Congressional Seat Takeover

Florida’s District 25 seat for the U.S. House of Representatives originated from an inside political job that stretched the boundaries of public service credibility. Mario Diaz-Balart (who was a Democrat in the 1980s before switching to the GOP) chaired the Republican-controlled redistricting committee that tailored FL-25 to his political needs in 2002. Thanks to a district containing an electorate of 43 percent Republicans, 35 percent Democrats, and 21 percent independents, Diaz-Balart became FL-25’s first representative that November, easily beating Democrat Annie Betancourt.

One now-classic District 25 disconnect that year occurred when Betancourt called the U.S. embargo against Cuba an “outdated policy” that Congress should reconsider. Diaz-Balart called her soft on terrorism. Perhaps it was that kind of fear-mongering, or perhaps the millions of federal taxpayer dollars that Diaz-Balart garnered for South Florida, but he easily won reelection three times. However,  in the last race his margin of victory thinned as Bush Republicanism waned, Obama-mania boomed, and Democrat Joe Garcia came within six points of beating him in 2008.

Of course, that slim margin had nothing to do with his decision to jump to District 21 this year, to try to fill the seat his brother Lincoln chose to vacate after 20 years. Rather, it was Mario’s professed love for Broward County, at least in part. “This is a natural move for me,” he explained in a press release announcing his decision to abandon FL-25 after four terms. “As the only Broward native in the U.S. House of Representatives, I look forward to the opportunity of representing Broward’s residents.” He lamented that he would no longer represent Collier County and southern Miami-Dade, but noted his brother’s district offered the privilege of serving such areas as Hialeah, Miami Lakes, and Westchester (home to high numbers of Cuban-American Republican voters ).

The disconnects are already on display in this year’s District 25 race. The Republican frontrunner, state Rep. David Rivera, casts himself as a small government, fiscal conservative, even though he spent most of the 1990s in the depths of a federal agency, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, as a special assistant to the director. Since then the OCB has overseen expenditures of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on Radio & TV Martí, whose operations congressional and inspector general investigations have repeatedly determined to be ineffective, wasteful, and at times fraudulent.

Another insider issue is causing him greater contortions. One of Rivera’s GOP rivals, Paul Crespo, and Joe Garcia have both accused him of stretching the bounds of a law prohibiting Florida legislators from soliciting campaign donations while the legislature is in session. The ban is supposed to keep lawmakers free of money’s corrupting influence as they deliberate public matters. Rivera, who chairs the House budget committee in Tallahassee, raised an impressive $702,660 for his District 25 bid during this year’s session. He admitted significant sums came from lobbyists and their clients, but cited an exemption allowing such donations for federal races.

All that’s a deplorable commentary on America’s pay-to-play political system. Still, given the million-plus dollars needed to win a U.S. House seat nowadays, it’s also a stretch to believe that Crespo, Garcia, or anyone running would have declined all that corporate cash had it come their way.

More elasticity is in store for the District 25 primary. How will Rivera fit his party’s simplistic anti-tax, anti-government message over, say, the state-funded $50 million Jackson Health System bailout he touts on his blog to win points in Miami-Dade County? Can Crespo get more over-inflated than his pledges to “repeal the obscene, budget-busting, government takeover of our health care system” and “ to restore our Constitution as the cornerstone of our political system”? Can Garcia convince voters that he’s a populist anti-tax Democrat, not an Obama Administration political appointee? 

The most startling District 25 disconnects so far, however, come from Marili Cancio, another Republican in the race, though she sounds like a sensible liberal. “Taxes and government have important roles in our country—especially for in-frastructure, defense, government, and education,” she states on her website. “Let’s make sure our tax system is not wasteful, but encourages investment, jobs and protection where we can feel a difference and see results.”  She also notes that the health care reform bill pushed through by Democrats contains "good benefits," such as mandatory care for pre-existing conditions and "longer coverage for our children."

Maybe that’s not such a stretch.