Diaz-Balart courts voters via trade deal (pitching appeal to Florida Colombians)

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Saturday, 10.25.08 Recommend (0)share email print comment reprint
CONGRESS | MARIO DIAZ-BALART VS. JOE GARCIA
Diaz-Balart courts voters via trade deal
A proposed free trade agreement with Colombia has emerged as an issue in a Miami-Dade congressional race.
BY ELAINE DE VALLE
[email protected]

A free trade agreement with Colombia has become a campaign issue in Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart's bid to hold his seat in the congressional district that represents the largest number of Colombian-American voters in the country.

The Republican has seized on the yet-to-be passed agreement between the Central American country and the United States to cast himself as the better candidate for advocacy of that agenda. He is being challenged by Democrat Joe Garcia.

''It's an issue that I care deeply about because, to me, it's a national security as well as an economic issue for the United States,'' Diaz-Balart said, adding that he has more experience on the matter than his Democratic challenger, whose party has rejected the accord.

He said he has had ''multiple meetings'' with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and U.S. officials on the topic.

Earlier this week, he played up the issue, touring the Bouquet Collection, a flower importer and distributor in Doral whose owner says the company would benefit from the pact to ease commerce between the two countries through reduced or eliminated import and export tariffs.

More:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/story/740831.html





It means so much to Mario Diaz-Balart to be a successful Republican, because where else would he be in the company of so many fellow survivors of chin-theft? Tragic, childhood trauma, having one's chin stolen.