Former Congressman David “Nine Lives” Rivera is not just a brilliant political mind who has managed to stay ahead of both U.S
. prosecutors and the media while remaining Prince Charming among voters.
He is also a media genius.
Yes, the same Rivera who told The Miami Herald’s Marc Caputo to “email me” 17 times when he qualified to run for his old seat at the 11th hour. Yes, the same Rivera who oh so artfully dodges questions about his role in the federal campaign violations case against 2010 Democratic candidate Justin Lenard Sternad. Yes, the same Rivera who is usually reclusive in the wake of multiple alleged investigations and headlines.
But, lately, he is just a charming media darling.
When former Congressman David “Nine Lives” Rivera became the only one of five primary candidates in a WPLG Local 10 debate on This Week In South Florida via live satellite truck, he pulled off a media coup.
He elevated his candidacy and looked more important than the four other candidates. He became, in viewers 
minds, the only one worthy of a live shot on location in his old House of Rep polo shirt — like the incumbent out and about, speaking to constituents. He seemed more important because the station sent a live truck out to him at the early voting site at West Dade Regional Library. He also made the voters seem more important to him by refusing to take time away from them to go hang out in a Broward studio for an hour. He was also conveniently out of reach — the others couldn’t hear him and he couldn’t hear them — so there could be no real confrontation with any of them.
A couple of the candidates did not think it was fair. And Ladra is sure that they would have wanted to have saved themselves the long drive and time taken away from early voters. Still, there is nothing Local 10 could have done. You don’t pass up the opportunity to ask David Rivera anything.
Not that he answered the juicy questions. That was not what he was there for. Rivera, as always, avoided any questions about his involvement in the FBI investigation of the Sternad’s 2012 campaign.
The media went on the blitz immediately. Veteran political journalist Michael Putney reminded Rivera 
that the Ana Sol Alliegro case was going to trial in coming days and that Sternad had implicated the former congressman in his candidacy.
“We believe you are going to be a witness,” Putney said. (Note to self: Get there early that day).
Rivera went on his blitz immediately and nothing was going to stop him, no matter how many times other candidates (read: Carlos Curbelo and Joe Martinez) loudly cleared their throats. They did this throughout the show when he spoke. And listen closely. Someone also giggled.
Meanwhile Rivera stayed on message but never so much as rolled his eyes.
“Michael, I don’t think you’re living in reality. Maybe the other candidates can’t hear me but you certainly did hear me. the more I talk to voters the more they tell me the number one issue in this campaign is jobs and the economy,” Rivera told him, talking fast so they can’t cut him off.
He practically owned the show.
“And I’m going to focus like a laser beam. Just as I did during my eight years in the state legislature baancing budgets in Tallahassee, just as I did in my two years in congress,” he said, and his media consultant somewhere is checking off that talking point on a list of messages he has to get out. The “been there, done that” message.
“Fighting against the failed economic policies of the Obama administration.”
Check.
“Fighting against the national debt.”
Check.
“Fighting against the tax increases of the Obama administration.”
Check.
“The number one issue here, the only issue is jobs and the economy and I’m not going to let the media distract me from the attention the voters have asked me to give those issues.
“Again, if you get out of the air-conditioned studio and come out here to talk to the voters, the voters want to know what we’re going to do to improve the economy, to create jobs and that’s exactly where I’m going to focus my campaign,” Rivera said.
Check mate.
Now it was Glenna Milberg’s turn to try.
“David you and I have talked about this a lot but it is the 800-pound gorilla in the room and so for those people watching,” she told Rivera.
“Maybe for you,” Rivera told her.
“For a lot of people, not just for us,” she shot back.
“We would just like to hear you say with finality what your, if any, involvement was in the Justin Sternad campaign, which we all now know was a sham,” Milberg said.
“Again,” Rivera starts like a bored teacher with students who just don’t get it, “the more I speak to voters, the more they want to focus on jobs and the economy. You Glenna, you Michael, you guys have job. Maybe it’s not important to you all. But it’s important to a lot of voters out here that the candidates tell the voters what they are going to do to end the failed economic policies of Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi.
“What I’m going to do is exactly what I’ve done before,” he said, returning to the earliery “been there, done that” message. Check.
In all, Ladra believes Rivera got more air time and was able to deliver more positive buzz words than any other candidate. Many politicians and people who want to run for office ought to record this WPLG “debate” and take notes as you watch it. The pointers will become increasingly clear. This is how you do it.
Monday morning, he did it again on Radio Mambi, on the show hosted by Lourdes d’Kendall, who has interviewed the other candidates one by one. When asked about the Sternad/Alliegro case, Rivera was as dismissive as he has always been and turned the tables, as he has in his robocalls, on the Miami Herald.
“I have to responses. I don’t know anything about any investigation. And I don’t believe anything in the Miami Herald. After the Castro brothers, the number two enemy of our exile community is The Miami Herald,” Rivera told d’Kendall, adding that the newspaper has long advocated against the embargo.
He owned the show, talking about the doubling of the national debt, the “failed economic policies” of Barack Obama and term limits for U.S. House members, which he supports if it is done for every state on a national level, otherwise it could “weaken the efforts of the delegation from one state” if not done unilaterally. He talked about efforts he made, before losing the seat to U.S. Rep. Joe Garcia in 2012, to change the Cuban Adjustment Act to avoid what he calls abuses of the law.
In the first eight minutes, he attacked the Miami Herald with people who already identify with that and disparagingly said the words Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi three times each.
Despite the allegations that dog him, Rivera is a media consultant’s dream client.
He even brought up the great Cuban historian, Enrique Ros, father of Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who is supporting his opponent, Miami-Dade School Board Member Carlos Curbelo. who kept He said Ros and Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart — who is also backing Curbelo — agreed with him on the proposed changes to the Cuban Adjustment Act.
The half-hour segment of the show gave his candidacy some credibility, even though some say he’s not really campaigning because he suspended his campaign weeks ago — which was, by the way, another brilliant media move.
By “suspending” his campaign just a couple of weeks into it — using the state redistricting ruling as a bogus excuse — Rivera sort of stayed in the race but stayed out of it enough that the media would stop talking about him for a while. That means, they stop talking about the scandal. He jumps back in with robocalls just as absenee ballots hit and then goes to the polling places for early voting.
Rivera could very well win this race (more on that later).
Then everyone will see what a media genius he is.
In congressional run, David Rivera is a media genius added by Ladra on
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