MIAMI BEACH, Fla., June 3, 2009..........With the entire Democratic Party establishment gathered in Miami Beach over the weekend to celebrate helping break one glass-ceiling by electing President Barack Obama and beginning the push to break another by making Alex Sink Florida's first female governor, the News Service ventured to North Miami Beach for an one-on-one discussion with former Rep. Phillip Brutus, who would like to crack a third barrier.
Brutus, who served in the state House from 2000 to 2006, is vying to become the first Haitian-American member of Congress in 2010. In a May 30 one-on-one interview with the News Service, he talked ethnic politics, family life and the likelihood the two could become intertwined in a race that will also include his ex-wife, current Rep. Yolly Roberson, D-Miami. He also discussed Caribbean-U.S. relations and the realities of campaign fundraising. Here's his take, in his unfiltered words:
Q: You have a pretty crowded field in this race. How does that affect your strategy?
BRUTUS: The crowded field does not bother me because I'm running for the seat, I'm not running against anybody. Obviously ethnic breakdowns being what they are, you have a large Haitian-American voting bloc, you have a large African-American voting bloc, you have a large Caribbean-American bloc...I think the Haitian bloc is the largest one and whoever gets the majority of that will win, so it behooves us in the Haitian American community to find a consensus and have only one candidate who can win. I hate to sound so originalistic...or even an ethnicist in a way because we're all Americans, but the reality is the Haitian population being so large deserves a shot at a seat in Congress. Myself...because I grew up in this country, I'm the perfect buffer I think. I went to high school in Brooklyn, I can...deal with the brother in the hood, speak Creole in the Haitian neighborhoods. I'm a reggae enthusiast, I can really blend in the Jamaican community and I speak Spanish, so I think I present a rather appealing alternative. Somebody who can relate to every ethnic group, and to whom every ethnic group can vent.
Q: What do you think it would take to get a consensus in the Haitian community?
Brutus: That is the kicker. I think what it would take is for somebody to raise a good amount of money early. That is why for the period ending June 30, with a reporting date of July 15, I am pushing full-speed, full-blast to raise as much money as possible, because when we do that, we become more viable. I haven't gone to Washington. I know some other candidates have gone to Washington seeking help, but when you go to Washington early on, on what basis are you going to ask folks who traditionally give money to give to you when you have a field of six or seven people, so I think it's a waste of time. But when I show up with a good amount of money from my community, not from outsiders, but people who by their support indicate that we'd like this guy in office, then I can go to Washington and say "hey look, my community supports me." As Tip O'Neill said all the time, all politics is local. In the end, I'm going to be beholden to them, so whether you give me money or not, I just wanted to at least let you know that I'm here and that the community supports me. It's really going to boil down to who raises the most money the quickest.
Q: You were in the state Legislature for a couple of years.
Brutus: Yes, I was the first Haitian-American elected to that body in 2000. I had run before against Beryl (Roberts) Burke, who was termed out in 2000. I lost the first race in ‘98 by 51 votes and then I was the de facto nominee the next time. Of course we had the Gore v. Bush election that year, turnout was very good in the Democratic circles and the Haitian circles, so I came in almost in a landslide.
Q: Did those campaigns prepare you for this one?
Brutus: Certainly...that's why when somebody has never run for office before and your first is a congressional race, it raises certain concerns regarding whether or not you understand the magnitude of the work needed to win a congressional seat. I ran for judge in 94; that was county-wide and boy was it hard. But it really exposed me to certain tactics and I came back in 1998, then 2000, 2002, 2004. So it certainly prepares me to understand how to campaign, what to do early, how to budget your money and how to reach the voters. In this technological age, we're moving away from mass mailings to mass e-mails, like Obama has shown us. But I think having been in the trenches running tough races - I ran against Dorrin Rolle for county commissioner in 2006 and that was brass knuckle, dirty, ugly politics. That really prepared me to deal with it differently because he raised a lot of money, did a lot of dirty stuff, but I didn't have enough money to counter. So you live and an learn. But I'm ready.
