Before being consulted, Tomás Regalado anticipates: "I am old, it's true, but I am younger than Joe Biden and Donald Trump," the former mayor of Miami humorously interrupts. He is 76 years old and he plans to return to the electoral arena. Why? This Republican journalist born in Havana considers that his municipal legacy went off the rails with Francis Suárez management. Regalado knows Miami and its plot of power like few people do. He was a councilor for 12 years and mayor for 8. Now he aspires to a new term at the head of the city.
What motivates you to return to power?
Here, the municipal elections are not for parties. They are for people. So anyone can compete. And state law is very clear: You cannot go for a third consecutive term as mayor, although they do allow you after 4 years.
What is your personal motivation?
I'm doing it because the work I left on track has been derailed. The city of Miami has become a municipality, despite its global name. It is dysfunctional. There are many court cases against the city and its officials.
Do you refer to the ongoing investigation against Francis Suárez?
We have a Mayor who is being investigated by the FBI, the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the State Attorney's Office, and the Ethics Committee. And frankly it's been an absentee mayor who now aspires to be president. The projects that we left on track have been paralyzed or distorted.
Which of your projects were paralyzed?
We were constantly aware of that climate change is real and is accelerating. From a disaster stand point, the consequences for Miami are going to be biblical.
More floods?
If nothing is done, yes. The tide has risen almost an inch and for Miami, which has a very close to the surface water table, it will be catastrophic. I asked voters in 2017, when we left City Hall, to vote on a property tax for a $400 million bond issue. They did it. It was after Hurricane Irma which caused huge flooding. And of those 400 millions, 300 have not been used yet. They are available. 300 million dollars in bonds have not been sold on Wall Street, which on top of that do not pay income tax. It is negligence.
Why do you think Suárez did not use the bonds?
Because the City has been paralyzed by internal discussions between the Mayor and the commission, between commissioners about how to execute the bonds. Some have priorities other than climate change. The unfortunate thing is that 6 years passed and we have more and more floods. Rudimentary pumps are used to dump the water into the bay. And as the bay has grown, the water returns.
"Me encantarÃa ver a todos los latinos haciendo polÃtica en Miami"
Governor Ron DeSantis often denies climate change...
To a certain extent. He denied it before. When he began to consider the presidency as an option, he became a leader on the Everglades, the lungs of South Florida. He appropriated funds for the Everglades. And with the previous governor Rick Scott, who is now a senator, saying "climate change" was prohibited in office. It was said "acts of God that cause changes in nature."
DeSantis aside, is there a lack of agenda in the Republican Party?
I think so. I have always been a Republican. Since I started working at the White House as a correspondent in the 1980s, with Ronald Reagan. I was captivated by Reagan. I met him incidentally when I was reporting on the Cuban War in Angola. He was a radio commentator, he was interested in the subject and I sent him information by fax. When he won the presidency, that encouraged me to run as a White House correspondent. Reagan me recommended me. He was a great communicator and one of the few politicians who was not afraid of the press. For those of us born in countries ruled by dictatorships, he was a very strong anti-communist. I thought journalists should be independent. But I found that in the White House most of my colleagues were Democrats. So I assumed I was a Republican, and I continued that way.
Are you a non-organic Republican?
An independent Republican. That is why I question the party's lack of understanding of climate change, a problem that has to do with the economy and quality of life. There are people who have lost all their belongings with the floods in Miami.
Did Reagan inspire you to take the leap from journalism to politics?
No, that was after. I covered the 4 years of George Bush in the White House and the first of Bill Clinton, until in 1996 a seat was opened in the City Commission. Many people asked me to aspire, surveys were carried out, my name was recognized by the press, I became a Commissioner and I was fascinated by government management, legislating and helping. I went for re-election. So far, I have been lucky to be undefeated in the 7 elections I ran for.
What financial support do you have?
I have received donations of 10 dollars, the smallest, and the largest 10,000. It was of a developer who is not working in Miami, but who had fond memories of my years and he wanted to support me. But I have not looked for developers, I think it is premature and unnecessary.
Why?
The campaigns have gotten out of control here because of the cost of advertising. It should be shown that you can win without spending so much money. The two mayoral elections cost me between 700 and 800 thousand dollars each.
How much does it cost to finance that same campaign today?
To be commissioner of a district that is one fifth of the city, you almost spend that much, $700,000. It's crazy. And it makes candidates make promises or commitments that are difficult to keep.
Was that the case of Suárez with the real estate developer? What do you think happened there?
A totally excessive ambition. A crime. For several reasons. If it is verified that it was what is known as pay to play in the United States, it is ethically an aberration. Because he was not an employee or charged for specific management, nor did he spend time in the office, simply to have good relations with that same developer in your city doing a multimillion-dollar project. And when the developer had problems, who was he going to call? The Mayor! If the authorities verify it, it is a punishable offense and that also means the dismissal of your position. When a local official is simply accused, and not found guilty, the governor has the power to remove him, pending trial. And in that case a special election would have to be made.
