Mel Martinez to Announce for Florida Senate Bid

Housing Secretary Mel Martinez will announce that he will be a candidate for the U.S. Senate, perhaps as soon as the next two weeks, informed Washington sources tell NewsMax.com.

Martinez’s decision comes after renewed urging by top Bush adviser Karl Rove and the recent decision by incumbent Sen. Bob Graham to retire.

Martinez has reportedly had recent discussions with Sen. George Allen, R-Va., chairman of the Senate GOP Campaign Committee and sources say that the president wants Martinez to run.

Martinez’s decision may be bad news for Rep. Katherine Harris, R-Fla.

Harris, an extremely popular Republican, said she is considering leaving her first term in the U.S. House to run for the Senate seat herself.

"I’m thinking about it, I’m looking at the possibility," Martinez said while at Florida State University recently during a visit to his alma mater for homecoming.

"Time will tell. I don’t have a timeline or a timetable on it."

But sources close to the White House say that Rove and the president’s election advisers fear that Harris could remind voters of the contentious 2000 election recount. Harris served as Florida’s secretary of state and certified George Bush the winner of Florida’s electoral votes after a heated recount fight.

Republican strategists believe Martinez will help energize the state’s influential Cuban and Latino vote.

The immigrant is a textbook success story. Martinez bootstrapped his way from Cuban exile to become the first Cuban American Cabinet member in U.S. history.

Born in Sagua La Grande, Cuba, Martinez fled to America when he was 15 as part of a Catholic humanitarian effort called Operation Pedro Pan that eventually brought 14,000 children to the U.S.

Martinez declined an earlier request from Rove to run for Graham’s seat, preferring to wait for the 2006 Florida governor’s race, but that was before Democrat Graham announced he would not seek re-election.

President Bush recently appointed Martinez and Secretary of State Colin Powell to head up a new presidential commission on Cuba, to strengthen the embargo and allow more Cubans to immigrate to the U.S.

Cuban Americans are among the president’s strongest supporters and number 400,000 in Florida. Approximately 80 percent of these voted for Bush in the 2000 election, according to Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., who is also Cuban American.

Cuban Americans in South Florida have "made Crawford, Texas, look like enemy territory” for the president, Joe Garcia, executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), told The Hill. "The ability to get the Cuban American vote is central to winning Florida. There is an important interplay between the community and the White House."

But when the Bush administration recently returned a dozen hijackers and three security guard victims to Cuba after they were stopped at sea by the U.S. Coast Guard, the action prompted a rift between the Bush administration and once loyal Cuban American community.

The founder of the Brothers to the Rescue organization said he and other members have resigned from the Republican Party and are now independent. "We're becoming noncommittal," said Jose Basulto, certainly not the most influential Cuban exile in Miami, but one of the most visible.

But this rift may not be the only reason Martinez was urged to reconsider entering the Senate race.

Harris told The Associated Press she may stay in the U.S. House of Representatives if Martinez enters the race for the U.S. Senate seat, but said she would have to do some polling of Florida voters and let the decision "percolate a while."

Martinez would probably have to resign his Cabinet post within weeks to avoid violating the Hatch act, which restricts federal officials from politicking.

Many Republicans believe the former elected manager of Orange County, Fla., would quickly become the front-runner.

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