Local GOP leader ruffles feathers with Ted Cruz nod

Local GOP leader ruffles feathers with Ted Cruz nod
  • Sumo

Every Republican leader and/or activist has a favorite primary election2016candidate and in this weird landscape where the outsiders are gaining ground on both the establishment and Tea Party boys, they are making their choices known.

Congress members Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Carlos Curbelo are still behind the failing campaign of former Gov. Jeb Bush. State Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla and Miami-Dade Commissioners Esteban Bovo and Rebeca Sosa support their former colleague in, respectively, Tallahassee and West Miami, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio. Former Cutler Bay Mayor Ed MacDougall likes Donald Trump.

But for some reason, when you are the vice chairman of the Miami-Dade Republican Party and you make a public endorsement in our major regional daily, that is gonna ruffle a few feathers.

That’s what Emmanuel “Manny” Roman did when cruzromanhis endorsement of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was published in a letter to the editor of the Miami Herald.

And now some local Republicans — a few of whom say the letter was a Cruz campaign baby — are calling for Romans’ resignation or removal from his seat on the local Republican Executive Committee.

Electeds can endorse whoever they want. But Republican Party of Florida rules and bylaws prohibit the endorsement of one Republican over another in a contested primary by committee members. All elected members of the Miami-Dade REC sign a loyalty oath swearing they won’t do that.

But Roman — who has been criticized for being a one-time Democrat who didn’t vote in the 2012 presidential race — sure shrugged that off when he penned this letter to the editor, which some think was even written by a Cruz operative:

“Senator Ted Cruz has demonstrated time and time again that he is not afraid to take on the Washington establishment — a powerful bipartisan group of insiders and special interests that benefits and grows regardless of the way the public votes, even when the margin of victory is large or when conservatives control both chambers of Congress.

With the Republican Party’s primary now front and center and getting daily headlines and front-page articles in the media, it is past time that Miami learns more about Ted Cruz — the other senator of Cuban descent running for president.

I had every reason to support Senator Rubio instead — he is a well-liked local Republican and my colleague on the faculty at Florida International University (he teaches politics, while I teach business). However, even in an environment where there is overwhelming indirect pressure to get behind one of the local candidates, Ted Cruz’s story and platform break through all the noise.

Cruz is an incredibly talented, principled and unwavering voice for constitutional and limited government. That’s why I’m endorsing him.

Over the next months, I will be helping the Cruz campaign reach more people in Miami-Dade. I will help lead the grassroots-focused campaign that is now taking off in Iowa and other key states.”

That prompted a number of party members to call for his resignation or removal from office and Ladra senses the votes are there to oust him if someone makes the motion at the Jan. 7 meeting.

“I think given his future public involvement in that campaign, he should resign,” said Miami-Dade GOP chairman Nelson Diaz, who is probably just itching Marco Rubioto endorse his pal and former boss, Marco Rubio. Diaz was his chief legislative aide when Rubio was House speaker and floats Rubio’s name on his website bio. The lobbyist boasts of the relationship in his bio on the Southern Strategy Group website.

But does he have a “Florida is Marco Rubio Country” sign on his front yard? Has he written a check to the campaign? No. “If I do, people like you would say it’s an endorsement from the party chair,” Diaz told Ladra. And he’s right. People like me would.

“It would be inappropriate for a party leader to get publicly involved in a contested primary,” Diaz said. And trust me, I’ve tried. It seems to me a no-brainer that he would support his longtime friend. But he has repeatedly refused to go on the record for any candidate.

Both Diaz and Liliana Ros, the Miami-Dade state committee woman,rosdiaz said that the party actually encourages members to get involved in the campaign of their choice. Other members who are involved in different campaigns — including Camp Cruz — agreed that there has been no backlash from participating in phone banks or supporting the non local candidates.

“We’re not the Communist Party. You can help whoever you want to help,” Ros said. “Except a Democrat, of course.”

But she also said she reminded Roman when he asked if she had Cruz campaign contact information that he wasn’t allowed to use his title or publicly assist on Republican over another. She said she warned him twice.

