Race heats up in ‘flippable’ state Senate District 39

Candidates running to claim the hotly contested state Senate District 39 seat are gearing up for the final stretch of one of the most expensive, contentious and closely watched races to appear on the November ballot.

Former South Miami state Rep. Javier Fernández (who resigned from his House seat last week) and Doral Rep. Ana Maria Rodriguez, campaigning with a backdrop of a presidential election, are vying to replace term-limited Republican incumbent Anitere Flores in a seat that includes South Miami-Dade and all of Monroe County.

Republicans see the race as a prime opportunity to defend the seat, which Flores won in 2016 when she ran to replace Democrat Dwight Bullard after the Senate district lines were redrawn. Democrats have identified it as one of the most flippable seats in the Legislature and have poured resources into the race. Their efforts are part of a strategy to gain the three seats Democrats need to reach an even split in Florida’s 40-member Senate.

“It’s a seat that we really feel should be ours,” said incoming Senate Minority Leader Gary Farmer, who chairs the committee tasked with

electing Democrats to the upper chamber. “Senator Flores was the last of a dying breed, a moderate Republican.”

Democrats have also highlighted their vote-by-mail “advantage” as a key part of their 2020 strategy. As of Thursday, 50,298 Republicans in Miami-Dade County were provided mail ballots, compared to 85,869 Democrats.

Half of Florida’s Senate seats are up for reelection in November. Democrats flipped five South Florida seats in the past decade, which puts a greater focus on District 39 and the question of whether Democrats can prove they can outwork their well-funded opponents. More than $3.4 million in cash and support has been poured into the race on both sides, on top of high-profile endorsements from the likes of Miami Republican Sen. Marco Rubio and former President Barack Obama.

As of the August primary, the district was split about 35% Democrat, 33% Republican, and 31% no party affiliation, according to state records.

Incoming Senate President Wilton Simpson, who chairs the committee to elect Senate Republicans, sees the seat as less “flippable” than those on the opposing side.

“I think if they say stuff over and over, they start believing it themselves,” the Trilby Republican said. “Every seat that is up for reelection is a seat that you have to fight to win. Ana Maria is working twice as hard as her competitor.”

‘UNDER FULL

PARTISAN BANNERS’

Before he was elected to the state House, Fernández, who was in western Miami-Dade, worked as the chief of staff to Miami Mayor Manny Diaz. He then went on to study law at the University of Miami. His law practice represents developers with claims to projects like the Miami Design District and Brickell City Centre.

When Fernández ran for office for the first time in a special election in 2018, he felt he was successful because people had a chance to get to know him away from any other political noise.

This time is different. “This race is hyper magnified. We are running under our full partisan banners. That certainly changes the dynamic,” said Fernández, who noted he is also seeing far more contributions flow into his accounts.

The energy around Democrats as of late — especially given recent attention to South Florida from Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden — has created a windfall of attention and donations to down-ballot candidates like himself, Fernández said.

But the presidential energy cuts both ways, he said.

“Helping top of the ticket grow is driving up the cost of advertising rates for everybody else,” said Fernández, who was endorsed by Biden in 2018 and endorsed Biden in the presidential race early last May. “Hopefully a strong top of ticket will serve everyone well.”

Fernández and his political committee, Florida Future, have raised about $1.8 million to Rodriguez’s (and her political committee, Ethics and Honesty in Government) $1.7 million.

Rodriguez, who has aligned herself with Republican President Donald Trump, said she is less sure that the presidential energy is driving donations to her campaign.

She points out that regardless of the presidential election, Republicans have controlled the Legislature and statewide offices for 20 years, and that Floridians will make the choices they’ve made in the past.

“These races always have a partisan backdrop,” she wrote in a text message. “Once again, this election at the Florida Senate level will be decided on who voters must trust to guide the direction of the state.”

In an interview with the Miami Herald’s editorial board, she added that her track record mirrors Flores’, and that voters will see “a fighter and a doer” beyond just her party affiliation.

Before she was elected to the state House, Rodriguez served on the Doral City Council and before that, worked as a government liaison for Baptist Health. She is currently the vice president for the Miami Association of Realtors. She lives in Doral with her husband, Clemente Canabal, and their two sons, Hermes and Eros.

