Cuban American fights for Senate seat
2006-09-15
Source: Miami Herald
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rss feedSince January, Cubans here and in South Florida have boasted of having two U.S. senators with Cuban ties -- one a Republican, one a Democrat, both of them staunchly anti-Fidel Castro.
Republican Sen. Mel Martinez became the first-ever Cuban-American senator, elected out of Florida in 2004. New Jersey Democrat Bob Menendez -- the son of Cuban immigrants -- joined the Senate in January, appointed to the post.
But Menendez's effort to retain the seat is turning into an unexpectedly close and increasingly contentious contest.
Menendez -- on the ballot in November -- is staking his campaign to keep his seat on his staunch opposition to the war in Iraq, lacing speeches with the body count and the price tag of the conflict.
''If I could not vote to send my son or daughter to war, I would not vote to send anyone else's son or daughter to war,'' he tells audiences.
It's a strategy Democrats hope to use to oust Republican incumbents. And it strikes a chord in this heavily Democratic state, where polls suggest the war is increasingly unpopular.
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