Rivera: Pereda remarks taken `out of context'

A congressional rival of state Rep. David Rivera accused him Friday of lying about his ties to a businessman who facilitates trade with Cuba and called on him to resign as chairman of the Miami-Dade Republican Party.

Mariana ``Marili'' Cancio publicized a video Friday on Rivera's website showing businessman Ariel Pereda standing behind him at his campaign announcement in February.

However, Rivera, a hard-line proponent of the Cuban embargo, said on Spanish-language station WQBA-1140 AM Thursday that he had not seen Pereda since 2006.

The interview followed a Miami Herald story detailing Rivera and Pereda's close friendship and political ties. Public records show Pereda chaired a fundraising committee for Rivera.

``I think David Rivera's lying,'' Cancio said. ``It's very troublesome. It's really well known in this community that they're very good friends and have been for a long time. It's a hypocrisy the voters are tired of.''

Rivera's campaign manager Javi Correoso said Rivera's quote was taken out of context. Rivera meant he hadn't seen Pereda active in Republican circles, not that he hadn't seen him at all, Correoso said.

On the radio, Rivera said in Spanish: ``Clearly everyone knows that [Pereda] has been active in the Republican Party. Three years ago he left that activism in the Republican Party. He began to advocate as a Democrat as everyone said to do business with Cuba. I haven't seen him in any activity since the election of Charlie Crist to governor in the year 2006.''

Correoso stressed that Pereda was closer to Democrat Joe Garcia, another candidate for the congressional seat being vacated by Mario Diaz-Balart.

``Considering that he supports Joe Garcia, it's not at all surprising that Mr. Pereda would be at an announcement to get information,'' Correoso said.

On the radio, Rivera was questioned about being spotted at Pereda's wedding a few years ago. He denied being there and denied that they are friends.

``I laughed out loud when I heard that,'' said state Rep. J.C. Planas, who went on the same station to comment on Rivera and Pereda's friendship.

``How can he deny that? It's just silly. I've seen them hang out together.''

Miami Herald staff writers Beth Reinhard and Andres Viglucci contributed to this report.

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`Apprentice,' tea party members in races for Tallahassee

This year's state legislative races in South Florida includes a feisty contest that could divide Broward's gay and black communities, former state legislators attempting a comeback, and a handful of tea party activists hoping to make their way to Tallahassee.

The candidates have about two months before the Aug. 24 primary to grab voters' attention amid higher profile races for governor and U.S. Senate.

But state lawmakers set policy on issues close to home, such as oil drilling, FCATs and taxes.

``The people who make the most decisions about your life on a daily basis are on the bottom of the ballot, not the top of the ballot,'' said Ron Mills, a Democratic committeeman in Broward.

Among the most noteworthy races in Miami-Dade is the contest to replace Republican Alex Diaz de la Portilla, the powerful Senate majority leader.

The front-runners are state Rep. Julio Robaina, who has raised $191,078, and attorney and lobbyist Miguel Diaz de la Portilla -- the outgoing senator's brother -- who has raked in more than twice as much, $444,835 and loaned himself $500. (A third brother, Renier, is a former state representative and current Miami-Dade School Board member.)

Jenny Nillo, the third Republican in the race, was once Miguel Diaz de la Portilla's aide when he was a Miami-Dade county commissioner, and she donated $500 to his campaign last year. She and two other candidates -- both write-ins -- filed to run on the last day of qualifying last week and have not raised any money yet.

Campaign finance reports are based on fundraising totals through March.

DEMOCRATS SPLIT

In Broward, state Rep. Gwyn Clarke-Reed, an African-American first-term legislator in Deerfield Beach, faces fellow Democrat and gay activist Justin Flippen, a Wilton Manors city commissioner. That race could lead to divisions in Broward's Democratic black and gay communities.

After gay political leaders tried to build bridges with the black community and Clarke-Reed, ``this certainly sets us back a little bit,'' said Mills, president of the Dolphin Democrats, a gay political group in Broward.

MUSICAL SEATS

One of the most expensive Republican primaries pits two state representatives -- Ellyn Bogdanoff and Carl Domino -- against each other in a Broward/Palm Beach district.

Bogdanoff has raised more than quadruple his donations -- she has $425,403 while he raised $96,499. But Domino, a self-made multimillionaire, has lent himself $110,000 and could put in more.

In a TV ad, he tries to portray himself as a humble guy: ``I flipped burgers to pay for college,'' he says.

They clashed on one key issue which will draw attention among conservative primary voters: the ultrasound bill that Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed. Bogdanoff voted for, and Domino voted against, the bill that would have required women seeking an abortion to have an ultrasound and listen to a doctor describe the fetus unless they signed a form to opt out.

