Elian Case May Have Cost Gore Florida
Friday, November 10, 2000 By Malcolm Balfour
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — If George W. Bush nails down a victory in the presidential election, he may want to fire off a thank-you note to Cuban tug-of-war kid Elian Gonzalez.
There are indications that Florida's Cuban community, still steaming about the Democratic administration's handling of the 6-year-old's case, exacted their revenge at the ballot box.
"I know hundreds of people who registered to vote just because of that raid on Elian's relatives' home," said Alex Rodriguez," a 35-year-old auto mechanic from Miami's Little Havana section.
"Last time, I voted for the Democrat, Bill Clinton, but no way would I vote Democrat this time around . . . That was a Democratic conspiracy to carry out an illegal raid just when the parties were reaching an agreement," Rodriguez said.
"The Democratic Party violated the civil rights of Cuban-Americans everywhere."
In recent years, Cubans have voted Democratic in rising numbers, even electing Democrat Alex Penelas as mayor of Dade County. But that trend may have reversed itself this year.
Unofficial results show Gore won Miami by 39,000 votes, a number that pales in comparison to Clinton's 108,000-vote victory in 1996.
The difference between the two elections amounts to about 78,000 votes, roughly the number of new voters in Miami since 1996.
Turnout in Cuban areas was high, more than 70 percent in the 555th and 510th precincts in Little Havana.
At the 555th precinct, where three-fourths of the residents are Cuban, Bush got a whopping 89 percent of the vote, according to the local supervisor of elections. The Republican won 79 percent in the 510th precinct.
With the Florida election and the presidential race boiling down to mere hundreds of votes, the Cubans flexing their political muscle could be decisive.
"What I'm assuming is that the Cubans returned to the Republican Party," said Lance DeHaven-Smith, a political-science professor at Florida State University. "They came out in very large numbers, too."
Many Cubans believe Gore failed to step up to the plate on the Elian controversy.
"We didn't believe Gore when he said he wanted Elian to stay here — and then he did nothing to achieve that," said Maria Jennings, who lives around the corner from Elian's relatives in Miami.
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