Republicans launch Florida state Hispanic outreach team

The Republican National Committee reserved a room at a Cuban restaurant in Doral last week to present its chosen team to engage Hispanics across the Florida in state campaigns — and nobody really noticed.

After all, we heard a lot of hoopla about their similar efforts in 2012 and look how well that turned out for them.

But that’s exactly the point, said  RNC National Hispanic Advisory Council member Jose Fuentes and Sen. Anitere Flores, who serves as state chair of the GOP’s Florida Advisory Council, part of the RNC’s “unprecedented commitment to engage voters year-round to build a lasting foundation for future campaigns.”

Key word: Unprecedented.

Because Fuentes and Flores said they are not going to repeat the same mistakes of 2012, according to a very critical RNC “autopsy” report unveiled earlier this month.

The main difference is that the engagement is going to start early and it’s going to be continuous, Flores told Ladra.

“The RNC finally figured out that you can’t come into an election three months before. We’re not going to be just showing up on election day,” Flores said

The only other local elected in the group is Doral Councilwoman Ana Maria Rodriguez, the Doral chair, part of the RNC’s “unprecedented commitment to engage voters year-round to build a lasting foundation for future campaigns.”

Other locals in the group: Miami-Dade Republican Party Chairman Nelson Diaz as county chair, Fabio Andrade as West Dade chair and Ralph Rosado, the council’s “city of Miami chair,” who ran for state office and lost and was waiting to run for city of Miami commissioner, but Commissioner Francis Suarez had to abandon his mayoral campaign. I guess Suarez was either busy or too tainted after that abandoned run and maybe none of the other Miami commissioners wanted to play. Or maybe he’s just not Republican enough.

Others in the group are the RNC’s Deputy Political Director and National Director for Hispanic Initiatives Jennifer Sevilla Korn, Florida Hispanic State Director Alex Garcia, Florida Hispanic state director, Rep. David Santiago (Central Florida Chair), Bertica Cabrera-Morris (Orange County Chair), Luis Hernandez (Osceola County Chair), Julia Aguayo de Hassler (Pasco County Chair), Jimmy Jimenez (Orlando Chair).

Garcia said he and another field director in Orlando chose the council members based on “past relationships” and that it would continue to grow. He also said it would be a “working committee” — in other words, not just names on a page.

“They will be giving input on ads and literature pieces, they will be recruiting volunteers, they will be teling us what events to attend, they will be identifying voters,” Garcia told Ladra. “We’re actually going into areas we know we want to target.”

The council is a response to a report that was very critical of the way that Republicans handled Hispanic outreach in 2012, said Fuentes, who was one of the leaders of national Hispanic outreach for presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Fuentes also said that it was “an important achievement” that the Republican Party would lay out resources for a Florida Hispanic outreach council “so that Hispanics have a seat at the table and can have their worries attended.

Let’s see if it works this time.