Q: You've got the unique dynamic of having your ex-wife in the race too. How does that affect things?
Brutus: That doesn't affect the race at all. Of course it brings a different angle because of our past relationship. We have a daughter together. (Yolly Roberson is) a candidate, she has every right to run and I wish her well. People I think will try to read into that some kind of problem, but at the end of the day, she's a citizen, I'm a citizen, we're entitled to run and she's running. As I said earlier, I'm running for the seat, not against anybody.
Q: Sen. Wilson is also in this race. Does that complicate you reaching out beyond the Haitian community?
Brutus: It doesn't complicate it. It limits the number of African-American voters that I would appeal to. Don't forget I ran county-wide for judge way back, I was an associate general counsel for the NAACP for a number of years. I had a hunger strike with them, they gave me a freedom award, so the African-American community knows me. But if they have Sen. Wilson, they have Mayor Shirley Gibson and Councilman Andre Williams, it's going to reduce the field. And that's the problem I think my ex-wife is going to have, because the district she represents used to be Frederica Wilson's and it's 85-90 percent African-American and a very small percentage of Haitian voters. So...the field is going to be very limited to her and to me, because African-Americans voters know Frederica Wilson well and they know Shirley Gibson well and that vote is going to be divided more so amongst them than among the Haitian-Americans.
Q: But is the Haitian-American population big enough to make up for that if you get the consensus?
Brutus: If we get the consensus of one Haitian-American in this race who appeals to more than Haitian-Americans. Obviously the Haitian vote is big, but you're not a Haitian running in a Haitian election. You're a Haitian-American who has a base of voters who are thirsty for representation, but you always have to have an appeal to other folks. These other folks have to be the Jewish voters, the Hispanic voters, African-American voters and the Caribbean voters. I think my ability to speak Spanish fluently will give me an opportunity to reach that constituency regularly, because they will understand that I understand what's important to them, and the Caribbean community as well. The Haitian community is your base. It's a trampoline from which to jump. But as you jump, you need to fire your engine and fly higher and to do that, you need to grab the other communities and clear the hurdle.
Q: How soon do you have to find that consensus? Do you think that's something that needs to happen soon?
Brutus: We have the luxury of time. Obviously the election is not this year. If the election was this August, we'd be scrambling right now to try to find a consensus. I do think though before the year is out, we need to have that consensus. I think if we don't find it by accord, we'll find it by default because of the money issue. Let's say one of us breaks away in the June report. One of us takes off and is ahead and the next report gets further ahead and further ahead, by the end of the year it's going to be clear that the other candidates are not competitive. But that doesn't mean they are going to drop out, because some people are very proud and they don't want to seem like they are losers. But I think either way, whether by accord or by default, it's in our interest to do by the end of the year.
Q: What would it mean to be the first Haitian in Congress?
Brutus: It would mean that the North-South relationship between the United States and Haiti will change dramatically. It will mean that the relationship between the United Nations and Haiti will change dramatically, the OIS, CARICOM. And it would also mean that because Haiti is in the Caribbean, I would have an obligation as well to have a Caribbean program. We use the Caribbean for vacation. Beaches, parties and then we go back (to the States). We have CAFTA, NAFTA. President Bush tried his hardest to get a free trade agreement with Colombia. What I bring as a Haitian-American, a Caribbean-American really because Haiti is geographically in the Caribbean, is that I'm going to focus on having CARICOM be not just a tourism destination, to be a Taiwan.
There's no reason why these American companies are outsourcing their customer relations services to India and Pakistan alone. We have folks in Jamaica, in the Bahamas and Trinidad that speak English. I'm sure you can cull a good number of folks who speak proper English in these countries and channel some of that money to the Caribbean. They're closest to us anyway, they shop here, they visit here. That money - instead of going around the world to another continent, which also is fine, but we need to have some of it here as well. So that's what that would mean. A focus on economic sustainability for the Caribbean beyond tourism by engaging in bilateral trade agreements with the United States. CARICOM should be able to have a trade agreement with the United States, not amongst members trying to survive in an difficult economy. So that's what I would bring. It's more than just Haitian-American, it's Caribbean-American economy and politics and plans and futures coming to the fore.
