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Last Updated June 22, 2005
An interconnected sea of wetlands once covered 8.9 million acres of southern Florida, stretching from present-day Orlando down to the peninsula's southern tip. It was once a coherent ecosystem, a "river of grass" in which water moved slowly down a gentle slope to the ocean, buffering plants and animals from meteorological extremes, and providing different micro-environments for flora and fauna based on an inch or two gained or lost in elevation. It was long a dream of Florida's white settlers to control this land and make it more useful, but for decades this goal proved elusive. It took three attempts between 1915 and the late 1920s to build the Tamiami Trail from Miami to Tampa; to this day, it is one of only two roads that cross the South Florida interior from coast to coast. Over time man managed to reshape the Everglades. In 1948, Congress approved the Central and South Florida Project, which authorized the construction of 1,000 miles of canals and 720 miles of levees to channel and drain the Everglades. Since that time, about half of the original ecosystem has been turned over to agriculture and housing, and the amount of water discharged into the ocean has fallen by 70%. Floridians later began to question the wisdom of government policy and called for restoration of the Everglades. State politicians of both parties began to take notice, and called for change. So did officials of the Clinton administration. In 2000 they all came together in agreement, and Congress passed a law to restore the Everglades, authorizing $7.8 billion over 30 years. Then came the hard part. No one is actually sure how to accomplish the goals, but in 2002 President George W. Bush and his brother Jeb signed an agreement to proceed and the Army Corps of Engineers was set to work. A century of meddling has produced an often-surreal landscape. Farmers came to the Fakahatchee Strand in the early 20th century, but they found that crops would not grow reliably, and livestock often escaped, leaving a legacy of feral, mean-spirited swamp pigs. Timbering came next, until there were no more trees to chop down. Then the timber barons sold their land to real estate speculators who made hundreds of millions of dollars duping customers into buying wretched plots for $10 a month, using patently false promises, spying on their customers' private conversations in their hotel rooms and driving potential buyers to remote areas of the site and threatening to let them walk home if they did not sign a contract. Much of the landholdings became an untamed state park. The 25th Congressional District of Florida sprawls almost all the way across this uninhabitable portion of South Florida, connecting population centers near (but not on) each of Florida's two coasts. About 13% of its residents live in Collier County, in new housing wedged between decidedly upscale Naples and the wild Everglades and in the farm town of Immokalee. The large majority live in western and southern edges of metropolitan Miami, never very far from the swamps. Here you can drive out on roads past the subdivisions and find strawberry, tomato and citrus farms; the trees thin out and then the road just ends, and the Everglades begin. During the 1990s this area's population grew by 52%. The towns in the northern part of Miami-Dade are heavily Cuban and Latino--Hialeah Gardens, Tamiami, Kendale Lakes, South Miami Heights, Cutler Ridge. Farther south the 25th takes in low-income agricultural areas along South Dixie Highway (U.S. 1), like Princeton and Naranja, as well as a few older tourist attractions, like the Metrozoo, Monkey Jungle and Coral Castle. Even further south is what was once the country town of Homestead. Before 1992, Homestead Air Force Base was a major employer here. But in August 1992 Hurricane Andrew hit Homestead, leaving massive property destruction; Homestead was leveled and the Air Force Base closed. In one of his last acts as president, Bill Clinton rejected a plan to convert the base to a commercial airport, citing environmental concerns. Instead, 700 acres were transferred to the county for use by developers, resulting in a new boomtown, with residential developments, shops, hospitals, parks and schools, plus a Coast Guard base; NASCAR has an annual race at the speedway. Politically, this area leans Republican, thanks to the allegiance of its many Cuban Americans (though this is the least Cuban of the three South Florida Hispanic majority districts). The congressman from the 25th District is Mario Diaz-Balart, a Republican first elected in 2002. His father, Rafael Lincoln Diaz-Balart, served as majority leader in pre-revolution Cuba's House of Representatives. His uncle and grandfather also served in the Cuban House. His aunt was once married to Fidel Castro. He comes from a prominent family sometimes called "the Cuban Kennedys," which seems to have politics in its blood. One of his three older brothers is Lincoln Diaz-Balart, congressman from the 21st District just to the east. Mario Diaz-Balart, unlike Lincoln, was born in the United States after his family fled Cuba. Even for a scion of one of Miami's most prominent political families, Mario Diaz-Balart's ascent has been impressive. He dropped out of the University of South Florida at 24 to work for former Miami Mayor Xavier Suarez and was elected in 1988 to the Florida House. In 1992, at 31, he became the youngest person ever elected to the Florida Senate. Soon after that, Diaz-Balart was named chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, where he quickly established a reputation as a budget hawk. His 1995 order calling for state agencies to cut spending by 25% earned him the nickname "The Slasher"--a moniker he wore with pride. The eight-year term limit forced him from the state Senate in 2000, so he again ran for the Florida House and was elected. He was no ordinary freshman, though. Diaz-Balart requested and received the chairmanship of the congressional redistricting committee. The resulting plan included a central Florida district tailored to Speaker Tom Feeney and this western Miami-Dade district tailored for Diaz-Balart. The election proved anticlimactic. Diaz-Balart went to court and eliminated all his would-be Republican opponents. In the general election he coasted to victory over Democratic state Representative Annie Betancourt, a former social worker and the widow of a Bay of Pigs veteran. Betancourt's campaign was underfinanced and she remained largely unknown; Diaz-Balart was well financed and had support from teachers and other unions. Betancourt called to end the "failed" embargo of Cuba in a way "that doesn't pander to the Cuban regime but likewise doesn't punish the Cuban people." This was a bold move in a strongly anti-Castro constituency. Diaz-Balart did not pursue the issue vigorously, perhaps because he sensed that the growing population of non-Cuban Latinos in south Florida are less concerned about Castro. He won 65%-35%. In the House, he has had a more conservative voting record than brother Lincoln on economic and foreign policy and has been a moderate on cultural issues. He got on the Budget and Transportation and Infrastructure committees. With fellow freshmen Tom Feeney and Jeb Hensarling, he founded Washington Waste Watchers, to combat government waste, fraud and abuse. He also organized the Congressional Hispanic Conference, a Republican alternative to the Democrats' Congressional Hispanic Caucus. By working with other freshmen, he helped to reduce the number of supporters of legislation to relax the travel ban to Cuba. When 36 Democrats opposed the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General, Diaz-Balart responded, "It is no surprise Hispanic support for Democrats keeps eroding." He got the Federal Emergency Management Agency to postpone implementation of new flood maps in the town of Golden Gate that would have raised residential insurance rates. Unopposed in 2004, he made contributions and campaign appearances for freshmen in competitive races elsewhere.
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