Manny Diaz and Marcus Dixon picked to save the Florida Democratic Party

Former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, who campaigned hard for the taxpayer drain that is Marlins Park, and political advisor and labor leader Marcus Dixon are supposed to save the Florida Democratic Party from itself.

On Monday, the FDP announced that Dixon, a Miramar resident and Florida executive director for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), will be its new executive director starting Feb. 1 and work with Diaz who was elected chairman earlier this month, to oversee what everyone agrees needs to be a complete overhaul after the state losses in November.

What’s at stake? Nothing but everything in 2022.

They need to fundraise, big time, to replenish depleted funds for the 2022 cycle. They need to support Democratic incumbents and recruit new, exciting Dem candidates to build the bench (maybe they’re looking at Hialeah Councilman Paul Hernandez, who announced a party switch on Twitter Tuesday). And they need to build a “year-round grassroots organizing operation” to turn Florida blue.

Their words, not mine, even though Ladra has told labor unions repeatedly that they need to have a constant presence in the community if they want to have any influence at all every two or four years. Suddenly, Dixon knows this? At the SEIU — representing 55,000 active and retired public employees, healthcare professionals and property service workers across the state — Dixon was “responsible for overseeing the group’s political, legislative, outreach and electoral operations in Florida, including its coordinated and independent expenditure programs,” this past year. How’d that go?

Aside from the work he did on passing the amendment that raised the minimum wage to $15 an hour, that’s not a great endorsement. Las malas lenguas say the job was promised to him when he campaigned for Diaz for the chair, which was as coordinated as any regular election campaign.

He is “clear-eyed about the monumental task ahead,” Dixon said in the FDP statement.

“At the core of what we fight for is equity and inclusion, the dignity of work, and the realization of equal justice and opportunity for all. The pandemic has highlighted the real-life consequences of losing elections. If we are to ever achieve our vision, we have to lead with these values,” Dixon said.

“We have to be present in our communities like never before and work passionately with each other on our common goal of electing candidates that will fight for all of us. I look forward to working with Chair Diaz to strengthen our party and bring disparate and oft-undervalued voices to the table to build an inclusive and unified, results-oriented coalition committed to long-term systematic change in this state.”

The Cuban-born Diaz was Miami’s mayor from 2001 to 2009, spending the whole time championing what became Miami 21 — which is in danger of a rewrite by lobbyists and developers — to make the city more eco and pedestrian friendly.

He righted the ship, bringing the Miami back from the fiscal brink that former Mayor Joe Carollo, now a commissioner, took the city. He was term limited out but has stayed in the local and national spotlight, helping candidates like Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

In 2004, the Manhattan Institute named him its “Urban Innovator of the Year,” and in 2008, he was named president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and gave a speech at the Democratic National Convention.

Oh, and his son Manuel Alberto “Manny” Diaz II is head coach of the University of Miami Hurricanes football team. So he has done some good things.

But in Miami-Dade, he is most famous for being the biggest cheerleader for the boondoggle that is Marlins Park and for leaving all his fancy eco-urban talk behind in 2014 when he began to represent Walmart in its controversial fight to build a big box store in Midtown.

Now, Diaz takes over a fractured party with low morale and the stench of last year’s highly inappropriate $800K PPP loan — which was returned, but after the damage was done — and is taking swift action. He’s already fired more than half of the staff, which must be a good sign because they were either complicit in the party’s demise or just stupid.

It wasn’t just last year that the FDP, under Terri Rizzo‘s leadership, disappointed everyone with losses in both the Florida Senate and House as well as Congress. The gaffes go back to 2018 when they lost one U.S. Senate seat — to former Gov. Rick Scott, of all people — and squandered a real chance to get the governor’s mansion, giving us Ron DeSastre instead, which turned out to be a life and death decision. Mostly death.

Predictably, Democrats are publicly cheering their two new leaders.

“Marcus is a proven, exemplary leader. I am thrilled that he has agreed to partner with me in this effort,” Diaz said in a statement. “Marcus brings with him the passion and commitment to working people and public service that we need to move our party forward. His career embodies the core principle of the Democratic Party – the promise of the opportunity to fight for the American Dream for all Americans.”

“It’s great to have a steady, resolved leader like Marcus at the helm at FDP with so much at stake now and in the years ahead,” said Florida Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services Nikki Fried, the only Democrat elected statewide.

“Marcus will be committed to transforming the FDP into an organization that is responsive, reflective and effective to and for our grassroots voters and will be laser focused on helping us build out a year-round, statewide operation that takes no voter for granted and elects Democrats up and down the ballot. Marcus’ experience as an organizer and political strategist is invaluable to the future of the FDP.”

Dixon’s resume also includes work as policy advisor to then-Chairman of the Miami-Dade Board County Commissioner Jean Monestime and Congresswoman Frederica Wilson.

“I could not think of a better person to be tapped for this role,” Wilson said in the FDP’s prepared statement about Dixon, who is a mentor in and product of her 5000 Role Models of Excellence Program.

“Marcus’ experience working in government, organizing, labor and in building coalitions at every level is exactly what we need to be successful as a party,” Wilson added. “It is time we focus on winning elections and building a multi-racial democracy. I am confident that as executive director, Marcus will help us do that.”

Privately, some local blue people confided to Ladra that these are the same two guys who just dropped the ball. They couldn’t even keep Hillary’s numbers for Joe Biden and neglected our state and congressional offices.

Dixon is young and upwardly mobile. How invested is he in this role? Some worry his experience is heavy in advocacy with legislators, light on campaigning and fundraising. Others complain that he got the job in exchange for working to get Diaz the title, and that it was a done deal even though Diaz promised a national search for a new director. Some believe Diaz is setting himself up for a run for his own Senate or governor’s race.

Diaz, 66, wasn’t even a Biden fan from the beginning. He supported New York City billionaire Michael Bloomberg when Ladra last spoke to him last February as he opened the Little Havana campaign office.

Let’s hope Bloomberg returns the favor by helping Diaz raise money.

Diaz is starting his leadership of the FDP in a financial hole. The state party is just as bad as the federal Democratic Executive Committee in their spending habits and has about $10 million left in its account as of the end of December, according to campaign finance reports filed with the state.

It’s better than the Miami-Dade Democratic Executive Committee, which basically begins the year $3,000 in the red, according to reports filed with the county elections department.

Even the Miami-Dade Libertarian Party has more moolah in the bank.

Florida Democratic Party, Manny Diaz

Manny Diaz and Marcus Dixon picked to save the Florida Democratic Party added by Ladra on January 19, 2021
View all posts by Ladra →