Generation Miami says Joe Garcia joins the Obama Administration. Subject to Senate confirmation, he'll head the Office of Minority Economic Impact for the Department of Energy.
Joe's a real smart guy, with energy experience, so I imagine it's a good fit.
Kos looks at the early votes in FL-25 and finds reasons for optimism.
I think it will be a nail-biter.
Update: Looks even better in FL-21
Lots going on on the local political scene.
FL-18
FL – 25
FL – 21
Strong account of what must have been a great event by John Hood in the insurgent SunPost, Congressional Candidates Joe Garcia, Raul Martinez and Annette Taddeo Blast It for the Gray Panthers:
… Annette Taddeo, Raul Martinez and Joe Garcia, who are vying to represent what’s surely the majority of our peninsula’s tip: Taddeo and District 18, which stretches from Miami-Dade’s southern suburbs all the way to the Keys; Martinez and District 21, which includes his beloved Hialeah; and Garcia and District 25, which comprises much of Miami-Dade, as well as the entire Everglades.
If they were a band, this three-piece would sell out arenas, so it’s no surprise that on this day the turnout was just about standing room only. Each candidate is running on issues very near and dear to the Gray Panthers’ hearts, as well as their wallets — health care, prescription drug costs, housing — and each came out blasting the incumbents for a reckless disregard of the people and their needs.
Naturally, their opponents weren’t on hand to answer back, despite being repeatedly offered a chance to do so. According to Gray Panthers Miami-Dade Chapter board member and event organizer Jack Topel, today’s proceedings were “originally slated to be a debate, but there were scheduling conflicts, so we decided on forums. The Republicans — for whom we’ve set aside Oct. 18th — still haven’t replied.”
Too bad too, ’cause if they had, they would’ve met a gaggle of good folk consistently committed to cause. Then again, neither Ileana Ros-Lehtinen nor the Diaz-Balart brothers, Lincoln and Mario, has thus far accepted an invitation to debate anyone, unless you count Lincoln’s acceptance of an invitation from CBS, which was never even extended in the first place.
No matter, the Democrats showed and they showed strong. Joltin’ Joe Garcia, the natural who, given a podium, could command a crowd for days, opened the proceedings with a vow to take that which Mario had gerrymandered into being, and turn it into something representing a district, rather than a fiefdom. Taddeo, as determined as she is poised and informed, followed up by lambasting Ros-Lehtinen for, among other things, rubber-stamping Bush’s efforts to end the S-CHIP program. And then Martinez, who in person seems like the kinda man you’d want to take in a ball game with, concluded by warning everyone to be on the lookout for an element of fear to be injected into the coming election, adding a crack about the newfound respect hoisted upon former mayors since a certain someone was given the VP nod, even though he has represented condos with a larger population than the entire city of Wasilla.
Today's email blast from Joe Garcia's campaign trumpets pretty good news on the polling front:
The latest poll in Florida's 25th Congressional District, conducted by nonpartisan Research 2000, shows Joe Garcia within 4 points of Republican opponent Mario Diaz-Balart. According to the poll, if the election were held today, Garcia would receive 41 percent of the vote, and Diaz-Balart would get 45 percent. Thirteen percent of voters remain undecided. More people have a favorable opinion of Joe Garcia, than they do of Mario Diaz Balart. The poll's margin of error was plus or minus 5 percentage points.
Being that far under 50% has to be really bad news for a long-time incumbent. This seat is definitely winnable — especially if the Obama turnout in South Florida is as large as recent polls suggest.
Contrasting ads in FL-25.
First, Joe Garcia again lampoons incumbent Mario Diaz-Balart:
Next, Mario Diaz-Balart trowels on the innuendo, suggesting that Garcia somehow has a connection to … Enron (!):
Both ads strike me as flawed, but in different ways. Garcia's ad has a very weak and silly start. Its point risks getting lost on the split screen. And it's high risk: ridicule can backfire…. Although it's interesting that the politically engaged Cuban-American I sat next to on the plane the other day who said he thought Joe's ads were too much had a few minutes earlier (unconsciously) adopted the very phrase in Joe's first and most effective effort, “one-trick pony”.
The production values on the Diaz-Ballart ad are better, as you'd expect given his is designed for TV while the Garcia ad is a web-only quickie. But it seems to me that the ad has two more serious problems. First, the claim it makes is pretty silly, and can only work with voters who know nothing about the candidate. It's too late for that group to be sizeable, although maybe it includes a good chunk of the undecided. Second, when the ad says “get rid of Enron Joe” it makes it sound like he's the incumbent. Maybe that's supposed to be a subtle hope that voters will think he is and vote to throw the rascal out — but to anyone who knows the score, and most voters do, this will look weak.
And, indeed, Channel 10 totally debunked Mario Diaz-Balart's ad:
As Garcia himself said in a recent email blast:
While serving on the Public Service Commission I helped usher-in the biggest utility rate cut in Florida history, which saved Floridians $1 Billion and forced FP&L to share excessive profits with consumers.
Diaz-Balart is scared of my record of fighting for consumers so he is trying to lie his way to re-election. …
One can see why Mario is run away from his record. If I had been in Congress for six years and only passed one bill, while giving myself five pay raises, and voting against healthcare for children, services for our returning veterans and giving oil companies billions in tax breaks, I would be doing the same.
Jotwell Blenderlaw