Can you imagine 30 people in a room today without masks? The governor can. If those people are children.
Our state governor was in Little Havana last week on hand to distribute vaccines to the Bay of Pigs veterans at a press conference at the Brigade 2506 house.
“We are inspired by folks who are willing to stand up and fight for freedom,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said, just a little over a month after the Capitol riots.
It’s good to be the king.
We’re used to the mayor coming in late some mornings or taking off early to play nine holes of golf at The Biltmore Hotel. But on Friday, while the rest of us were trying to finish our work week, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez ducked out early to stump for Ron DeSantis in Hialeah.
Guess all that talk about switching parties and supporting Hillary Clinton two years ago was pandering for his own Democrat votes.
Gimenez was one of several mayors at a “mayors endorsement” event Friday for the Republican gubernatorial candidate and his running mate, that State Rep. Jeanette Nunez tweeted about that morning: “Join Miami Mayors, @RonDeSantisFL and I at Chico’s Restaurant at 3:00pm. We look forward to sharing exciting news!”
But the only other mayor with him at Chico’s was Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernandez.
Oh, there were plenty of other electeds: County commissioners Jose “Pepe” Diaz and Esteban “Stevie” Bovo, a one-time Hialeah city councilman, along with current council members Lourdes Lozano, Katherine Cue and Pablo “Pablitiquito” Hernandez as well as Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart, State Rep. Manny Diaz Jr., who is running for senate, and former Miami Lakes councilman Frank Mingo, who is running for state rep. Diaz and Mingo are the two with the similar facial landscape.
The event started at 3 p.m. On a Friday. In Hialeah. On 12th Avenue in Hialeah. Knowing Miami-Dade’s traffic and the trouble one can have finding a space in Chico’s parking lot, Gimenez must have left County Hall by 2 p.m. at the latest.
Mayoral mouthpiece Myriam Marquez said it wasn’t on his daily calendar because it was not an official county event.
“Our communications office does not handle political campaign events or scheduling,” Marquez replied when asked why the event was not on the mayor’s official calendar. “He handles personal outings — that do not have public duties involving the county — independently.”
Too bad he has to do it on our dime and can’t do it on his own time independently.
In the governor’s race, Republican Ron Desantis might have the Cuban running mate, but Democrat gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum is not giving up on the Hispanic vote.
Nor is he taking it for granted, launching an #UnidosPorGillum campaign and recruiting Hispanic supporters and surrogates.
After having first only one Hispanic listed on his campaign leadership announcement Sept. 17 — Deputy Campaign Manager Cesar Fernandez, from Governor Charlie Crist‘s 2014 bid — Gillum expanded his Hispanic outreach team two days later. He added none other than Miami-Dade Democratic Party Chair Juan Cuba as Hispanic Outreach Director and state activist Millie Raphael — who works with Women’s March, MomsDemand and RiseUp Florida — as Statewide Hispanic Outreach consultant.
Then LGBT activist Jorge Mursuli was called in as Senior Advisor for Hispanic Affairs and Maryin Vargas , who just lost a barely challenge to Miami-Dade Commissioner Rebeca Sosa, as deputy Hispanic outreach.
He’s also had a number of Hispanic surrogates do the Spanish-language local TV and radio rounds for him. Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez did Ahora con Oscar Haza and Sen. Annette Taddeo spoke for him on Actualidad radio. Ivette Gonzalez Pekovich, a Democrat activist who ran for state rep once, and Simon Ferro represented Gillum on Al Fondo con Pedro Sevsec. And former State Rep. Daisy Baez — who is still beloved by Dems even though she was forced to resign after she was found living outside her district — started a Facebook page Dominicans for Andrew Gillum.
Gillum himself was interviewed by Marilyn Llanos of Telemundo and attended a Puerto Rican policy roundtable at the Borinquen Medical Center in Miami. Then he invited Gov. Rosello to come to Kissimmee to speak about the future of Puerto Ricans in Florida and on the island. He made a Facebook Live video on the one year anniversary of Hurricane Maria passing through Puerto Rico and tweeted responses to President Trump’s petty tweets challenging the death toll.
He also tweeted in support of U.S. sanctions on the wife of Venezuelan President Maduro.
On Saturday, he is the featured guest at the Miami-Dade Democrats Blue Gala main fundraiser. But on Friday, you don’t have to pay $300 for an event at Little Havana’s Ball and Chain restaurant — just in time for Viernes Culturales. The event, which starts at 7 p.m., also features Kendrick Sampson, the actor from the HBO series Insecure, who is also a national advocate for Dem candidates and causes.
If you go and post any pics on social media, you are asked to use the hashtag #GillumPresente and #UnidosPorGillum.
It’s not like Gillum needs to court the Latino Vote. A Quinnipac poll released Wednesday shows him with a comfortable lead among Hispanics, 59 percent to 41 for Desantis, who has picked our local State Rep. Jeanette Nuñez as his lieutenant (its the only exciting thing about him). An NBC/Marist poll of 600 likely voters surveyed between Sept. 16 and 20 showed Gillum leading among Hispanics by 14 points.
Gillum also got a $200,000 donation to his PAC from former GOP megadonor Mike Fernandez, a Cuban-American businessman who fled the Republican fold over immigration and who could easily raise more money for the former Tallahassee mayor.
So, in Spanish: Esta acabando!
