State Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez — who is in a race against a well-spoken, attractive, handpicked Republican challenger (and, no, it’s not a rematch with former Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla) — launched his first TV ad Thursday as part of an eventual six-figure ad buy.
He’s about a week late. Latinas for Trump co-founder and media consultant Ileana Garcia, the last-minute GOP candidate, has been on TV since last 
week with a nostalgic introduction piece about her Cuban-American family and growing up in Allappattah, complete with sepia-toned photographs from her childhood.
J-Rod’s 30-second spot casts the Democrat incumbent as a leader on the government response to the COVID-19 crisis that has impacted District 37 hard.
“The crisis families face today is like no other,” he says in the video, that also has a Spanish-language version. “Our small businesses are struggling to hang on, and too many worry when their next paycheck will come.”
Rodriguez — who took the senate seat from the elder Diaz de la Portilla brother in 2016 — has arguably been the most vocal of the Miami-Dade delegation on addressing the catastrophic unemployment application process. “I’m holding political leaders accountable,” he says in the video.
“As your state senator, I will always fight for you because you deserve nothing less.”
In a statement, Rodriguez said, “Republican leadership in Tallahassee’s 
refusal to act during this pandemic has left far too many Floridians on their own at a time of crisis for so many families.
“I’ve remained focused on holding those political leaders to account, working with our small businesses to provide them with much needed aid while fixing our broken unemployment system for workers, and ensuring the decisions we make are based on science and protecting public health.”
Rodriguez pissed off some supporters when it looked like he was going to abandon his seat mid-term to run for Congress in District 27. But he dropped out of that race after Donna Shalala jumped in and before he had to resign to run.
So far, has raised about $465,000 in his re-election campaign account — not counting almost $100K in in-kind donations from the Democratic Party — according to the latest campaign finance reports at the state. Ladra couldn’t find a PAC for him, but there is plenty of money to buy air time.
Read related: Jose Javier Rodriguez runs for Congress, but it’s not in the bag
Garcia’s TV spot has been airing since the day after the primary.
The former deputy press secretary at the Department of Homeland Security when they were putting kids 
in cages, Garcia — a former TV and radio commentator — has raised almost $60,000 only since June, more than half of which has come from conservative Tallahassee-based political action committees. Her political action committee, called No More Socialism (no kidding), has collected another $47,000, almost exclusively from those same Tally PACs. She has also gotten in-kind assistance, more than $37,000 worth, from the Florida Republican Senatorial Committee.
So, they either really think they can flip that seat this year or they just have a lot of money to throw around because there are really only four battleground senate races in Florida this year. Two are upstate. One is J-Rod’s District 37, which includes Key Biscayne, Coral Gables, Pinecrest and Palmetto Bay. And the other is District 39, where Democrat State Rep. Javier Fernandez is facing Republican State Rep. Ana Maria Rodriguez (more on that later).
There are no expenses for video production or air time on either Garcia’s or J-Rod’s latest campaign finance reports, which record transactions through Aug. 13 (There’s an NPA in the race, but that’s of little consequence). Garcia has spent about $10,000 on T-shirts, email lists and website development. Rodriguez has spent a little more than $35K with the largest cost being almost $12,000 for digital ads.
Perhaps the video costs will be in their next reports.
Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez releases 1st TV ad in race vs Trump Latina Ileana Garcia added by Ladra on
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