(Cross-Posted at MyDD, Open Left, and Swing State Project)

This weekend, we saw once more that no matter what happens in Iraq, there is no end in sight to this war unless we demand it.

For the people of Congressional District 18 in South Florida, getting out of the war in Iraq is a top priority.

www.voteTaddeo.com

In this video (in Spanish) O2B candidate Joe Garcia essentially accuses the right-wing Cuban-American Frank Calzon of the Center for Free Cuba of essentially pilfering tax-payer funds. Later in the show, Calzon throws a hissy fit and storms out (and you don't need to know Spanish to be entertained by this clip):

A subsequent federal audit found $500,000 missing from Calzon's operation, lost into the pocket of the corrupt South Florida Cuban-American mafia. Just like Garcia had charged. Now, after finding more such discrepancies, Congress has frozen all funding for these corrupt groups.

Congress has put the U.S. Agency for International Development's $45 million Cuba program's 2008 funding on hold, following a series of troubling audits and cases of massive fraud, The Miami Herald has learned.

In a quest to get the funding hold lifted, U.S. AID on Friday ordered a bottoms-up review of all its Cuba democracy programs and suspended a Miami anti-Castro exile group that spent at least $11,000 of federal grant money on personal items.

Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., ordered a hold on the U.S. AID Cuba program funding last month, in part in response to a $500,000 embezzlement at the Center for a Free Cuba in Washington disclosed earlier this year, federal officials said.

In a memo sent Friday to various members of Congress, Stephen Driesler, AID's deputy assistant administrator for legislative and public affairs, said the agency recently implemented stricter financial reviews. That new review turned up irregularities at the Grupo de Apoyo a la Democracia (Group in Support of Democracy), a Miami group criticized in the past for using federal funds to send Nintendo games to Cuba [...]

A report by the Cuban-American National Foundation released in May showed that less than 17 percent of $65 million in federal Cuba aid funds spent during the past 10 years went to ''direct, on-island assistance.'' The bulk of the money, the report said, went to academic studies and expenses of exile organizations, mostly in Miami and Washington.

The report echoed findings by The Miami Herald in 2006 and a congressional Government Accountability Office audit that found lax oversight of the programs and came as the Bush administration prepares to dole out a record $45.7 million in Cuba democracy grants.

This is essentially a big chunk of the payoff the corrupt Cuban exile community gets for having its three South Florida Cuban American representatives (and Democrat Debbie Wasserman-Schulz, too). $45.7 million doled out in patronage fashion to all the co-conspirators, and that's not even including the millions wasted on Radio Marti in similar fashion. Democracy in Cuba? Pshaw! There are fancy dinners to be bought! The high life to be lived.

As you can see in the videos above (even if you don't speak Spanish) is that Joe Garcia has been fighting for accountability for those who receive US tax dollars, and isn't one to let ideology override the interests of the taxpayers.

On the web:
Joe Garcia for Congress
Orange to Blue ActBlue Page

Race tracker wiki: FL-21 FL-18 FL-25

The Florida Republican Party (and some Democrats like Debbie Wasserman Schultz) are kept afloat by the corrupt south-Florida Cuban-American mafia. Now, their three south-Florida reps are facing the challenges of their lives, and at least two are already in serious trouble.

Bendixen & Associates. 6/6-22. MoE 5% in each district. (No trend lines)

Joe Garcia, up against Mario Diaz-Balart, is an Orange to Blue candidate. Martinez is going up against Lincoln Diaz-Balart. These numbers are nothing short of stunning. I've thought these races were quite competitive for some time, but I wouldn't have expected the Diaz-Balart brothers to be in this much trouble. And given that both Garcia and Martinez are raising great money, we have the makings of a series of dramatic upsets in South Florida this year.  

Annette Taddeo in FL-18 still lags, both in money and in this poll, but if she can keep it close, hers is one of those districts (like NH-01 and Carol Shea-Porter in 2006) that can get swept in by the force of larger trends (in this case, a strong Latino turnout for Obama and the entry of a large percentage of new voters, along with the collapse of the GOP brand). But she's got a ways to go before we can say she's "keeping it close".

