Basically, the Republican machine and stronghold in Miami-Dade is falling apart. What were once solidly Republican-leaning traditional Cuban-American districts are now becoming integrated districts with immigrants from around other parts of the US. And the new generation of Cuban-Americans from the districts is not buying the old Republican rallying tactics of anti-Cuba rhetoric. Polls taken in the district have shown health care and Iraq as the major issues. Republican registration is down and once solidly safe local Republican incumbents are facing the challenges of their lives, including from the Florida Netroot’s own Michael Calderin, in the 119th Florida house district. With the current political winds in our favor, we need to take advantage of this situation.
Democrats have the chance to deliver the triple threat whammy in 2008 to Ros-Lehtinen and the two Diaz-Balart brothers. The article says Raul Martinez will make a decision in mid-November (so we should hear soon on this one) on the race against Lincoln Diaz-Balart, while Joe Garcia is also considering running, likely against Mario Diaz-Balart in the 25th district.
In fact, The Hill article said Joe Garcia may run if he "is asked to." Maybe we should start asking. A Joe Garcia candidacy may provide our best chance of picking up the 25th district seat. While not exactly progressive on all issues (Garcia serves as Director for Hispanic outreach for the centrist New Democratic Network), Garcia would likely make the race in the 25th district an instant toss-up or at least a very competitive race and he has a remarkable bio that would be tough to beat by any other candidate. He has shown interest in the Netroots and would likely be a pretty solid vote in Congress. A victory by Garcia would also expand the Democratic Party’s outreach with Hispanic voters.
So the questions is, should we start asking? Should we draft Joe Garcia into the race? If the response is good, we could start a draft effort. My idea would be similar to what other draft movements have done, like the recent effort to draft Tom Udall into the New Mexico Senate race, which was a complete success. We could start a petition and try to raise as many $5.00 contributions as possible, just to show Garcia that the Florida grassroots and netroots want him to enter the race, maybe with a goal of 100 total contributors.
What does everyone else think, particularly Floridians out there?
Comments are closed on this story.