Costly Battle For Florida Senate Seat
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TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/NSF) — A Miami-Dade County senator who's part of a political dynasty is struggling to hold onto his seat in what may be the most expensive legislative race this election season.
Republican Miguel Diaz de la Portilla cruised to reelection in his last campaign two years ago, when he was unopposed for the Senate post he's held since 2010.
But in this year's grudge match, Diaz de la Portilla is being challenged by state Rep. Jose Javier Rodriguez, a Harvard-educated lawyer who gained entry to the state House by defeating the senator's brother, Alex, in 2012.
The battle over Senate District 37 is expected to cost up to $6 million, possibly putting it in line to be the most expensive legislative race in history.
The two lawmakers are branding each other as shady and hurling accusations that their opponents are distorting the record.
In other words, it's business as usual in the bare-knuckle politics of Miami-Dade.
The Diaz de la Portillas are a Miami political institution whose ancestors held prominent government positions in Cuba before Fidel Castro took control of the island country.
Miguel Diaz de la Portilla is the successor to a legislative legacy forged by younger brother Alex, who served in both chambers before being forced out of the Senate --- where he spent two years as majority leader --- in 2010 because of term limits. Baby brother Renier also served in the state House and was a Miami-Dade County School Board member.
Miguel Diaz de la Portilla served on the county commission in the 1990s and succeeded Alex in the Senate.
The revamped District 37 could make Diaz de la Portilla one of the highest-profile victims of the voter-approved Fair Districts constitutional amendments aimed at banning lawmakers from drawing districts that favor incumbents or political parties. After a court fight, Senate and congressional districts were redrawn for this year's elections.
Democrats hold a slight partisan edge in the swing district, where independents account for nearly one-third of registered voters, and have made capturing the seat one of their top priorities. With that in mind, Rodriguez has tried to portray Diaz de la Portilla as too conservative for the redrawn district.
But Diaz de la Portilla could be as good a candidate as the GOP could concoct, if that were possible, given the makeup of the district, which President Barack Obama carried by more than seven percentage points in 2012.
As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Diaz de la Portilla, a lawyer, was instrumental this year in blocking controversial legislation --- including a measure that would have allowed people with concealed-weapons licenses to carry guns on college campuses.
The senator rattles off a litany of votes over the past six years in which he's routinely helped defeat bills opposed by labor unions, which have overwhelmingly endorsed Diaz de la Portilla.
For example, he helped kill a massive prison privatization measure in 2012. He takes credit for cobbling together a bipartisan coalition that put an end to what he calls a "union-busting" proposal, known as "paycheck protection," in 2011. In 2013, he cast a deciding vote to nix a controversial "parent trigger" bill that would have given parents more say-so in how districts handle failing schools.
"Going back to my first session, I have a consistent record of taking balanced and moderate positions and bucking the party establishment," Diaz de la Portilla, 53, said in a recent telephone interview. "I always put people over politics."
But Rodriguez's message to constituents in the district --- which contains all of the Democrat's House district --- is that Diaz de la Portilla is far more conservative than the Republican wants voters to believe.
"I've worked in the community. I've campaigned in the community. Here at home, he's not perceived as a moderate," Rodriguez, 38, said recently. "He's been governing like a conservative. He saw the district changing. He didn't become a moderate. He voted with the district a handful of times. … It's a Tallahassee insider thing to say he's a moderate because of the handful of votes he's taken, when his record has not shown that, and he is not perceived that way in the community."
Rodriguez and his backers have slammed Diaz de la Portilla as a lobbyist who's represented charter schools and as a pro-gun rights supporter who at one point wanted to do away with public funding for Planned Parenthood.
Rodriguez has also tried to link Diaz de la Portilla to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. As a county commissioner, the Republican supported giving a tax break to entice Trump to bring the Miss Universe pageant to Miami Beach.
Diaz de la Portilla scoffs at the alleged tie to Trump, saying that his Democratic colleagues on the commission pushed the tax break to lure the beauty pageant to the region. The Republican also said he's not voting for Trump in the presidential race.
Rodriguez accuses his opponent of, until recently, supporting National Rifle Association-backed gun measures, including a law limiting doctors from asking patients about firearms.
"If you look at it, that's not a moderate record by any stretch of the imagination," Rodriguez said.
Diaz de la Portilla, meanwhile, called Rodriguez a "weak and ineffective" lawmaker who "hasn't put one penny into the state budget" for his constituents. The incumbent also contends he would have more influence than his challenger in the GOP-dominated Senate.
"He can put his record on a Post-it. So the only thing he can try to do is spin and try to create misleading arguments," Diaz de la Portilla said.
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The News Service of Florida's Dara Kam contributed to this report.
