As mayor of Miami-Dade County, Alex Penelas is a political power in South Florida. But even he admits he's a relative unknown in the rest of the state.
By ANITA KUMAR
Published June 3, 2004
TAMPA - Alex Penelas alternates between English and Spanish as he describes how his father fled a Cuban firing squad for freedom in America.
The dozen mostly Hispanic businessmen gathered around a long table at Valencia Garden restaurant listen intently as waiters deliver baskets of warm Cuban bread.
Other diners don't have a clue who Penelas is, but they can tell he's somebody. Even in this power lunch spot, Penelas stands out.
Perhaps it's the boyish good looks that got him named People magazine's sexiest politician in 1999.
Or maybe they have a vague memory of him standing before the TV cameras defying federal officials who wanted Elian Gonzalez returned to Cuba.
Back home in Miami, everyone knows Penelas. As mayor of Miami-Dade County, he can't walk into a restaurant without drawing a crowd.
He's a rising star in the Democratic Party, but most people in Florida hardly know him, a fact Penelas acknowledges as he seeks to replace Bob Graham in the U.S. Senate.
So Penelas travels the state, trying to get himself known with a simple pitch: He's the only Democrat who can win the open U.S. Senate seat in November.
"Don't underestimate the electability issue," he tells his lunch guests, who wrap up their meal of roast pork, black beans and rice by handing over envelopes filled with campaign checks.
It's an audacious claim. But Penelas says his two chief Democratic rivals, Tampa's Betty Castor and U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch of Broward County, can't win against the man he considers the most likely Republican nominee, Mel Martinez, the first Hispanic U.S. Housing secretary.
At each stop on a recent one-day campaign trip through the Tampa Bay area, Penelas tries to show he can appeal to all voters - Hispanic and Anglo, urban and rural, liberal and conservative. Even Cuban-American Republicans have contributed to his campaign, he says.
"I have the ability to compete in every neighborhood of this state," Penelas tells 15 potential supporters over coffee and muffins at a Best Western.
Polls place him behind Castor, Florida's former education commissioner, and Deutsch, one of the top fundraisers in Congress.
But Penelas sees a two-way race: Castor vs. Penelas. And Castor, he says, can't beat Martinez because she won't be able to get support in areas such as South Florida and the Panhandle. He is as dismissive of Deutsch as Deutsch is of Penelas.
Penelas describes himself as a moderate Democrat. He opposes renewing the Patriot Act without changes to protect civil liberties. He opposes gay marriage but supports civil unions. He supports abortion rights.
He says President Bush rushed to war but that America needs to finish the job in Iraq. He wants Cubans and Haitians fleeing to the United States to be given a chance to appeal to the government before they are sent back home.
And he says he made a mistake with Elian. He still believes Elian should have been allowed to remain in Miami, but he says he was out of line when he refused to help the federal government.
At the Best Western, about 15 people - many African-American and Middle Eastern small business owners - watch a Penelas video, calling him an "agent of change."
Some of them like what they see, though they aren't ready to commit. "He takes a firm stance that other people won't," said Omar Kahn, a University of South Florida graduate student who attended Penelas' breakfast but still is undecided.
A two-term mayor elected when he was 34, Penelas oversees a county with 2.3-million people, a $6-billion budget and 30,000 employees. In 2001, he led a successful statewide campaign to provide prekindergarten for all 4-year-olds.
"It's theory in Washington," Penelas he tells the Best Western crowd. "But I deal with it every day on the ground."
He approaches the campaign with the same kind of focused discipline that has kept him trim and fit at age 42. His personal trainer recommended the regimen a few years ago - an hour of exercise five days a week and seven small healthy meals a day.
So while everyone elsed dined on roast pork at Valencia Garden, Penelas tucked into some grilled chicken and vegetables.
This was his 15th campaign trip to the Tampa Bay area in the past year, Penelas said. His campaign team includes 10 paid staff members from Tallahassee to Miami with two new staffers in Tampa and Orlando.
He has an answer to every question put to him, and doesn't appear frustrated at repeatedly answering the same ones.
As he is driven back and forth between Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, he schedules appointments with his secretary in Miami and has a lengthy chat with his county manager about the upcoming mayoral election, building a new baseball stadium and the MTV Movie Awards in Miami this summer.
These days, he often runs the county by cell phone.
Penelas has raised $3-million, and spent almost $800,000. He expects to raise $2-million more by the Aug. 31 primary. Most of his money comes from individuals in the construction, financial and real estate industries, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
"What am I doing now?" Penelas asks his press secretary, Danae Jones, as she drives him to an interview at Bay News 9. "English or Spanish? What is my audience?"
She answers in a sentence of two words. He's ready.
At the TV station, anchor Al Ruechel accuses him of offering the same old Democratic rhetoric. Penelas ignores the remark and continues with his pitch.
Afterward, Ruechel tells Penelas the station's Spanish-language news show would interview him. He'll feel more comfortable speaking in his "own language" of Spanish, Ruechel says.
Penelas responds politely but firmly: "Actually, English is my own language."
His mother and two older brothers left Cuba by commercial plane for Miami in 1960. His father, who was involved in an anti-Castro political party, was sentenced to death but escaped first to South America, then later to the United States.
Alex Penelas was born and raised in Miami, and was a commercial litigator for a decade and was elected to the Hialeah City Council and the Miami-Dade County Commission before being elected Miami-Dade mayor.
If all goes according to Penelas' plan, the only Cuban-American Democratic candidate in the race will face the only Cuban-American Republican.
But first he has to beat a pair of better known opponents in the primary.
Penelas acknowledges the odds are long. "I think the primary is my toughest election because I'm not known yet in other parts of the state," he said.
ALEX PENELAS
Candidate for U.S. Senate (D)
PERSONAL: Born Dec. 18, 1961, in Miami. Married to Lilliam for 10 years. Two sons: William, 9, and Christopher, 7.
PROFESSIONAL: Serving his second term as mayor of Miami-Dade County, 1996-present.
EDUCATION: B.A. in political science, Biscayne College (now St. Thomas University), 1981. Law degree from University of Miami School of Law, 1985.
POLITICAL: Elected to Hialeah City Council in 1987. Elected to Miami-Dade County Commission in 1990. Elected as Miami-Dade's first executive mayor in 1996.
EMPLOYMENT: Corporate lawyer at Mershon, Sawyer, Johnston, Dunwody & Cole for 10 years before joining Shutts & Bowen, another law firm, where he was employed from 1995 to 1996.
