(Continued from previous page)
“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.
Pages: 1 2
Latin love grows for gringo in FL26, Ed MacDougall added by Ladra on
View all posts by Ladra →
As I have followed this and several other campaigns through the years and now from out of town…it is all too clear that the more successful the expected upstart is the more the current political satus quo will do to beat him back.
I am glad to see MacDougall is maintaining the traction he established over the last year. I saw from another news article that he has knocked on over 14,000 doors in the district he expects to serve. Who does that unless there is a total commitment to getting beyond the status quo? Conversely, Curbelo whose campaign has to be shaken by the upstart MacDougall, has had to move to buy and bring in big name endorsements in the way of Romney and Bush.
Analogy? It’s like the home football team, the underdog in fact, who no one gave much of a chance to; who has made it the length of the field starting on their own one yard line; who gained all the yardage with a grind it out ground game and who now finds they have a new set of downs inside the opponents twenty yard line or red zone with less then two minutes in the game; now the opponent tries to firm up their defense with notable defensive names??? As Chris Carter from ESPN would say: “COMON MAN!”!
If ever there was a time for the 12th man this is it……MacDougall wins and South Florida wins! More importantly the stranglehold on ol’ time politics being held hostage by the status quo is broken.
Glad to see “Mac” getting some of the respect he deserves. He is twice the man Coward-belo could ever be. If sending our best to represent us is what matters-send Mac and not that little snot-nosed punk Coward-belo.
Dear Republican Party:
There are five people running against a sitting Democrat: a former congressman, a constitutional attorney/law professor, a sitting mayor/veteran, a former Commissioner of 12 years and a lobbyist/school board member.
There are no flunkies here and Joe Garcia is an easy target. We voted out an extremely intelligent Republican in a Republican district for misbehaving so I think we can remove an ear-wax-eating, open-borders-loving, Obama-ass-kissing, liberal Democrat in a Republican district during a non-Presidential election.
Stop pissing off the base or we’ll go find millionaires to run against you as we unleash a whole can of tea party crazies on your asses.
Sincerely,
Grumpy
Let me remind everyone that we no longer have runoffs in Florida.
Given even a hint of racially-polarized voting, with one Anglo and 4 Hispanics (trying to “out-Cuban” each other)… well, you don’t need a Ph.D. on Political Science to realize what might happen. Probably won’t, but might.
Just say NO to TEA PARTY RADICALS like all the aforementioned individuals, who are TEA PARTY before they are Republicans just ASK THEM, THEY’LL SAY IT, that are HIJACKING OUR PARTY there is no REPUBLICAN PARTY OF MIAMI without CUBAN AMERICANS! By electing MACDOUGALL you are handing over the ELECTION TO JOE “EL COME CERA” GARCIA, who will be BLASTED by democrats and be casted as a RACIST for sending that MAILER!
H. Gonzalez, you can’t be that stupid as to think Joe Garcia has a prayer. At this point, my 3rd grade granddaughter could take him out. She hates Communism but she sometimes picks her nose. We could work on that though.
Grumpy
Gonzalez, your comment is so divisive. “there is no republican party without Cuban Americans” what is that anyways? I may not be of Cuban decent but I am a republican, and just like the Cuban Americans, I am 100% American. It upsets me that people still feel this way. We should all be standing on the wall together, Somos Uno Gonzalez.
TROLLOLOLO