Another hard-fought Republican primary is on for Bogdanoff's current state House seat -- a coastal Broward/Palm Beach district. The Republican front-runners are political newcomers: businessman David Maymon and lawyer George Moraitis.

Maymon is far ahead in fundraising -- $114,078 plus a $61,110 loan compared to Moraitis $58,930 plus a $15,000 loan -- since he started several months earlier.

The primary winner will face Barbra Stern, who switched her registration from Republican to Democrat to run and is the daughter of lobbyist Judy Stern.

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Shut out of port, firm cries foul

Stevedoring is a rough business, rougher still for John Gorman Jr., who has battled Miami-Dade County for over a decade to obtain a permit to load and unload cargo at the Port of Miami.

``It's called politics and good old boys,'' says Gorman, a tall, mustachioed man of 65, who runs Florida Transportation Services in Fort Lauderdale with his wife and son.

``It's called hardball.''

Gorman's quest to stevedore at the county-owned port has been thwarted over the years amid various appeals to the Miami-Dade County Commission, an administrative hearing and state circuit court. In recent years, the county began citing work safety issues, including fatalities at Port Everglades.

In April 2008, the tough-talking New York native finally prevailed: U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan ruled that the port's way of doling out permits illegally protected the incumbent stevedores -- ``creating a handful of entrenched privileged companies.''

This March, following a two-week federal trial to consider damages, a jury awarded Gorman's company $3.5 million for lost business.

Though the county intends to appeal, the case offers a rare look into the world of doing business on the Miami waterfront, the nation's ninth largest port.

For years, the Port of Miami had the same nine stevedoring companies moving cargo on and off ships. A handful of those stevedores also jointly own POMTOC, the Port of Miami Terminal Operating Co., and they do most of the stevedoring for POMTOC's customers, the shipping lines that lack their own storage space and facilities at the port.

The case turns on a Miami-Dade ordinance that empowers the port director and the county commission to issue -- or deny -- stevedore permits, based on whether the port needs more firms to handle the volume of cargo.

``The port director, with the acquiescence of the Board of County Commissioners and the County Manager, has in essence used the ordinance to protect a group of entrenched stevedores and bar the entry of new competitors to the stevedore market,'' Judge Jordan wrote in a 23-page order.

The judge, who could change the jury's award, set an Aug. 27 hearing to hear from both sides before ruling.

Steven Bass, an assistant county attorney, views the jury's award as based on ``unpermissible speculation.'' Bass hopes to get the judge to throw out the award.

`OLIGOPOLY'

Gorman, whose father worked the Brooklyn docks, labored for years in unionized stevedoring operations.

Then in 1982, he started Florida Transportation Services, which uses nonunion labor.

In the 1980s, the nonunion stevedore's entry at Port Everglades was met with pickets, work stoppages and tense confrontations with union members from the International Longshoremen's Association.

Gorman stuck it out and built a prosperous business with revenues totaling $19 million by 2005. He's pushing to do the same in Miami.

``Financial gain is the motive,'' says Gorman, who listens to CDs of opera arias while driving his pickup truck. ``I'm a businessman.''

Nearly every year since 1999, Gorman applied for a stevedoring permit in Miami. The rejection letters would come back citing a lack of need for additional firms. The incumbent stevedores at the port, all unionized, could handle the volume of cargo, he was told.

Port officials heard from incumbent stevedores and the longshoremen's union, urging against giving Gorman a permit.

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Democrats resist GOP bid to nationalize election

WASHINGTON -- Democrats and Republicans are framing the elections in starkly different terms, with GOP strategists painting it as a national referendum on President Barack Obama and the party in power, and Democrats working feverishly to make all politics local.

The outcome will help determine whether Republicans take control of the House, the Senate or both. It also may profoundly affect Obama's agenda for the next two years.

Republicans have every reason to try to nationalize the Nov. 2 election, when voters will fill all 435 House seats, 36 Senate seats and 37 governorships. Democrats succeeded in the elections of 2006 and 2008 by focusing on President George W. Bush's tenure, Republicans' performance in Congress and the Iraq war; the GOP hopes to turn the tables now.

Polls show significant discontent with policies linked to Obama and congressional Democrats, including rising deficits and bank bailouts. The latest AP-GfK survey found that 60 percent of those questioned think the nation is heading in the wrong direction, and 73 percent disapprove of the Democratic-led Congress.

Polls also show significantly higher energy and enthusiasm among conservative voters than liberals.

GOP strategists believe they can sustain this wave and ride it to victory if they can focus voters' attention on overarching complaints against Obama and Democratic lawmakers: government overreach, big spending, Washington intrusion.

"It's going to be a national election," said Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas, head of the Republican committee overseeing House races. He said Republicans will run on broad themes, such as arguing that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's agenda for health care, energy and labor unions is destroying jobs.

