Neck and neck:
While most of Florida's 25 congressional races tilt toward Republicans this year, Democrats' best chance for a takeaway is in South Florida's sprawling 25th District, a new Sunshine State News Poll shows.
Republican David Rivera holds a 44-43 lead over Democrat Joe Garcia in a four-way contest for the seat being vacated by Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami.
Rivera is certainly getting hammered in the closing days of the election. His efforts to hide the source of his income has generated a frenzy of investigative stories:
Republican congressional candidate David Rivera has repeatedly failed to file annual reports detailing the activities of his consulting company in Puerto Rico, records show -- further compounding the mystery surrounding the state lawmaker's private work.
Rivera, a four-term state representative from Miami, first founded a company called Interamerican Government Relations in Puerto Rico in November 2003. But Rivera never filed any annual reports on the company as required by law, according to a review of the company's records in Puerto Rico.
"This corporation should have had a notification of cancellation since April 2006,'' said Eduardo Arosemena, assistant secretary of Puerto Rico's Department of State. But because of administrative problems at the department, the agency has allowed Rivera's company and thousands of others to remain as technically active companies.
Rivera has already come under scrutiny over questions about his purported work as an "international development consultant'' for the U.S. Agency for International Development. Though Rivera said for years that he worked for USAID -- through his Puerto Rican company -- USAID officials told The Miami Herald they have no record of any work done by Rivera or his firm.
There's this, from his fellow Republicans:
Rep. Juan Zapata, who heads Miami-Dade County's 25-member delegation, recalled Rivera telling him he worked for USAID but said he never knew in what capacity.
"He's always unclear about things, and if you ask him too much, he'll just laugh," Zapata said.
Former state Rep. J.C. Planas, a Rivera rival, had a similar response.
"Honestly, I never understood what David Rivera did for a living," he said.
It'd be hard for him to admit the likely source of that mysterious revenue -- money laundering and god knows what else.
This is a rare Democratic pickup opportunity, and the polling shows it'll be a race to the finish. So if you can help out, please do so. We can offset the loss of a Blue Dog with a victorious great Dem.