Bad News Comes in Threes

I don't mean to pile on, but suddenly it seems as Hispanic elected officials in metro Orlando are imploding. What are we to make of this phenomenon? While Latinos are by no means the only elected officials under scrutiny (Florida's Republican Party has had a spate of bad news related to spending gone amok). The number of Hispanic elected officials is still small, which makes their plight more noticeable.

First, there was former U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez, who gave up his seat last year while he still had more than a year to go in order to return to Central Florida. Martinez, a Cuban-American, was not guilty of any crime, but he did disappoint many people when he stepped down to return to private life. Criticism poured in stating that he hadn't finished any of the jobs to which he was either elected or appointed, including Orange County mayor, head of federal Housing and Urban Development and later U.S. senator.

About a month ago, Orange County Commissioner Mildred Fernandez was arrested on a number of alleged charges related to illegal campaign contributions. Fernandez was term limited, but she was running for Orange County mayor and had managed to raise a chunk of change. Of course, her subsequent arrest has placed a cloud on her campaign financing. Fernandez was the first Latino and Puerto Rican to sit on the county commission. She was nabbed asking an undercover agent who posed as a developer to make political donations. The donor would get "help" on his project from her office.  Orange County includes the city of Orlando, making it the most important county in this area. Gov. Charlie Crist suspended Fernandez from office but has yet to name a replacement until the next election.

And just last week, Kissimmee City Commissioner Carlos Irizarry was arrested for allegedly brandishing a gun at his wife outside a school. According to news reports, Irizarry is facing a felony charge of aggravated assault with a firearm. Irizarry, who is Puerto Rican, was the first Hispanic on the Kissimmee City Commission. Kissimmee  has one of the highest concentrations of Latinos in Central Florida. Again, Gov. Crist last week suspended Irizarry from office. The Kissimmee City Commission was scheduled to discuss what they planned to do with Irizarry's unfilled seat at Tuesday commission meeting.

There you have it. If I left anybody out, let me know. They say bad news comes in threes, so maybe this is it as far as disappointed hopes in Hispanic elected officials in Central Florida.