But that is a lone bright spot for Florida Republicans (and their hard-right Cuban exile allies), who should otherwise be on "panic" mode given the Martinez and Garcia numbers.

On the web:
Orange to Blue ActBlue page
Raul Martinez for Congress
Joe Garcia for Congress
Annette Taddeo for Congress

Race tracker wiki: FL-21 FL-18 FL-25

McClatchy:

In a sign that Democrat Barack Obama will be competitive in Florida, the nation's largest swing state, a new poll shows that Obama is leading Republican John McCain comfortably in South Florida and has a slight edge among Hispanics.

The poll for The Miami Herald shows Obama preferred by a 46-30 percent margin over McCain in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, Florida's most populous area. South Florida traditionally votes Democratic, but the size of the margin often dictates whether the Democrat wins in a statewide contest.

One massive caveat -- the poll was conducted by the terrible Zogby, so take with a giant grain of salt. But if accurate, that would mean that Obama is running stronger in the region than Kerry, and is winning Latinos 40-35 in an area where Cuban Americans have long given their votes to Republicans.

Perhaps that's why Bush came down to help raise money for Mario and Lincoln Diaz-Balart. The brothers are under pressure from Democrats Raul Martinez and O2B candidate Joe Garcia. A third seat, that held by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, is being challenged by another great Democrat, Annette Taddeo.

These three Cuban Republicans have built entire careers around railing against the "Communists" in Cuba and the Democratic Party, but the region is changing dramatically, and we have a strong opening to take these three seats and. I don't trust Zogby and thus his numbers will always be suspect to me, but I do know the regional trends don't favor Republicans. Older anti-Castro Cubans are aging and dying off. Younger Cubans are either more recent immigrants, or are second-generation Americans without the strong feelings about the revolution. As such, they are more concerned with the same issues that other Americans are concerned with -- the war in Iraq, the economy, the price of gas, and health care.

Furthermore, those three Cuban Republicans -- Ros-Lehtinen and the Diaz-Balart brothers -- are rabid supporters of increased sanctions against Cuba, including tougher restrictions on travel to visit family and a ban on remittances. For a culture that is as family-centric as Latinos are, this is a violation of sacred family values. Our three great Democrats have made those restrictions a centerpiece of their campaigns and are gaining traction on the issue.

We are almost halfway to our goal of 1,000 contributors to our new ActBlue page. But I'd like a secondary goal as we close out the fundraising quarter -- Garcia is at 160 contributors as of this writing. I'd like to get that to 250 contributors. I know lots of people want to send a message to Bush that raising money for his most loyal lieutenants will cost him. I also know there are more than 90 south Florida readers of this site, and here's your chance to give a boost to one of your locals fighting the good fight for the good of our country.

So let's get Garcia to 250 contributors and help paint South Florida a delicious shade of Blue.

On the web:

Orange to Blue ActBlue Page
Joe Garcia for Congress
Raul Martinez for Congress
Annete Taddeo for Congress

Race tracker wiki: FL-21 FL-18 FL-25

The news is out on Swing State Project: Raul Martinez and Joe Garcia have made the list of South Florida candidates-to-back by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Read it here.
MORE in the body. Crossposted from www.miami-dade-dems.blogspot.com

Empty chair.

At the AFL-CIO Candidates’ Forum at the Firefighter’s Memorial Building in Doral, Florida last week, I sat next to an empty chair for two hours and talked about the issues that matter most to working families in South Florida’s 18th Congressional District.

There was an empty chair because my opponent, incumbent Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, skipped an invitation to the first major open forum of the campaign cycle. A week before the event, she delivered the news that she wouldn’t be attending the forum via a spokesperson when The Miami Herald asked.

On Mother’s Day, what better than to talk about a mother’s love for her children. And here is a mother with tender thoughts about her 2-year-old daughter, and about her own mother, and how it translates into a run for Congress against steep odds.

MORE under the fold, cross-posted on www.miami-dade-dems.blogspot.com with photos and a YouTube video of her speech.

