Posted on 02/11/2010 2:50:55 PM PST by Clintonfatigued
Within minutes of Lincoln Diaz-Balart's announcement, his brother, Mario Diaz-Balart, launched a campaign to succeed him in the more Republican-leaning congressional district.
Mario Diaz-Balart called it a ``natural move,'' noting that he has represented -- at the state and federal level -- several of the communities in the district.
That move will open up Mario Diaz-Balart's seat. There's no clear front runner for that seat, but state Reps. David Rivera and Anitere Flores are running for a state Senate seat that is almost fully contained in the congressional district.
(Excerpt) Read more at miamiherald.com ...
I’ve heard of younger siblings getting hand-me-down clothing and toys, but never a hand-me-down constituancy.
Oh, my, I never thought of that one.
Very funny!
Rino?
WTH??? Lincoln’s seat isn’t that much more Republican.
Is this swapping weirdness unprecedented?
How soon you forget the Kennedy’s,Bidens clumsy attempt to hand his seat to Beau.We have an aristocracy,not a republic.
Lincoln’s seat is a bit more Republican, quite a bit more Cuban, and, given that it includes Hialeah, more likely to stay Republican after redistricting.
That being said, still seems like a bush-league move. and what’s Lincoln going to do now?
Yeah, I’m not thrilled by that swapping out, either. Mario could stick it out through this year and get the legislature to reconfigure the seat and allow him to “ease” into the bulk of the boundaries in ‘12. I hope this doesn’t put his old seat at risk, but there may be a brutal GOP primary between State Reps. David Rivera & Anitere Flores along with State Sens. Alex Villalobos and Alex Diaz de la Portilla (who is the current Majority Leader). Depending on how ugly it gets, the Dems may remain united behind Joe Garcia, who gave Mario a big scare in ‘08. Interestingly is that Rivera and Flores were running for Villalobos’s Senate seat, who is term-limited, and now there are no candidates for it.
Rivera seems to be the most well-regarded on initial glance at several articles. The Diaz de la Portillas are another big political family with the brothers having held office, Alex becoming the most powerful, although they have a number of critics. If Flores gets the nomination and wins, she’ll become only the second Republican Latina in Congress after Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Ros-Lehtinen was the first Latina of either party ever elected to Congress).
Maybe Lincoln wants to go earn some money as a lobbyist while he’s still relatively young.
Are they both running for Congress now? or is that just a possibility?
Well, this announcement of the LDB retirement came just today, so the official declarations will be forthcoming. Rivera is likely in, Flores appears leaning that way, it all depends upon whether they feel they have a chance to win, they may all feel that way. If they both get in, this could provide a shot for an outsider to win Villalobos’s Senate seat.
I would guess that if one of the two jumps into the FL-25 race quickly the other one will realize that he or she has an easy path to a safe senate seat and stay put.
I wonder if this is part of a double-secret redistricting strategy, where Mario’s residence (I’m taking a leap and assuming he lives in his current district) will end up in the new FL-21?
Well, Mario could live in Pensacola and still run in this district. One need only live in the same state.
The Dems are salivating over a “scandal” over FL GOP funds.
An aide to Crist misused money from the FL GOP. The Dems will now attempt to link McCollum, Crist, and Rubio to the deed.
Tying Rubio to a Crist scandal is absurd.
It looks like Flores will stay in the state Senate race, and is now the front-runner for that. Rivera is expected to announce soon, but he won’t be unopposed. Alex Diaz de la Portilla sounds certain to run, and there are some new names are in the mix. Here’s a link to another article:
http://www.miamiherald.com/569/story/1475912.html
Rivera is already sitting on a nice campaign warchest, so I’d expect the race is his to lose. State Rep. Flores chose wisely for herself.
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