One of the most important Florida Senate races to both parties this year, the open seat vacated by the term-limited Republican Sen. Anitere Flores, was always going to be a general election battle between current State Representatives Javier Fernandez and Ana Maria Rodriguez.
The GOP is trying hard to keep the majority, which is at 23-17, after losing five seats in the last ten years. While the district has slightly more registered Democrat voters than Republican and Hillary took it in 2016, Flores has been elected twice by the same voters and The Republican Party and interests are funding the campaign of the former Doral councilwoman.
Meanwhile, the slight advantage among voters and Hillary’s performance gives the Democratic Party high hopes that Fernandez can flip this seat, one of three needed to get even footing in a 20-20 Senate.
Fresh off his giant 18-point win in the primary, Fernandez — who has made education a centerpiece of his campaign — made a $100,000 TV airtime buy two days later, according to his latest campaign report, and fired off an ad that brings up Rodriguez’s vote to arm teachers, drawing first blood.
“For 41 years, my mother worked as a public school teacher. I would never, ever ask my mom to carry a gun to school. But my opponent would,” Fernandez says in the 30-second spot (also on YouTube) as a photo of Rodriguez in chambers appears on the screen.
“And she did. She voted to arm teachers, and voted to cut taxes for the biggest corporations instead of funding our schools,” they attorney and lobbyist goes on. “Schools need funds and teachers need raises, not guns and bullets.
“I wouldn’t send my kids into armed classrooms. And I won’t send yours.”
Read related: Lawmakers vote to leave assault rifles on the street and arm teachers instead
It’s the second spot for the Fernandez campaign for District 39, which is parts of Westchester and South Dade and all of Monroe County. The first was an intro piece. Both spots are in English and Spanish and available for view on YouTube.
Rodriguez, who did not have a primary challenge, also has a TV ad in circulation that shows her as a conservative, God-fearing wife and mother whose parents taught her the old-fashioned “values of this great nation.”
She is running for Senate to preserve those values, which are “the dignity that comes from hard work, the opportunities of an education, and to help our neighbor guided by our faith, not dictated by our government.
“We have an obligation to our children to make certain that we are not the last generation that witnesses the greatness of America. Let’s be the generation that restores it,” Rodriguez says to end her 30-second spot, posted on YouTube Aug. 24.
She has more views on YouTube than he does.
Read related: State Rep Javier Fernandez turns carpetbagger to run for Senate
She also has more money, both in raised contributions and in in-kind assistance from her party, than he does.
Fernandez has raised $333,684 as of Sept. 4 and spent more than $227K for $106,000 as of Sept. 4, according to his latest finance reports. Another $146K balance in the Florida Future PAC affiliated with Fernandez adds up to a total of $252,000 or so in hand. The Florida Democratic Legislative Committee has also given him $354,630 in in-kind support.
But he’s at a big financial disadvantage.
Rodriguez has raised more than $608,000, including $132,000 raised just from Aug. 22 through Sept. 4 — more than $90K of it from political action committees. She has about half of it left in the account. With another $372,000 from the $560K collected by her own PAC, it’s a total of $672,000 or so in hand to spend, or more than twice as much as Fernandez. The Republican Party of Florida has also helped her with $390K of in-kind contributions.
Both Fernandez and Rodriguez have to leave their homes and move into the district.
Javier Fernandez vs Ana Maria Rodriguez for Senate + team advantage added by Ladra on
View all posts by Ladra →