Hey there DKos community --

I was catching up on some news last night when I came across an article in The Washington Post entitled, "Republicans Vote Against Moms; No Word Yet on Puppies, Kittens."

This seems interesting, I thought, as I read on. Everyone loves their mom.

Friends – I am saddened to say that I thought wrong.  Let me explain.

www.voteTaddeo.com

Dear Friends,

Greetings from the Annette Taddeo for Congress Campaign.  Annette is running in Florida’s 18th Congressional District, which includes Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Coconut Grove, downtown Miami, and the Florida Keys.  I don’t think we’re exaggerating when we say it’s the hottest district in the country, ready to go Red to Blue!  

The Democratic congresswoman from Florida’s District 20 held a town meeting Thursday evening and defended herself against assertions that she's not doing enough for three Democratic challengers for U.S. House seats in South Florida.

MORE and a version on www.miami-dade.dems.blogspot.com

Mario Diaz-Balart, attacking SCHIP:

In a flame-fanning tirade on Spanish-language radio last week, Díaz-Balart called the tax hike [to pay for SCHIP] an "attack on the Cuban-American community." He added: "It would hurt an industry specifically in Miami-Dade, in South Florida, an industry that is almost entirely Hispanic: those who make cigars by hand, which is a cultural tradition. That industry will not survive."

Lincoln Diaz-Balart, disrupting Tom Lantos's memorial service:

The House had a meltdown today in the middle of the memorial service for the late Rep. Tom Lantos, a Holocaust survivor who was chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The service, in the Capitol's historic Statuary Hall, was disrupted when a Republican House member unexpectedly called for a procedural vote.

And that's when all hell broke loose.

House Democrats were furious, charging the procedural motion was disrespectful. "Very bad taste, very" as one senior House Democratic aide put it.

Republicans were apparently worried that Democrats were about to force debate on contempt-of-Congress citations against White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) is the member who hit the panic button, so to speak, and called the procedural vote. His real purpose in calling the procedural motion was to protest the lack of a vote on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act - before the contempt debate started.

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, grandstanding about that stupid Petraeus ad:

The chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., said the ad "is outrageous and it is deplorable" and called upon her "colleagues on both sides of the aisle" to condemn the ad and, somewhat inexplicably, to apologize to the general for the impugning of his integrity.

Democrats everywhere know that we don't need people like this in Congress. It goes without saying that the DCCC leadership should realize this, too.

Since the beginning of the 2006 election cycle, I have generally been quite pleased, and impressed, by the performance of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. I think they've made some mistakes here and there-they're only human-but overall, I've been quite happy with the DCCC's performance. It's hard to argue with results, and we've gained 31 seats in that time, capped by an impressive victory in Saturday's IL-14 special election, which delivered the seat of a former Republican Speaker of the House to our Democratic Party.

That said, I find this unacceptable: Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, co-chair of the DCCC's Red to Blue Program, apparently won

But as three Miami Democrats look to unseat three of her South Florida Republican colleagues, Wasserman Schultz is staying on the sidelines. So is Rep. Kendrick Meek, a Miami Democrat and loyal ally to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

That wasn't the case just two years ago when the pair flouted a long-standing Florida delegation agreement to not campaign against colleagues and vigorously backed Ron Klein in his winning bid to oust veteran Republican Rep. Clay Shaw.

This time around, Wasserman Schultz and Meek say their relationships with the Republican incumbents, Reps. Lincoln Diaz-Balart and his brother Mario, and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, leave them little choice but to sit out the three races.

''At the end of the day, we need a member who isn't going to pull any punches, who isn't going to be hesitant,'' Wasserman Schultz said.

Yes, we do, Rep. Wasserman Schultz.

Look, at some level, I understand not wanting to campaign against your friends. I do. I also understand that the Florida delegation has long had a non-aggression pact, and that Wasserman Schultz broke tradition by campaigning against Clay Shaw in 2006.

But as co-chair of Red to Blue, Wasserman Schultz isn't an ordinary Rep. In her capacity at the DCCC, her chief responsibility, her highest priority, is to do whatever it takes to win, in every district we have a chance at winning.

