Dreaming big

Barrero offers the most optimistic possible vision for November. Having former U.S. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, an Ecuadorian immigrant, as the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate this year will give his party a chance at defeating U.S. Sen. Rick Scott.

The contest isn’t seen as a realistic pickup opportunity by independent national analysts.

Mucarsel-Powell, speaking last month at an event in Greenacres, a Palm Beach County city with a growing Hispanic population, noted Scott’s three statewide election victories have been exceedingly close.

And, she added, “He has never run against a Latina like myself that knows exactly how to fight back, how to communicate with our communities, set the record straight on all of this information that we continue to hear.”

But just because Mucarsel-Powell is Hispanic, that doesn’t give her an advantage over Scott with Hispanic voters. Scott, who is wealthy, can spend heavily on his reelection campaign, as he has done in his previous victories. Mucarsel-Powell has to raise money for her campaign.

But Gamarra said Scott — who won the first of his two terms as governor in 2010 — started paying attention to Hispanic voters from the beginning. “He had this idea that he had to invest in Hispanics,” he said.

He learned Spanish — vastly improved in the past few years, Gamarra said. He looked beyond the Cuban American community to show support for Puerto Rico after that storm was hit by devastating hurricanes while he was governor. He runs his campaign ads in English and Spanish.

And he frequently speaks out on issues related to the Americas. On Friday, his campaign issued a statement in English and Spanish declaring that “Democrats’ Hearts are in Havana.”