Less clear are other aspects of his career as a Republican state representative, powerful Florida House budget chief and, now, candidate for Congress.
During a high-profile campaign to replace Republican Mario Diaz-Balart, the eight-year legislator has given muddy answers to questions ranging from his past political campaigns to his work outside of lawmaking, which he does not clearly identify.
Yet Rivera, 45, is hoping his conservative credentials, hard-line stance on U.S. policy toward Cuba and reputation for playing political hardball will propel him to best Democrat Joe Garcia and represent the swing district that stretches from Homestead to Doral and into Collier County.
``Everything I've done has involved the community,'' said Rivera, recently campaigning at the West Dade Regional Library, an early voting site. ``I've been in public life in one way or another for 20 years.''
BACKGROUND
David Mauricio Rivera was born in New York City, the second child of Cuban exiles, he said: Daisy, who ran a driving school, and William, a taxi driver. His parents divorced when Rivera was 2 years old; by age 9, his mother moved him and his sister Diana to Miami.
Rivera considered a career in sports writing, the next best thing to playing shortstop for the New York Yankees. But he volunteered for his first presidential campaign -- Reagan-Bush in 1980 -- as a ninth-grader at Miami Christian School near Sweetwater and never looked back.
At Florida International University -- where he played ``Chino'' in the musical West Side Story -- he graduated with degrees in political science and public administration. He helped elect former Republican Rep. Connie Mack and followed him as an aide to Washington.
After stints at the Cuban American National Foundation and a human-rights group, Rivera landed a job as aide to the board of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, which operated Radio Martí and TV Martí at the U.S. State Department. There, Rivera likes to say, he held a ``top secret national security clearance.''
It wasn't until 2002, after years of running Hispanic outreach for the Republican Party of Florida, that Rivera sought public office.
ROUGH START
His first election was marred by controversies that have resurfaced in this year's congressional campaign.
Four days before the 2002 primary, Rivera was involved in a collision on the Palmetto Expressway with a truck carrying his opponent's attack ads to the post office to be mailed to voters. A Florida Highway Patrol report did not assign fault for the crash.
The ads linked Rivera to a domestic-violence restraining order submitted in Miami-Dade Circuit Court in 1994 against one David M. Rivera. The court file has long been destroyed, and a computer record available today contains no additional identifying details.
Rivera denies he is the man named in the complaint and says he does not know Jenia Dorticos, the woman who filed it. He also says he does not recall a response flier produced by his campaign with a photo of Dorticos and a statement defending Rivera under her purported signature. The ad says it was paid for and approved by Rivera's campaign.
Rivera narrowly won the primary and made it to Tallahassee, where he rose to power as former House Speaker Marco Rubio's right-hand man. The two shared a home in the state capital that a bank sought to foreclose on earlier this year after the pair missed payments. The case was quickly resolved.
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