Rivera victory caps contentious race

Republican David Rivera decisively staved off a challenge to win a Miami congressional seat Tuesday, as a conservative current swept Florida GOP candidates into office.

Rivera, an eight-year state representative who quickly rose to prominence in Tallahassee, ran on his experience as Florida House budget chief to defeat Democrat Joe Garcia.

``Tonight, the people won, the voters who wanted positive change -- real change -- won,'' an exultant Rivera said late Tuesday during his campaign party at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables. ``The residents wanted a campaign based on the issues, on the economy.''

The high-profile contest, targeted by both parties vying for the swing 25th congressional district, was characterized by mud-slinging between the two candidates, both well-known Cuban Americans with longtime ties to local politics.

Rivera's clear victory -- despite a slew of character attacks against him during the campaign -- reflected the national mood of an electorate angry about the economy and willing to overlook candidates' questionable actions in the past if they promised to stand up to Democrats in Washington.

RECORD ATTACKED

Garcia relentlessly attacked Rivera's record in past campaigns and his source of income outside of lawmaking -- and the message seemed to resonate even among voters who picked Rivera.

``It was a vote for the lesser of evils,'' said Mercy Gonzalez, a self-described conservative who voted for Rivera Tuesday morning at a heavily Republican precinct at Belen Jesuit Preparatory School in West Miami-Dade.

To win, Rivera also had to overcome the deep pockets of national Democrats pouring money into a seat they targeted as a rare pickup opportunity.

As with Republicans across the country, Rivera's message of fiscal restraint proved popular with voters in the GOP-leaning 25th, a district almost evenly split among Democrats, Republicans and independents that reaches from western Miami-Dade to eastern Collier County.

The district has always been represented by Republican Mario Diaz-Balart, who helped draw the seat for himself and is now moving to a neighboring, more GOP-friendly seat being vacated by his brother, Lincoln. Mario Diaz-Balart was automatically elected to the post when he drew no opposition.

Rivera, a hard-working movie buff and baseball fan known for his astute political eye, successfully tied Garcia, a former Obama administration official, to divisive Washington policies and to now-ousted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

PARTY-LINE STANCES

Each candidate mostly followed his party's line, with Rivera emphasizing his budget-balancing years in Tallahassee, hard-line stance on Cuba and support for a Colombian free-trade agreement that Garcia also backed, breaking with national Democrats.

Democrats held out hope for a win by Garcia until late Tuesday, foraging for last-minute volunteers to call supporters and urge them to vote. Two years ago, Garcia narrowly lost to Mario Diaz-Balart in an election that strongly favored Democrats.

This time around, Garcia went on the attack early, bringing up an accident Rivera was involved in with a truck carrying campaign mailers on the Palmetto Expressway during his first campaign eight years ago.

Garcia's campaign also jumped on news reports about Rivera claiming for years to have received income from the U.S. Agency for International Development, though the agency has no record of him as a contractor.

Rivera later said he worked as a subcontractor -- without naming who he worked for -- and amended his state financial disclosure forms to remove any mention of USAID. Allies of Garcia sued Rivera to disqualify him from the ballot over the disclosures, but a judge threw out the suit.

Garcia conceded the race late Tuesday at his campaign party in West Kendall: ``I don't think we could have done anything different,'' he said, blaming his loss on higher GOP turnout.

At the Biltmore, Rivera basked in his presumed win by introducing his close friend Marco Rubio, who was celebrating his triumph in a bruising, three-way Florida Senate race.

Miami Herald staff writers Lesley Clark and Ana Veciana Suarez and El Nuevo Herald staff writer Melissa Sanchez contributed to this report.

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