If it makes you a jerk to campaign against your friends and neighbors, fine. You've got to be bloody ruthless if you're serious about maximizing Democratic gains. If you're not prepared to do that, that's OK, but maybe the DCCC job isn't for you. Surely it's not for everyone.

As James L. writes in a must-read piece at Swing State Project (seriously, go read it right now), I can't imagine Rahm Emanuel doing this. Whatever his faults, he is a partisan fighter who is willing to get his hands dirty.

I expect Wasserman Schultz to do the same, and given her prominence in South Florida, I think it really undermines the three fine Democratic candidates in FL-18, FL-21, and FL-25 (respectively, Annette Taddeo, Raul Martinez and Joe Garcia) for Wasserman Schultz to sit these races out.

This is the best opportunity we've had to take these seats in years, and it's her obligation to do everything she can to make that happen.

Race tracker wiki: FL-18 FL-21 FL-25

OK, the battle commences. Weasly Republican words vs. solid Democratic challenges.

This is South Florida, and Joe Garcia, a Democratic strategist and progressive leader, launches his challenge to the three-term Republican rubber-stamper, Mario Diaz-Balart, for the U.S. House in Congressional District 25.
MORE below, also posted on www.miami-dade-dems.blogspot.com with photos

Here’s great news from South Florida: Joe Garcia, chairman of the Miami-Dade County Democratic Party and a national leader among Hispanic electoral strategists, will announce on Thursday he’s running for the U.S. House in Florida’s District 25.

What a landslide awaits the Republicans – not only nationally with their meager presidential offerings, but also in Congress where once "invulnerable" incumbents now face strong challengers.
MORE below the fold

There's all kinds of terrific horserace news coming in, and our chances of substantially increasing our House majority are looking better every day. A quick roundup:

--First the biggest news, in FL-15: Florida Republican Dave Weldon will not be seeking reelection. On top of that, we have a strong candidate poised to enter the race in former Brevard County Commissioner Nancy Higgs, who steered the commission during the 2004 hurricane.

Rep. Dave Weldon (R-Fla.) announced Friday that he will retire from Congress at the end of this session, citing a desire to return to his medical practice.

"I want to thank my wife Nancy and my kids for all the support over these many years, as well as my staff and the people who supported my re-election efforts. It is a very big undertaking to run and successfully serve, and I would never have been able to do it were it not for the generous help of so many fine people," Weldon said in a statement.

Weldon, 54, is a seven-term lawmaker who sits on the House Appropriations Committee.

Weldon is the 22nd GOP incumbent to announce that they will not seek reelection in 2008.

Six-term incumbent Weldon won with just 56% of the vote against an underfunded challenger in 2006, so the prospect of an open-seat race here is very exciting. The district is relatively Republican with a PVI of R+4.1, but it is an open seat, and we expect this to be a Democratic year. Bush won with 54% and 57% here in 2000 and 2004.

Rumored Republican candidates include State Senators Bill Posey and Mike Haridopolos.

--In addition to FL-15, we can now put two additional Florida seats (these ones based in the Miami area) on the map for 2008: the 18th District and the 25th District. Following hot on the heels of the recent entry of Raul Martinez into the race in Florida's 21st district to face Republican Lincoln Diaz-Balart, we have two more serious candidates jumping in to take on Miami-area Republicans.

In the 18th District, businesswoman Annette Taddeo, founder of a language services company, will take on incumbent Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen; and in the 25th District, Miami-Dade County party chairman Joe Garcia, also director of NDN's Hispanic Strategy Center and formerly Chairman of the Florida Public Services Commission, will run against Lincoln Diaz-Balart's brother Mario.

Garcia's potential entry has been rumored for months, and it's exciting to see him finally getting in the race. With his service as Miami-Dade party chair, he's a high-profile name with a good deal of influence in the district, and he has a national profile from working with NDN. The 25th District is more favorable territory for Democrats than the 21st is: it has a PVI of 4.4, Bush drew 56% in 2004 and 55% in 2000. Diaz-Balart drew the district for himself, in fact, when he served in the Florida House.