Even if Pelosi, D-Calif., isn't well-known to some voters, Sessions said, "I think they're aware that America is under one-party rule."

Democrats are pushing a very different narrative.

The election will be "a choice between two candidates in every congressional district," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the Democrats' counterpart to Sessions.

Van Hollen pointed to the May 18 special House election in Pennsylvania, where Democrat Mark Critz surprised pundits by easily defeating Republican Tim Burns. Republicans "made the election all about Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi," Van Hollen said, while Critz stuck to bread-and-butter issues such as job creation and his deep familiarity with the district.

Republicans, stung by the loss, note that Critz rejected Obama's health care and energy initiatives, which most congressional Democrats supported and must defend this fall.

Nonetheless, Democrats see the Critz victory as a blueprint for Election Day. They praise his campaign for reaching out to voters early to learn of their concerns, which shaped follow-up literature and calls.

Democratic officials say they are recruiting thousands of volunteers nationwide for an unusually early and aggressive voter-targeting effort. If local supporters talk to undecided voters about local candidates and concerns, these Democrats say, it can take the edge off Republicans' bid to nationalize the election and focus on Washington.

Of course, Democratic candidates can't avoid the national issues that agitate many voters, such as health care and deficit spending. But they have a better chance to make their case, Van Hollen said, if voters see the nominee as a local person with community ties.

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Steve Geller rents condo to run for Broward Commission

Former state Sen. Steve Geller has to pay more than just the filing fee to run for a seat on the Broward County Commission. He also had to rent a condo.

That's because Geller didn't live in District 6, the coastal area he hopes to represent. His house is out west, in Cooper City.

Geller, 51, is running to unseat Sue Gunzburger, 70, to represent the district that covers parts of Hollywood, Hallandale Beach and Pembroke Pines. He rented a condo in the oceanfront Quadomain tower in Hollywood last month.

CANCELS EXEMPTION

Geller and his wife, Laurel, will keep the Cooper City house where she and their two sons live. He said he would cancel its homestead exemption -- which provides a tax break for a primary residence -- because he has moved out. ``My family and I will be spending substantial amounts of time in both locations,'' he said.

Geller admitted Friday that before settling on a run for District 6 he polled his chances in three other county districts. He said he did the polling ``four or five years ago'' to test his political popularity in the four districts that cover the terrain he represented as a state senator: Lois Wexler's District 5, Gunzburger's District 6, John Rodstrom's District 7 and Diana Wasserman Rubin's District 8.

But he said his heart is in Hollywood, which he has represented for his entire political career.

HAS KEYS

Asked about his residency in a recent interview, Geller held up a key ring with keys to Apartment 2203, where he said he has a one-year lease. He attended the condo's board meeting Thursday night, he said, and was shocked to walk in and see Gunzburger there. He said she looked surprised, too. She had been invited to speak.

The race between the two is expected to be nasty. Both campaigns are running attack ads.

Gunzburger said she and her family have lived in Hollywood since 1968.

She said voters in the district are fixated on jobs and the economy, ethics and the environment, and probably don't know about Geller's home in Cooper City.

``That Steve lives halfway across the county and outside the district isn't something that most voters think about,'' she said, ``or perhaps even know about today.''

Geller said his residency won't be an issue because he has represented that area as a state legislator for years, starting as a state representative in 1988.

``What they want to know is what are your ties to the district?'' he said. He has lived in Hollywood, Hallandale Beach and Pembroke Pines, and practiced law in the district for 20 years. ``I can drive around that district blindfolded,'' he said. ``I am better known in that district than she is.''

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Rick Scott and his role in Columbia/HCA scandal

As he meets Republicans around Florida, Rick Scott, the new front-runner in the Florida governor's race, has been greeted with applause -- and with blunt questions about his past.

At a recent GOP breakfast in Tampa, Scott was confronted -- not for the first time -- about his role in the scandals at Columbia/HCA, the massive healthcare company that Scott ran for 10 years. Scott resigned in 1997 amid an FBI probe that ultimately led to the company paying a record $1.7 billion in criminal and civil fines for Medicare fraud.

It's the paradox of Scott's upstart campaign: The novice candidate has touted his stature and experience as the get-things-done CEO of what was once the nation's largest for-profit healthcare company, while also trying to distance himself from Columbia/HCA's notorious legacy of fraud.

The strategy has worked so far. Thanks largely to a $16 million advertising blitz he financed himself, Scott -- who moved to Florida seven years ago -- now leads in the polls over fellow Republican Bill McCollum, the state attorney general and former congressman.