Should DeSantis dismiss him?
DeSantis would surely dismiss him. Simply because Francis Suárez has been a pretty staunch critic of DeSantis. To settle accounts, if DeSantis sees the opportunity, the pen will not waver to dismiss him.
Suárez is the only Latino presidential candidate. Do you fear a stigma towards Hispanic candidates?
Yes, it stigmatizes them. Luckily this is not the first time. We had Ted Cruz as a candidate. He was born in Canada to Cuban parents. We had Marcos Rubio, born of Cuban father and mother here in Miami. They are both senators. And they had no chances because Donald Trump burst onto the scene in 2016. But both Marcos and Ted Cruz were successful, they ended without any kind of moral or ethical questioning. Hispanics cannot be judged because one made mistakes that may cost him his political career.
Could it cost Suárez his career?
Even if they did not prove his real guilt, because here the prosecution and the FBI need the case to be beyond reasonable doubt to take it to Court, the problem for Francis Suárez is that he has been tried and convicted by the press. And that kills politicians. If they find him innocent, it appears on page 10 B. But given the possibility of guilt, it appears on the cover.
How long will it take for a Hispanic candidate to become President of the United States?
Winning the primaries is very different from the national election. If a Hispanic candidate is charismatic and well-liked, he would win in California, Texas, Florida and Illinois. But he has to start with primaries in Iowa, New Hampshire, where the majority of white Americans tend to think that we are Carmelites and not competent. A Hispanic candidate, a woman perhaps, can eventually reach the vice presidency or the governorship of a state. And that's it, it starts to happen.
Who would have a better chance: a Hispanic Democrat or a Republican?
It would have to be a very moderate Hispanic Republican. Something that is not happening now, because none of the candidates wants to be moderate. You have to win the primaries. Or it would have to be a very centrist Democrat. But now many Hispanics have defected from the Democratic Party, because they consider it too radical and liberal. Or, as many people say, communist.
Do you take sides with any of the presidential candidates?
We have a phrase here that says "Anything but Biden." I think that not only because of Biden's cognitive problems, but because of the fact that he has allowed his party to go off the rails to the left and fall into the hands of enemies of the United States.
Who do you refer to?
To Alexandria Ocasio-Cortéz, to Bernie Sanders, to people who feel anger because the US is prosperous and it has millionaires.
What do you think of the immigration hardening that DeSantis applied in Florida?
Immigration problems have to be solved either by the White House or by the United States Congress. It is an exercise in the abyss to make the law look daunting.
Is it going to have real effects?
Now hospitals have to ask people if they are undocumented, but they cannot release that information because another federal law prohibits giving out personal information about a patient receiving medical care. So hospitals cannot say the names, schools cannot say where the undocumented live, and companies evade the obligation to do the E-Verify when they have more than 25 employees.
"Los latinos van a votar por Trump porque lo que DeSantis propone es demasiado anti-inmigrante"
Why do companies not comply with E-Verify?
Some friends own big restaurants. The new law is not retroactive. So they divide their company into 3 and each one has less than 25 employees. This is how they protect their business. Restaurants and garages are the most affected. You go into the kitchen of any restaurant and they are all Latinos. And there is someone washing the dishes who does not have any documentation and who is paid in hand.
Why did DeSantis do it then?
To be tougher than Trump. Because Trump invented the border crisis when he was a candidate. With the wall, he caused Biden to assume a diametrically contested opposition and caused the immigrant crisis that we have now. With Biden, 5 million people entered in two years. In the Miami immigration offices there are 11,000 request for political asylum that have not been processed yet. Those people are in a limbo even though they have a work permit. After 150 days of being here, they give them a work permit for a year. Later, if they do not regularize them, they work illegally.
What impact does the arrival of Lionel Messi have in Miami?
Messi was the only one who could put Miami on the soccer map. In economics terms he will promote the local wheel. And Jorge Mas should make some kind of arrangement with the Dolphins stadium, which has 60,000 seats, because Messi would fill them with people. That would make tickets prices more affordable. I am not a soccer fan, but I would take my granddaughter to have the experience of seeing Messi.
During your eight years as Mayor, you had relationships with Argentine politicians such as Mauricio Macri, Horacio RodrÃguez Larreta and Sergio Massa. What do you think of them?
Massa visited me at the Town Hall when he was Mayor of Tigre, which has many canals. He saw a boat that we hired to collect garbage and oxygenate the water. It caught his eye and he went downstairs to see it. He talked to those people and hired them to clean up the Tigre canals. Later I visited him in Tigre. Macri was very kind, but less passionate than Massa. Larreta was here and greeted everyone, talked to everyone, he was affectionate. Macri is more rigid, he is cold, a bit like DeSantis.
Translator: Bibiana Ruiz.
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