What do you call it when you put all the local Republican club members, political candidates, party loyalsists, activists, 
campaign workers and volunteers together in one room with a DJ, a slideshow, a stage, a guy dressed as Abraham Lincoln serving beverages and lots of balloons in red, white and blue?
The GOP organizers called it the Right Solutions Summit. Ladra calls it a big party — complete with streamers and party hats.
The event Sunday was meant to mimic a Reagan-era Republican convention and it did that, with t-shirts and buttons and Mardi Gras beads and a souvenir photo booth. But it was also meant to light a fire under the bums of Republican activist and volunteers in a year when Gov. Rick Scott, apparently, needs all the help he can get.
On the one hand, polls have former Gov. Charlie Crist — who still has to make it past the primary in August — either winning or head to head against Scott in November. On the other, many observers and political experts consider this midterm election one with a Republican advantage.
“We’re going to win in November but it’s not a Repbulican year,” Sen. Anitere Flores corrected Ladra.
“Our state is a mix and the number of no party affiliation voters is higher than ever. We all have to work cut out for us to reach out. We’re talking to these voters,” Flores said.
“You never take anything for granted,” Lt. Gov. Carlos “C-Lo” Lopez-Cantera told Ladra after he gave his pep rally speech to the adoring crowd. “We’re doing what we need to be doing,” he said, adding that Scott opened 49 campaign offices throughout the state.
Earlier, he had credited Scott for reversing the chaos he said was inflicted on Floridians by Crist who “abandoned the state and chose to pursue his own political interests.” Then C-Lo rattled off a series of numbers that got the crowd riled up. Lower unemployment. below the national average, about 635,000 more private sector jobs and a $1.2 billion budget surplus.
Lopez-Cantera also said that it’s been easy to campaign for Scott’s re-election since he was tapped for the No. 2 job six months ago. “Why? Because he’s doing his job,” he said.
“Leadership matters. We’re going to have a chance to pick between someone who’s proven his public action policy works and someone who has just words and no action,” Lopez- Cantera said.
“Democrats are so desperate they’re willing to put all their eggs in the basket of Charlie Crist,” he added.
“But the governor cannot win without us. The candidate against Joe Garcia cannot win without us.”
While the pep rally was mostly for Scott’s campaign, other candidates came by, including three of the Republicans running in the primary for the chance to take on Congressman Garcia: Miami-Dade School Board Member Carlos Curbelo left after the first hour, leaving a gaggle of t-shirt clad young staffers and volunteers behind, but Cutler Bay Mayor Ed MacDougall and attorney Lorenzo Palomares Starbuck stuck around talking to activists til the end.
Former Miami-Dade Commissioner Joe Martinez and former Congressman David Rivera, who was defeated by Garcia in 2012, did not show up. While Rivera has said he has “suspended campaigning” to focus on a state House run in 2016, several Republican activists at the event Sunday said that they’ve heard he’s still in it (more on that later).
Other politicians/candidates didn’t bother to come, and principally missed — folks wondered why they were MIA — were Miami-Dade Commissioner Lynda Bell, who is the fight for her political life, and termed-out State Rep. Eddy Gonzalez, who is running for property appraiser. Maybe they were busy knocking on doors the Sunday before the absentee ballots arrive in mailboxes. But some had purchased tables that had their literature and sig
ns, so they were there in spirit, said Miami-Dade Republican Party Chairman Nelson Diaz.
But, he added, the party really wasn’t for them.
“This is a unique event. Most events are done by a campaign. This event was sponsored and organized by the grass roots, all the clubs we have in the county, to motivate our base,” Diaz told Ladra.
But it seemed to me that they were preaching to the crowd.
Miami GOP mini convention a pep rally for Rick Scott added by Ladra on
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