``As I have said repeatedly, Columbia/HCA made mistakes, and I take responsibility for what happened on my watch as CEO,'' Scott said in a written statement Friday. He has denied knowing frauds were taking place while he was there, and he was never charged with any crimes.

However, federal investigators found that Scott took part in business practices at Columbia/HCA that were later found to be illegal -- specifically, that Scott and other executives offered financial incentives to doctors in exchange for patient referrals, in violation of federal law, according to lawsuits the Justice Department filed against the company in 2001.

The doctor payments were among 10 different kinds of fraud identified by the Justice Department in its 10-year probe of the company, records show. Three years after Scott left Columbia/HCA, the company admitted wrongdoing, pleading guilty to 14 felonies -- most committed during Scott's tenure -- in addition to paying two sets of fines totaling $1.7 billion.

Scott declined interview requests from The Miami Herald, and though his campaign issued a statement, it did not respond to specific questions about his tenure at Columbia/HCA.

In his statement, Scott said: ``An army of federal investigators spent seven years examining every aspect of this case. If they found any merit in these allegations . . . they would have certainly charged me, or at the very least questioned me -- neither of which ever happened.''

On his campaign website, Scott said that he would have corrected any problems at the company ``immediately'' had he known about them. But a former company insider told The Miami Herald that he warned Scott in a meeting of ``significant problems'' at least six months before Scott's resignation, which came nine days after the FBI raided 33 Columbia hospitals and offices in six states.

The insider, attorney Jerre Frazier, who was brought in by a Columbia/HCA board member to root out the company's problems, said he did not believe Scott personally approved any illegal conduct. But, he said: ``Rick is a bright guy, and he picked up on what was happening.''

The Scott campaign dismissed Frazier as a ``disgruntled former employee.''

Whether or not Scott was aware of his company's questionable conduct, the breadth of the problems raises questions about Scott's leadership, management experts say.

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Media forum for candidates draws out political fireworks

SARASOTA -- Eager to rev up his suddenly troubled campaign, Bill McCollum on Thurday vowed as governor to mandate that all local governments freeze property taxes for at least two years.

``A [tax rate] freeze is going to make local governments make the same tough choices I'm going to make at the state level,'' the Republican attorney general told news editors at a Florida Press Association and Florida Society of Newspaper Editors convention in Sarasota.

Republican gubernatorial front-runner Rick Scott missed the event, but it was still the largest single gathering of major statewide candidates to date in this hectic political year. It produced some striking moments:

• Republican U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio, who has been hazy on his immigration position, for the first time said he would not support Florida pursuing a tough anti-illegal immigration law like the one passed recently in Arizona: ``I think it should be solved at the federal level.''

• Gov. Charlie Crist, running as an independent for U.S. Senate, said he no longer supports Florida's ban against gay couples adopting children: ``A better way and approach would be to let judges make that decision on a case-by-case basis.''

• McCollum professed to be unaware of the activities of two stealth political committees attacking front-runner Rick Scott on TV -- even though McCollum's campaign advisors are directing the committees' spending and he has been urging supporters to contribute to one of them.

• Not exactly pandering to the assembled media, McCollum waxed about the limits of open government in the state legislature: ``I'm not sure the Legislature is the place for open government,'' he said. ``I was a legislator and you can't negotiate and do deals in the Legislature and get business done in 60 days or 90 days or whatever your session may be with open government.''

• Little-known Libertarian U.S. Senate candidate Alex Snitker of Pasco County crashed the candidate forum, snatching a microphone and demanding speaking time.

``Let me speak! Come on, media!,'' shouted Snitker, who is among more than a dozen candidates who have qualified to be on the ballot for Senate.

A moderator explained that only candidates who have received at least 10 percent support in a credible poll were invited. He let Snitker vent for several minutes before the candidate stormed out.

``You are stopping the freedom of speech of someone who spent eight years defending your right to do it,'' Snitker, a former Marine, shouted at the uncomfortable media executives.

Also speaking were Democratic Senate candidate Kendrick Meek, the Miami congressman, and Democratic challenger Jeff Greene, a Palm Beach real estate magnate and billionaire political newcomer who is spending millions on TV.

Highlighting how rough that primary is becoming, Meek derided Greene as a carpetbagger who made hundreds of millions betting on the housing market collapse.

``Not one Florida homeowner lost a penny because of the investments I made,'' said Greene.

Greene said that unlike Meek he at least understood what was happening with the economy. He also alluded to an ongoing scandal in which a developer for whom Meek sought federal funds paid Meek's mother, former U.S. Rep. Carrie Meek, for consulting work and bought her a Cadillac.

Referring to his own elderly mother, Greene said, ``She won't be doing any consulting She won't be getting an Escalade.''

Adam C. Smith can be reached at asmith@ sptimes.com.

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