The chances of the Democrats getting support from the powerful Cuban-American community in Florida is going to be low for a long, long time.
Posted on 12/18/2005 6:44:16 PM PST by dukeman
TALLAHASSEE -- The headline speakers at last week's Florida Democratic Convention formed an all-star team of the party's power hitters: national Chairman Howard Dean, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama and a host of various 2008 presidential contenders.
But Emilio Perez and other members of the state's party's Hispanic caucus noticed something was absent: a prominent Hispanic speaker.
Of the many speakers who addressed nearly 2,000 attendees over two days, there was only one scheduled Hispanic speaker: Manatee County party Chairman C.J. Czaia. Two other Hispanics spoke as they introduced white candidates.
"I was kind of upset at the whole situation, not at the leaders of the party, but at the situation itself," Perez said.
Two Hispanic congressional members from other states were scheduled to speak, but canceled at the last minute. That was small consolation to Perez.
"Where you have this kind of event, you have to have Plan A, B, C and D," he said.
The symbolism comes as the Florida Democratic Party ramps up efforts to woo a Hispanic voting bloc that will only grow more critical in Florida's political future.
Already, Hispanics make up about 18 percent of Florida's population, and that is expected to grow to nearly one-fourth by 2030, according to the U.S. Census.
"If you can control the Hispanic voters in years to come, that will make the difference in making presidents and governors," Czaia said.
Republicans in Florida, boosted in large part by conservative Cuban-Americans in South Florida, have dominated the Hispanic vote. Of the 17 Hispanic lawmakers in Tallahassee, only one is a Democrat -- Rep. Bob Henriquez, D-Tampa.
And Florida Republicans have the only high-profile elected Hispanic leaders with U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez and three congressional members, Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Mario Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.
Perhaps most important for GOP success with Hispanic voters has been Gov. Jeb Bush, a fluent Spanish speaker married to a Mexican woman.
Rep. David Rivera, R-Miami, said having a bevy of elected Hispanic officials makes it easier to communicate with that voting bloc.
"Rather than change our message to approach the Hispanic voters, maybe we make more of an effort to communicate that message," he said. "We emphasize in the Hispanic community family values, the strong work ethic of Hispanic-Americans."
Democratic pollster Sergio Bendixen said exit polls from the 2004 election showed a majority of Hispanics, about 54 percent, voted Republican -- a narrowing of the gap between the two parties. He said focus groups have shown an overwhelming reason for GOP popularity is Jeb Bush, who made a point of attending Spanish churches and events that create a positive ripple among Hispanics.
He points to Bush's departure next year due to term limits as one reason for Democratic hope. He said many Hispanics don't agree with Republican economic philosophies and are sold on the personal touch instead.
"Their link to the Republican Party is more personal and emotional," Bendixen said, saying their predominantly working-class status should make them ripe for a switch.
"There is great potential for the Democratic Party because these voters' economic interest and their positions on issues are very much in line with the Democratic Party."
Czaia said any concerns about the lack of Hispanic speakers last weekend were misplaced, noting that "the guy that runs the show is Hispanic," referring to Florida Democratic Party Executive Director Luis Navarro.
Czaia said the increase of non-Cuban Hispanics in the state is a good sign for Democrats, but one that necessitates a long-term campaign.
"Those people," he said, referencing stridently Republican Cuban-Americans, "are going to die off. I think young Cuban-Americans understand we all want greater education and health care," he said, adding that a hidden treasure of voters are the children of non-citizen Hispanics in the state who are citizens and will vote in the next decade.
He dismissed John Kerry's last-minute throwing of money at "Hispanic radio and media" as an ineffective waste. "You've got to take the long road and educate; let them know the differences" between the parties, he said. "and what Democrats really want is what they want: greater education and health care; and that the government is going to take an active role."
Navarro agrees.
"We are planning for a future in which the Florida Democratic Party has a more complete approach to Hispanics, not simply in the last 90 days of the election," he said.
He dismissed the Republican advantage of having more prominent Hispanics in elected positions to carry the GOP message.
"Having the validation of a Hispanic elected official is only as good as the message they are validating. I believe we will have a message that supersedes that," Navarro said. "What's really been missing to this point," he said, within the party, "is the infrastructure to be effective."
Navarro said the party yearlong has an increasing presence on large Hispanic media outlets like Telemundo and Univision as well as in local newspapers and on radio stations.
Both gubernatorial candidates are sensitive to the need to win Hispanic voters. Bendixen said he supports state Sen. Rod Smith, D-Alachua, in part because Smith courted him and asked for his support.
His support is based in pragmatism. "I believe he has the best chance to win," Bendixen said.
Smith's opponent in the Democratic primary, U.S. Rep. Jim Davis, D-Tampa, secured the endorsement of well-known Miami-Dade Democratic leader Jimmy Morales in Orlando. And he was introduced by Alma Gonzalez, the special counsel for the American Federal of State, County and Municipal Employees in Florida, who spoke briefly in Spanish.
Perez, the chair of the Florida Democratic Party Hispanic Caucus, said his party needs to work harder, and soon. He cites Hispanics with whom he talks as saying "the Republicans are doing a good job of making me change parties."
He said the problem is identity politics within the party, with African-Americans and whites focusing on their own causes rather than the whole of the party.
"If we keep fighting, instead of getting these groups together under one flag, we're going to lose," he said, adding he has confidence in new state chairwoman, Karen Thurman.