--Up in New York's 25th, following the retirement of Republican incumbent Jim Walsh, Democratic standard-bearer and Blue Majority candidate Dan Maffei has been added to the DCCC's Red To Blue program. This is most excellent news, as the DCCC's backing of Maffei should preclude any stuffy old Albany pols from jumping into the race, and will spare us the pain of an ugly primary. Also, it tells potential GOP candidates to think twice about running in this Democratic district, as we'll have a single strong candidate with establishment support. And finally, it's wonderful that the DCCC sees the same things in Dan Maffei that we see.

--Finally, up in New York's 29th District, Republican Randy Kuhl, who barely hung on to defeat Eric Massa last year and faces him again, has apparently not decided whether to run for reelection. I guess his highly deceptive flyers haven't been doing the trick.

Race tracker wiki: NY-25 NY-29 FL-15 FL-18 FL-25

We have a new entry on the list of hot races for 2008, with the entry of long-time Hialeah mayor Raul Martinez in Florida's 21st District, against incumbent Republican Lincoln Diaz-Balart:

Raul Martinez, the charismatic but controversial former Hialeah mayor, is returning to politics to challenge one of the most powerful Republicans in the Cuban-American community: U.S. Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart.

Martinez's expected announcement Tuesday in front of Hialeah City Hall pits two South Florida political titans -- both admired by large numbers of Cuban Americans.

The campaign almost certainly will be deeply acrimonious with charges of corruption, and challenges of who's tougher on Cuba. Martinez, 58, a Democrat, is the most serious challenger Republican Díaz-Balart, 53, has faced in his 15 years as U.S. congressman.

As James at Swing State Project notes, we can expect Diaz-Balart to paint Martinez as a pro-Castro agent aiming to end the embargo.

In fact, Martinez is opposed to ending the embargo, but does aim to reverse the Bush administration's 2004 travel restrictions, which prevent Cuban-Americans from traveling to Cuba to visit family (visits once a year had been permitted beforehand). Reversal of the restrictions on family visits, in fact, has a good bit of support in Miami's Cuban-American community.

Naturally, though, we can expect Diaz-Balart to blur the distinction as much as possible.

Martinez had initially intended to run for Congress in 1988 for the seat currently held by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, but a federal corruption charge forced him out of the race. Martinez was ultimately convicted, but his conviction was overturned and the case was ultimately dropped. Not surprisingly, there were alleged political motivations behind the charges:

Martinez, who was suspended from office within hours of the indictment, denied the charges and later claimed the case was politically motivated.

He said he was investigated and indicted to enable Ileana Ros-Lehtinen to win the seat.

Martinez cited no specific evidence, but noted that the U.S. Attorney in Miami at the time, Dexter Lehtinen, was Ros-Lehtinen's husband.

...

In the past, Dexter Lehtinen has denied the allegation, but many Martinez supporters are convinced he manipulated the case to help his wife -- and the Republican Party -- claim Pepper's seat. Martinez dropped out of the race and Ros-Lehtinen became the first Cuban-American member of Congress in 1989.

Martinez states that he will focus on public works, health insurance, affordable housing and improving water quality in his community. He's been recruited by the DCCC for months to run for this seat, and is considered a sufficiently popular political figure in the Miami-Dade area to overcome his district's considerable Republican lean (PVI of R+6.2).

With the entry of Martinez in FL-21 and the rumored candidacy of Miami-Dade County party chairman Joe Garcia in the 25th District (against Diaz-Balart's brother Mario), it looks to be a fascinating year in South Florida.

Race tracker wiki: FL-21

As Republican Rep Ros-Lehtinen spouted Republican talking points to set the stage for Petraeus' hearing testimony, CNN's streaming video broadcast was showing her as (D) Florida.

In light of the articles of impeachment being brought to the house floor by Kucinich, I thought I'd write a letter to my representative.  She's a freggin rethuglican, so prolly nothing will happen, but I am going to publish it as an open letter editorial in my school newspaper.

jump for the copy.