Menendez Plays to His Base, in South Florida
By DAVID W. CHEN
Published: September 28, 2006
MIAMI, Sept. 24 — He shook hands with supporters at Versailles Restaurant on Calle Ocho in Little Havana. He was given the keys to the affluent city of Coral Gables, Fla., at a reception attended by more Republicans than Democrats. He received two proclamations from nearby towns, including one with a Republican mayor who declared Sunday “Senator Bob Menendez Day.”
Yes, that Senator Robert Menendez, the Democrat from New Jersey.
“I want to keep a Republican majority, but not if it means losing Bob Menendez,” said Ana Navarro, a Republican political consultant who helped organize three Menendez for Senate fund-raising events at the historic Biltmore Hotel on Sunday. “He’s part of our extended family.”
At home in northern New Jersey, Mr. Menendez comes across as a textbook Democrat, with a 100 percent scorecard from the League of Conservation Voters, Naral Pro-Choice America and the National Education Association. But in South Florida, a place Mr. Menendez has visited dozens of times over the last two decades, Cuban-Americans and others hail him as a freedom fighter for his fervent anti-Castro views, and revere him as an adopted son who has done well for himself.
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“I know we’re here for a greater cause than the party,” Mr. Menendez said at another reception.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/28/nyregion/28menendez.html?_r=1&oref=slogin