News analysis

Spanish-language radio had key role in recall

Spanish-language media played a critical role in last week’s recall election, where Hispanic voters countywide voted in large numbers to oust Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez.

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To announce his recall campaign against Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez in September, Norman Braman turned to a drive-time show on Spanish-language radio. He was on the same airwaves again last week, thanking voters for trouncing Alvarez out of office.

Braman doesn’t speak the language. But over six months, he waged his wildly successful effort against Alvarez primarily on Spanish-language media, where news outlets seized the ratings moment and gave a voice to the anger of Hispanic voters who were once Alvarez’s political base.

The day-to-day coverage of the campaign, with Braman often taking calls from radio listeners, played a key role in helping the billionaire auto dealer portray himself as a man in close touch with voters — an image that later shielded him from attacks by Alvarez that Braman did not have enough standing in the community to force a recall.

By the time Alvarez and County Commissioner Natacha Seijas, who was also recalled Tuesday, put on their own media charm offensive a few weeks before the election, it was too little, too late.

The candidates vying to replace the two have taken note, making the rounds for weeks on radio and television shows to appeal to Hispanic voters who once put Alvarez in office but became his most fervent critics.

About 93 percent of Hispanics who cast ballots Tuesday did so against Alvarez, according to a post-election analysis of results for The Miami Herald/El Nuevo Herald by polling firm Bendixen & Amandi International. A separate review of the results shows Alvarez lost by the widest margins in the Hispanic strongholds of Hialeah and West Miami-Dade. He lost in almost all of the county’s 829 precincts — including his own.

Braman said he conducted “extensive” research and polling before launching his campaign that showed Hispanics had strong reactions to Alvarez’s decisions as mayor.

“It was obvious from the beginning that the Hispanic community was angrier about the salary increases and the increase in taxes than any other part of the community,” he said. “We have so many senior citizens here who are Hispanics, and they haven’t had a cost-of-living increase over the past few years.”

Braman brought on two Hispanics, Republican state lawmakers Rep. Carlos Lopez-Cantera and Sen. Rene Garcia, to aid with the recall, a strategic move so the effort couldn’t be attacked along ethnic lines.

In interviews, Braman frequently pointed to Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado and Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina as Hispanic elected officials he considered were doing a good job because, unlike the county, their cities didn’t raise last year’s property-tax rate. Robaina is now running for Alvarez’s former post.

“He was using strong Hispanic leaders who he has coincided with, so you couldn’t say he was anti-Hispanic,” said Helen Aguirre Ferré, who co-hosts the Prohibido Callarse (Silence Banned) show on WQBA-AM (1140) where Braman unveiled his recall plan.

His presence on the air was good for business: “Before we would even give out the number for people to call in, the lines would be blazing red,” Ferré said.

She added that Braman — who drove himself to the radio station for interviews, without an entourage — appealed to Hispanics by characterizing himself as a civic leader without political aspirations. Despite his personal wealth, Braman emphasized his roots as the son of blue-collar immigrants from Poland and Romania, the kind of rags-to-riches story that strikes an emotional chord with voters.