PREPARING

FOR NOVEMBER

Ahead of the election, Fernández resigned from his House seat and moved from his family home in South Miami to a twobedroom Key Largo rental apartment in Tavernier, mainly so he can vote for himself.

Fernández said he’ll split time between the residences so as to spend time with his wife, clinical psychologist Anna Maria Patiño-Fernández, and their children, Susanna and Lucas.

Rodriguez, who is still registered to vote in her Doral home, has not moved or resigned, according to House records.

Rodriguez said she is “working on my new place” but will be fully settled by Election Day.

Under the state’s “resign to run” law, candidates who are running out the end of their terms don’t have to give up their seat before the qualifying period in June. Candidates who are electors are also not required to live in the district they hope to serve until elected, though they may not vote for themselves if they reside elsewhere.

ON THE ISSUES

The candidates have exchanged barbs over issues like unemployment, healthcare, school safety and police funding, putting out so-called “contrast” advertisements and interviews.

In a recent digital advertisement focusing on school safety, Fernández zooms on a controversial school safety bill that passed during the 2019 legislative session that would allow classroom teachers to be armed, expanding a program lawmakers created in 2018 after the Parkland shooting.

“I would never ask my mom to carry a gun to school,” says Fernández, whose mother was a Miami-Dade public school teacher. “But my opponent would. ... Schools need funds and teachers need raises, not guns and bullets.”

A mail advertisement sent by the Florida Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee features a fullsized photo of Rodriguez with photos of a handgun and an apple superimposed on top.

With an arrow pointing to the gun, it reads: “Ana Maria Rodriguez thinks this is a back-to-school supply.”

When it comes to police funding, they both boast law enforcement endorsements: hers from the local and state police unions and Monroe County Sheriff

Rick Ramsay, his from the Fraternal Order of Police.

Rodriguez calls herself “the law and order candidate,” and echoes much of the president’s rhetoric when she talks about her Democrat opponent.

“I believe in the American dream,” she wrote in a text message. “The American dream is not burning down cities, kowtowing to anarchists. ... That is what the Democratic party and my opponent are offering.”

A digital attack ad paid for by the state’s Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee takes on this tone, calling Fernández a “lobbyist liberal” who is a “pro at gaming the system.” It draws on Fernández’s career representing developers, alleging he wants to raise taxes to funnel cash to clients and benefit from “his sweet land deals.”

“Plus, he wants to defund the police and create big government that takes away our freedoms,” the ad says. “He’s taking tons of cash from the far left to buy his way in the Senate seat. But this time, we know better.”

Fernández argues that her attacks are less rooted in his record and “more personal” and rooted in a national narrative. Why else would he be endorsed by the Fraternal Order of Police, he argues.

“Do you think they are going to endorse someone who wants to defund the police?” he said. “We have allowed ourselves to get caught up in a national narrative.”

The candidates have also shifted a focus to the coronavirus pandemic, relaying to voters what steps they would take to help those hardest hit medically and financially.

Rodriguez’s website promises voters that she would work to “fix the unemployment compensation system,” allow “small businesses to operate free of bureaucratic red tape and burdensome regulations” and “use a datadriven approach to ensure the economy is reopened timely and responsibly.”

Fernández said in interviews that he hopes to focus on affordable housing, and that the eviction moratoriums Floridians relied on this summer “highlight longstanding issues in our community.” He also said the state reopening needs to better “protect workers” and that serious budget work will have to be done to address issues ignored amid the pandemic.

Fernández was one of several Democrats calling for a special legislative session to structure the budget, which was passed in March without consideration for the economic effects of COVID-19.

In an interview with the Miami Herald editorial board, Rodriguez said she feels Gov. Ron DeSantis did his best to balance the interest of small businesses and the health of Floridians, and lauded him for allowing South Florida to move at its own pace when it came to reopening.

She added that a mask mandate “shouldn’t have bothered anyone” and that “in retrospect, I think he should have done that. But he didn’t.”

In the same interview, Fernández agreed DeSantis did a good job trying to balance the issues, but that he should have done it with more consultation of medical professionals.

“He blew an opportunity to our state to bring credibility,” he said.