Who is Diaz-Balart?

Annie Betancourt, who ran against Mario Diaz-Balart in 2002, has written a column reminding national leaders that the strength of our local representatives doesn’t come from the Cuba issue. Keep in mind that Mario gerrymandered District 25 during his time in the state legislature to give himself an 8-point advantage.  Their strength comes from the same place as any other incumbent’s strength: the incumbency.

Betancourt is urging national leaders to reform Cuba policy and ignore the threats and fevered shouting of the local ultra-right representatives. There is no bite to their bark, according to Betancourt. We agree.

Here is her column in its entirety:

How long are we going to believe that babies are brought from Paris by a stork? Or that our first baby tooth is taken away by a little mouse in exchange for a coin?

Those were tales our parents told us when we were little, to conceal the truth of life by blindfolding us and thus prolong our childhood. How innocent we were as children!

I ask myself the same questions in connection with the argument that the best barometer to gauge U.S. policy toward Cuba is the reelection last November of the three South Florida Republican legislators.

Dear reader, this argument is nothing more than a myth, like the ones of the stork and the little mouse. How long will we allow ourselves to be deceived by this fable? Enough!

The reality is that the easiest way to gain access to the U.S. Congress is when the chair is empty, the result of either “reapportionment” — the creation of a new chair — or the death or retirement of a member of Congress.

Let’s look at some examples and analyze how some of our Congresspeople came to occupy their prominent posts:

• District 18, today represented by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, was previously represented by Claude Pepper. When he died, the seat was left vacant. The quest for the seat was a true campaign, which Ros-Lehtinen won thanks to excellent credentials in Tallahassee, first in the state House and later in the Senate.

• District 21, represented by Lincoln Díaz-Balart since 1992, was created as a result of the population growth after the 1990 census.

• The same happened with District 25, represented by Lincoln’s brother, Mario, since 2002. This was a district created as a result of the 2000 census.

• District 17, currently represented by Kendrick Meek, was practically ceded to him by his mother, when she retired in 2002.

• District 20 has been represented by Debbie Wasserman-Schultz since 2004, when Peter Deutch withdrew from the House to run for senator.

• The District 11 seat, occupied by Cathy Castro of Tampa, was left vacant by Jim Davis when he ran for governor in 2006.

• Connie Mack holds the District 14 seat because Porter Goss left it vacant when he was appointed to a federal post.

And so on and so on. To topple an incumbent is truly a heroic feat that few can achieve. Only two candidates in recent elections have been able to do it: Ron Klein, who defeated Clay Shaw in District 22, and Suzanne Kosmas, who beat Tom Feeney in District 24.

At the end, of the 25 members of Congress who represent Florida in Washington, only five have beaten incumbents, the rest have taken the seat when it was vacated. Of these, 17 have been state legislators before achieving power at the federal level.

The federal Congresspeople are invincible and it is practically impossible to oust them because power lies in occupying the post, in having links to special interests and previously established contacts in Washington. And that has nothing to do with U.S. policy toward Cuba.

That’s nothing but a myth, like those of the stork and the little mouse.

Americans United for Change are going after Mario for continuing Rush Limbaugh’s divisive Politics of No without offering any solutions to get our country back on track. Mario was a loyal Bush lackey, voting for every single Bush economic policy. But now he refuses to work with President Obama to fix the problems Mario and his buddy Bush created. Mario, stand with Florida not with Rush Limbaugh.

Here is their press release sent out today:

After 100 Days of the Obama Presidency and With No Help from Reps. Young, Diaz-Balart:

• Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act now working to Ensure Women Will Receive Equal Pay for Equal Work
• American Recovery and Reinvestment Act now working to save or create 3.5 million jobs and provide 95 percent of Americans with tax relief
• Budget Blueprint for Transformative Investments in Health Care, Education and Clean Energy Now Paving the Way for Long-term Economic Growth

Washington D.C. – On the day President Barack Obama marked his 100th day in office, Americans United for Change asked U.S. Representatives Bill Young and Mario Diaz-Balart who they think they are representing with their repeated votes against the President’s efforts to turn on the corner on the worst economic recession since the Great Depression.  Young and Diaz-Balart once again turned their backs on Florida’s struggling middle-class families with their votes today against President’s budget – a blueprint for long-term economic growth transformational investments in healthcare, education, and clean energy.

