is much more reflective of Florida’s diverse population. This was made possible by the passage of the legislation creating single-member districts. In fact, Florida was one of the few, if not the only, state to adopt single-member districts voluntarily and without litigation.
MY BACKGROUND IN electoral politics, especially my love for statistical analysis of voting results and patterns, propelled me in yet another direction politically. My multiple campaign experiences often involved polling. In 1984, I visited friends at the Spanish International Network, now known as Univision, and offered to do exit polling for the station. They were not familiar with exit polling. In those days, very few people were, including the English language networks in Miami.
The station management agreed. The network had no budget for exit polling or me. This effort was to be strictly experimental, and, in fact, they were taking a huge gamble because I was a friend and they knew that I had organized many campaigns that involved polling. We had no resources whatsoever. I had such a skeleton crew that even I had to stand at a polling place several times during the day in order to make sure I had enough of a statistical sample. I would then drive back to my office and use a calculator with a huge spreadsheet—I don’t mean Excel, but the old ledger spreadsheet—to run the numbers. Finally, I would rush to the station, finalize the results, and prepare for live TV.
My job was to announce the results live at 7:00 P.M., immediately after the polls had closed. It was just minutes before going on the air, and I still didn’t have the final results. My team was scrambling, trying to finalize the data I had provided them. The anchors were on the set, ready to start the newscast. The station had announced throughout that day I would be introducing this new methodology that would allow the station to announce the day’s winners even before the first votes were counted. Viewers would no longer have to stay up late into the evening to find out if the candidates of their choice won or lost.
I asked the anchors to stall for as long as possible. We were almost ready. As we go live, the anchors begin to talk, and talk, and talk. It was a long introduction. Finally, a member of my team literally crawls on the floor over to me with the final numbers. The anchors see this and say, “Let’s turn it over to Manny Diaz.” I pull the papers from his hands, turn to the camera, and say, “Today’s election results are ….”
This was the first time exit polling had been done in Miami, and I continued to announce winners and losers at 7:00 P.M. every election night in the years to come. Of course, this newly introduced political methodology had plenty of skeptics. Every election night, history repeated itself. A television news crew would be assigned to each candidate on election night. The candidate I projected to lose would reject the projection, instead suggesting that we needed to wait until all the ballots were counted. His or her precinct results had not yet been counted. Even today, many candidates are in denial, but the process works.
Continuing to employ my love for statistics, I then devoted a significant amount of time and effort in determining which municipality in Miami-Dade County had the best and earliest possibility of electing our first Cuban American mayor. Much to the surprise of many, I concluded that a small, one-precinct town in Miami-Dade County called Sweetwater was beginning to show an increase in Hispanic voter registration and that this would be our best shot at getting our first Cuban American elected as mayor. We understood it was going to be a real uphill battle, but nonetheless we all decided to get behind the candidacy of José Montiel. We raised money, walked door-to-door, fully knowing we would not win this time, but we created an awareness in Sweetwater that ultimately did lead to the election of our first Cuban American mayor. We broke the ice. Sometimes you have to lose to win.
My experience with exit polling, and the multiple statistical studies and analysis I had performed throughout the years, allowed me to become very familiar with practically all precincts in the City of Miami. Not only had I grown up in these precincts, I had studied them, walking door to door while campaigning for other candidates. This grassroots experience served me very well in my own mayoral campaign.
Chapter 3 Creating My Own Politics
NUMEROUS INDIVIDUALS INSPIRED me to enter public service while I was growing up. If we are going to change politics in this country, we have an obligation to inspire and encourage today’s young people to heed the call for public service, advocate for their vision of their future, and run for public office. This is how I got started, and this is what we must do for them.
I first began by managing typical low budget campaigns that instilled in me a love for grassroots organizing. These campaigns allow you the opportunity to meet your neighbors, the voters you seek to represent. You learn so much from listening to what people have to say instead of relying on a pollster. This way, your message is formed by people who will share with you their dreams and concerns. Unfortunately, politics in America today has become all about money, paid media, and politicians imposing their ideas on voters.
Michael O’Donovan was a dear friend who passed away at a very young age. We had met during the Angleton for Mayor campaign in the City of Miami and later worked together on Campaign ’74. O’Donovan was very much like Bobby Kennedy, filled with charisma and passion. I ran his campaign for the State House of Representatives in 1976. Mike was running in a multimember district that was about the size of Rhode Island. I again recruited many of my former Belen classmates and developed a significant volunteer staff. Using an old school bus, thirty to forty of us would spread out through this enormous district. As a result, through our door-to-door efforts, we managed to visit a significant number of voters in the district—in many cases twice. We also ran phone banks. And we had only $5,000 in campaign funds to compete against a long-term incumbent. We failed to force a runoff by a mere 11 votes. It was devastating, but a great learning experience.
When I ran for mayor, many people thought that I would exclusively wage a media campaign. After all, I was known as a successful political fundraiser, a lawyer who would raise a lot of money. My opponents assumed I would lose because they had a political base of support and I did not, and you can’t create or turn another’s base quickly enough strictly through a media campaign. They forgot where I started, my political history. I had organized at the block level, the precinct level. I had walked many of these neighborhoods. I raised money and had a very good media campaign, but, more important, I also knocked on the front doors of 10,000 Miami homes. Another benefit of a grassroots campaign is that it is stealth—your opponents do not see you gaining on them. They can call the local media and inquire as to how much airtime I had bought for the week. They can watch my television ads in the comfort of their living rooms at home. They can convince themselves they know my campaign strategy. But, they cannot quantify the number of homes I have visited door-to-door. Occasionally, they may receive a call from a friend or supporter advising that I visited them at home, but there is absolutely no way for the candidate to know whether on that day, I visited only that house, 50, 100, or 200 houses.
My fundraising history began in 1985 while serving as general counsel for a Miami-based real estate company. In the mid-1980s, it was much easier to raise money for campaigns in Florida. The contribution limit was $3,000 per individual or corporation. We had a number of subsidiary and affiliated companies. Ten such companies could mean $30,000 in contributions. A candidate could visit our office and walk away with $30,000 in contributions without having to endure the typical campaign reception and customary stump speech.
Americans love political reforms. We believe that these reforms will somehow cleanse the political system. In most cases, however, they fail to achieve their intended purpose. Lowering fundraising limits has not reduced the amount of money in politics today; in fact, more money is raised and spent today than ever before. Members of Congress raise money full time and President Obama has targeted a billion dollars as a fundraising goal for his 2012 reelection campaign. I am a big believer in disclosure and transparency. As an individual, if you wish to contribute
