curbelo the most. Not because he has more name recognition, which I suspect he does not. Not because he is a better legislator, which I believe he is not. But because the politico plays hard and isn’t afraid of getting dirty. Diaz was a freshman when he beat veteran former State Rep. Ana Rivas Logan last year after they were redrawn into the same district and he went all negative on her, questioning her cubania, because she was born in Nicaragua to exile parents, judging the longtime educator for believing that books should not be banned from public school libraries and spreading the false rumor that her kids had been taken from her by DCF. Se las paso. Big time. So it’s a pretty sure bet we can look for mailers with photos of Crist and Curbelo in the primary, at the very least.
Diaz did not return calls to his district office and emails. But he has been raising his profile in the news lately, coming out against the increased MDX tolls that passed last month and glomming onto the Dolphin stadium opposition, though I don’t remember him being that tough on it when he was in session. Tuesday, he was named to Republican State Leadership Committee’s Future Majority Caucus with an aim to recruit Hispanic GOPpers to state office across Florida.
MacDougall, who announced first and also already has a PAC, says he knows he is the underdog. And he doesn’t care. He is committed. He loaned himself $82,000, half to each his account and his PAC, to reach the $60,00 mark in both, with less than a third of it in contributions.
“I’m planning on winning it and if they want to run, they better bring it,” MacDougall told Ladra one recent weekday evening after he finished knocking on “a bunch of doors.” He says he has a full team and has been working since January — a head start on everyone else.
“We’re not sleeping and I’m not counting on a bunch of political friends giving me money,” MacDougall sad. “We’re running like we’re losing. That’s the only way I know how.”
Martinez continues to refuse my advice to drop out and run for mayor again in 2016, where I think he has a helluva better chance than he did last time (more on that later). And, yes, I know he keeps taking it personally that I do not consider him a front runner. But, like I said, I want him to run for mayor.
“Sorry to disappoint you,” he told Ladra the night of Curbelo’s announcement, confirming that he was running and cocky for sure about his chances. “That is the district I represented for 12 years,” he said, adding 78 percent overlaps.
I hinted that a run for Congress — better yet, coming in second or a close third to a run-off — would help him anyway, you know, to stay alive and current until 2016 and wondered out loud if that wasn’t his plan all along.
“No ma’am,” he said. “This is it for me. I’m not trying to build name recognition. It’s not a stepping stone.”
Without my even asking, he turned to the financial issue — because he knows that both Curbelo and Diaz, if he sticks his neck out, will have the upper hand there. “If money can buy an election, then why have people vote at all? I believe the voters still have a voice, not just the ones who give money,” he said, hinting at what will likely become one of his campaign mantras — questioning his opponents’ financing — in the next 16 months.
And we still have while to go to see if anyone else jumps in the water because the qualifying deadline is months away.
Gung-ho Carlos Curbelo may scare Jose Felix Diaz away added by Ladra on
View all posts by Ladra →