Tom McMahon, Acting Executive Director, Americans United for Change: “Bill Young and Mario Diaz-Balart are representing the Rush Limbaugh-led ‘Party of No’ over the people of Florida. President Obama has signed into law several major initiatives to help turn the corner on the worst economic crisis in generations since taking office 100 days ago, and Reps. Young and Diaz-Balart turned their backs on middle-class Florida families at every opportunity.  They just said NO to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act which is today working to ensure women will receive equal pay for equal work.  They said NO to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act which is ahead of schedule and under budget towards creating or saving or create 3.5 million jobs and giving 95 percent of Americans tax relief. And today they just said NO again to the President’s budget that is a blueprint for long-term economic prosperity through transformational investments in health care reform, education and clean energy.  These investments are absolutely vital to our economic recovery. Without fixing our broken health care system, reducing our dependence on foreign oil, and investing in tomorrow’s educated workforce – America’s struggling middle-class families will never be able to get ahead.  And that’s what the President’s budget is all about.”

“Reps. Young and Diaz-Balart are marching to Rush Limbaugh’s tune of hoping the President “fails” and are clinging desperately to the failed economic policies of the past that got us into this mess to begin with: more tax breaks for big oil and multi-millionaires that never manage to ‘trickle-down’ to anyone else and more woefully shortchanged investments in things that will actually grow the economy, like healthcare, education and clean energy, added McMahon.  “We tried it their way and look what happened.”

(more…)

(more…)

(more…)

Via Riptide:

The Latin Builders Association invited Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart and his Democratic challenger, Raul Martinez to its monthly luncheon Friday, but Diaz-Balart was a no-show.

(more…)

(more…)

The disappearance of some absentee ballots, picked up under unusual circumstances, has raised some serious questions.

BY LAURA FIGUEROA AND SCOTT HIAASEN

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/campaign-2008/story/740834.html

Three Hialeah voters say they had an unusual visitor at their homes last week: a man who called himself Juan, offering to help them fill out their absentee ballots and deliver them to the elections office.

The voters, all supporters of Democratic congressional candidate Raul Martinez, said they gave their ballots to the man after he told them he worked for Martinez. But the Martinez campaign said he doesn’t work for them.

Juan ”told me not to worry, that they normally collected all the ballots and waited until they had a stack big enough to hand-deliver to the elections department,” said voter Jesus Hernandez, 73. ‘He said, `Don’t worry. This is not going to pass through the mail to get lost.’ ”

Hernandez said he worries his ballot was stolen or destroyed. He and two other voters told The Miami Herald that the man was dispatched by a woman caller who also said she worked for Martinez. But the phone number cited by the voters traces back to a consultant working for Martinez’s rival, Republican congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart.

Martinez’s campaign manager, Jeff Garcia, has asked the Miami-Dade state attorney’s office to investigate.

Garcia has also spent the past week investigating the complaints, taking sworn statements from the three voters and mounting an ameteur sting operation at the home of an 84-year-old voter to try to catch the culprit. (more…)

(more…)

10.05.2008
By Dan Christensen
The Miami Herald

Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart has procured millions in federal funding to benefit a small Miami-Dade defense-contracting group that has donated tens of thousands of dollars to his political campaign and that of his brother, fellow U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart.

Medley contractors Locust USA and Mark Two Engineering began contributing to the Diaz-Balarts’ campaigns and political action committees in 2001, the year Locust secured its first small defense contract. Through this year, those contributions totaled more than $67,000.

Locust was awarded $20.8 million in Pentagon research and development contracts from 2001-2007, federal contracting records show.

At least 44 percent, $9.2 million, came through Congressional earmarks sponsored by Lincoln Diaz-Balart, The Miami Herald found. The largest — $3.7 million — came in 2006.

”My work on behalf of Locust USA is meant to add jobs to our local economy by putting our community at the forefront of military technology development,” Diaz-Balart wrote in reply to Herald questions. (more…)