While there is some confusion over whether or not he intended for the Herald to use his title there is no reason to believe that the newspaper would not. It is the Herald’s obligation to provide as much relevant information as possible. And that’s pretty relevant. Damn the torpedos. In fact, Ladra doesn’t know why the Herald removed the title in their online edition.

Ros — who also refuses repeatedly to tell me who she supports and insists she is still tedcruzundecided (yeah, right) — is one of those who doesn’t believe that the letter was written by Roman. There are a number of Republicans who believe he was used by the Cruz campaign to try to embarrass Rubio and Jeb!

Roman wrote, for instance, that it was “prime time Miami learned more” about Cruz, when the Miami-Dade GOP had the then just-elected senator over for the Lincoln Day Dinner 18 months ago. He wrote about an environment that pressures folks to get behind one of the local candidates, but Ros said that there are many people within the party working with different campaigns and that she provided Roman weeks ago with the contact information for the Cruz campaign.

Read related story: Ted Cruz stars in big GOP Lincoln Day Dinner fundraiser

Ladra has a problem with the rules because, first, they are not very friendly to our First Amendment rights and, secondly, what good is an endorsement of a Republican candidate that has already been nominated. It’s almost like dating the last man on Earth. You either do or you go it alone.

But I do think that this was some very creative and smart political campaign move. Especially when Cruz and Rubio seem like they are going to be the only two establishment candidates with any real chance left in the early primaries, which start Feb. 1.

In about a day, the story about the Cruz coup was all over the place. “Ted Cruz scored a key endorsement right in heart of Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush country Saturday,” wrote someone in the Washington Examiner. “A GOP leader in the Miami-Dade community has bucked conventional wisdom by endorsing a Republican presidential candidate that isn’t Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio,” reads Politico.

Ros, too, feels that Roman was used by the campaign and should resign. “It’s too bad. He’s a brilliant guy.”

Others also described Roman, a former Burger King executive, as a super smart guy, fresh and energetic. But they followed that up with words like impulsive and divisive and rogue. He does not color inside the lines, one longtime member said.

This is the same Manny Roman who orchestrated a coup of the Miami-Dade Party by Ron Paul supporters in 2012, and their candidate nearly beat Diaz for the chairmanship. Roman may have been named vice chair then — in a truce that was set up to fix the division — except he wrote the resolution against the public financing for the Dolphins Stadium that year and — against the wishes of almost half the voting members — named Rep. Eddy Gonzalez (R-Hialeah) and Eric Fresen (R-Coral Gables) as the ill-advised sponsors of the bills, turning establishment votes off when it cam time to make him VC.

By the way, those two are probably smiling right now.

“There was no need to name names,” the longtime member said.

“It’s one thing to color outside the lines but another entirely to just go to town with jumbo sized crayons.”

5 Responses to "Local GOP leader ruffles feathers with Ted Cruz nod"

  1. Congratulations Mr. Roman, at last someone in the GOP of Miami is standing up. In case their members don’t know, long time ago they’ve lost all credibility and respect. For many years they’ve only supported Bush, Rubio, Ileana Ross, Diaz Ballart and now their puppet Curbelo. It’s not that we don’t have honest and good people in Miami, but, everybody knows that they will never win without the support of the GOP.

  2. Good for Manny to give Ted Cruz exposure to in-bred Miami-Dade Republican politics. Ted is far more qualified than any other GOP presidential candidate running, including local favorites Rubio and Jeb. Definitely the only candidate principled enough to fight the Washington Cartel.

  3. It’s so hypocritical there. That is why so many are leaving in droves. Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen & Carlos Curbelo can endorse Jeb Bush & it is fine. Manny Diaz can work as a lobbyist for Marco Rubio & that is fine too. But anyone openly endorsing someone other than Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio is tarred & feathered. Manny Roman, you are so much better than everyone of them. Why would ANYONE in their right mind want to join the Republican Party Executive Committee of Miami-Dade County? I certainly DON’T!

  4. So let me get this straight. The party leaders are not supposed to voice any preferences? How are the non-leaders supposed to follow their leadership without someone speaking out?

    Why does the culture of any political party’s local chapter require self-censorship?

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