"I know she will make something happen," Perez said. "I hope it doesn't take that long."
Yeah, but not for 15 years after the Red Diaper Babies in Miami Beach die off. :-)
has the florida democrat party anounced that elian will be giving the opening remarks and fidel will be delivering the keynote address on closed circuit tv with janet reno introducing, of course?
Thats an interesting way of putting it
I'm sure those "young Cuban-Americans" risked their lives fleeing Communist Cuba in order to live in Socialist America.
The chances of the Democrats getting support from the powerful Cuban-American community in Florida is going to be low for a long, long time.
He's Got A Plan
Zippo Hero
many of those cubans have first hand experience of what happens to a country when you put communists/socialists in charge.
The problem is that the younger generations descended from those of us who left Cuba long ago have no memory of it or a memory of relatives living under Communism..
My parents were broken-glass Republicans. When I was a Cuban American kid growing up in the 1960's in Miami, the words "Democrat" and "Communist" were treated as synonyms in our house and my uncle fighting in Vietnam was considered a hero by the Cuban American community and not a "baby killer".
I am a broken-glass Republican.
However, now that I am married to a California woman who pretended to be a Republican when we were dating but turned out to be a Democrat after she married her meal-ticket, I cannot guarantee you that my kids will be voting Republican when they are old enough to vote.
So, yes, we are "dying out".
"all-star team of the party's power hitters: national Chairman Howard Dean" yada yada yada.
Coward dean is a "power $hitter" but the writer forgot to type in the S in the article.
Hint to LSM: there are no power hitters on the left. None, nada, zip.
Actually, Jewish-Americans are the second largest voting block in the Democratic Party in Florida, and the largest voting block in Palm Beach (31% Jewish, 23% black)and Broward Counties, two of the most heavily populated counties in the state. Secular Jews dominate the state legislative delegations from the southern part of the state.
The Democratic Party has an image problem among Latinos and Anglos in Florida. To many, at least at the local level, it is seen as a party of Condo Commandos from New York (South Florida) or the "black people's party" (North Florida and the West Coast of Florida).
What is changing is the Latino/Hispanic electorate in Florida. Puerto Ricans are already the largest single ethnic group period in Osceola County (think Disney World) according to the census, and have a large presence in Orange and Volusia Counties as well. Meanwhile, the Latin population of South Florida continues to diversify, ranging from wealthy Columbians and Venezuelans in the Tri-Counties, and poor Mexicans, who are concentrated on the west coast but do not tend to vote.
The GOP has done an excellent job at courting the affluent and middle class Colombian and Venezuelan emigres, factors that may help us in places like Broward and Palm Beach, that have been Democratic strongholds over the past 25-30 years. The Puerto Rican population may be more of a problem, but their is anecdotal evidence that even they split their votes in the 2002 gubernatorial election.
Only an inbred old Park Avenue Yankee like Dean would put Osama Obama in as keynote speaker to a Hispanic event.
I think it's rather hard for some people to believe that for a time Broward and Palm Beach were Republican from the '50s until the '70s. Anyone who has seen the movie "Porky's" can see the types of backwoods troglodyte 'Rats that once ruled those areas until the northerners came in and turned them into respectable GOP enclaves... that was until the aformentioned radical and rich leftists from NYC imported their destructive and failed politics to the area, overwhelmingly the only 2-decade old GOP areas. It's too bad we can't swap bonafide Jewish Israelis for the phony Florida JINOS. We know how the former would vote if they lived in America.
My parents live in Boca Raton and refer to it as "Scarsdale South."
Actually the second was Ed Gurney in 1962, who became the first Republican elected to the Senate from FL via popular vote in 1968. He followed Bill Cramer, who had been the first elected in 1954. There were several others in between Gurney and Shaw, when he was elected after a one-term RINO turned 'Rat apostate was beaten in the '80 'Rat primary. The late J. Herbert Burke represented most of those now 'Rat areas that Shaw has shed before public drunkenness sunk his reelection to Ed Stack in '78 (the aforementioned RINO turned 'Rat) when he was the 3rd elected GOPer in '66. Louis Frey came in '68, followed by Bill Young in '70 (still there today) when he succeeded Cramer following his disastrous Senate bid. Skip Bafalis came next in '72, then the infamous late Richard Kelly in '74, and Bill McCollum (who helped save Kelly's seat for us) and Shaw were tied for 8th place when they arrived 6 years later in the Reagan landslide.
Still don't understand why so many of the crackers voted for Chiles. What a moronic socialist.
Chiles would've been a footnote in the history books had there not been the brutal infighting in the GOP in 1970. Bill Cramer would've likely coasted to victory, but the oddball GOP Governor and Sen. Ed Gurney got their noses out of whack and dragged the hapless old Judge Harrold Carswell into the race (Carswell, of course, lived in the area of the state where people were still voting like it was 1870 and not 1970, so he didn't have his people turn out to vote in the GOP primary). Barone, in his very first issue of his Almanac in '72, called Carswell "intellectually limited" for giving up a judgeship for a race he could never hope to win. But the damage was done, and Cramer had similarly attempted revenge on Gov. Claude Kirk by trying to take him down in the primaries. Since they both detested each other, and the 'Rats managed to nominate semi-decent candidates (by the public's reckoning, with Reubin Askew for Governor and Chiles for Senator), they end up destroying the GOP's fortunes for nearly a decade... if not 20 years.
And then they'll suddenly start voting Democrat.
-PJ
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