Q: Do you think that the extra attention that this race will likely get because of that possibility will be to your benefit and any of the entire field's benefit?
Brutus: I think it will be to the benefit of whichever one of us that best articulates this Caribbean engagement. I don't think that because you're from Haiti or because you're from Jamaica, that's going to benefit you. You have to have a program, you have to have a plan. It's sort of like the Asian population on the West Coast. Asian legislators, you're going to have an Asian governor, and they engage Asia as members of Congress and members of the Senate. Over here, we haven't had that. We've basically have abandoned the Caribbean. We've engaged with South America, Latin America and the rest of the world. And the Caribbean, we say "oh, that's just our backyard. We just go and release our stress and party." I want to change it from a stress release destination to a destination that can become an economic incubator and create jobs so people don't have to take to the seas and come here anymore. They could come here and visit and go back home with the monies they've earned, and then they become a part of a community of nations. We need that as a country to continue our leadership in the world.
Q: Are there any other lessons that the Haitian community have learned from the Asian community or other communities?
Brutus: Oh we've learned serious lessons. Without looking at the Asian community, we've lost races here in 2005, 2006, 2007 that we shouldn't have lost, in communities where we are the majority, because of division and because of economic difficulties. What I mean by that is this: for at least 10 years, there's been an African-American owned radio station, there's been several Hispanic radio stations. So the people have a program. You have a program director, so there is no brokerage on these stations. When a candidate wants to buy time, they go to management and they sign a contract and they do their things.
In the Haitian community, until recently...it's brokered time, so the management doesn't care what goes on the air as long as you pay the hourly lease to them. Candidates have come in the community and instead of asking for a professional contract...they would say "hey, I'll give you some money to really throw some mud on this guy." We've lost races because people got paid to just lie and spread rumors and propaganda, knowing that you're not raising the money to counter it because the community is poor. What we've learned is that we've got to be united, we've got to just not listen to the garbage. Two elections last month proved that in areas where the (Haitian) community is majority.
In North Miami Beach, three Haitian-American council people were re-elected. Two of them were opposed strongly, fiercely by folks with money and they still won. And there was a campaign on Haitian radio to support the others - they still won. North Miami is having a runoff....the candidate for mayor, a Haitian-American, is in a run-off. A Haitian-American is in a runoff for a council seat. Seats that we lost outright two elections in a row, but this time, even though the same folks tried to spread the same mud, the community said "you know what, we've got enough of this mess" and they are in the runoff, whereas a couple years ago they would have lost outright.
I think what we've learned is that being divided, specifically being divided by folks who are brokering time on radio to pay their bills and live their lives, does not really do anything for the suffering masses who are facing unemployment and mortgage meltdowns, foreclosure, crime, HIV, bad schools, you name it. They realize "look we voted against the Haitian candidates because you guys told us so, and four year later, we're still where we were or worse." And the person they told us to vote for didn't do diddly-squat for us. I think we've learned from that and that is the most important lesson because we felt it. Naturally the Asian model, the Jewish model, the Mexican model, the Cuban model is there for us to see. When they are in power, you can get things done. I dare say that in the offing, I see the day that we will be able to emulate those great communities.
Q: I'm assuming because you are running next year, you don't see it as being too far in the offing.
Brutus: I could see it in the horizon. It's like a rising sun. It's like 6 a.m. now and I can see the sun. But it's going to shine bright come August next year. It's going to be high noon and victory would have been in the bag by then. The sun will be high in the sky.
--END--
06/03/2009
Listen to full audio of the News Service's sit-down interview with Phillip Brutus on the News Service Florida website at http://www.newsserviceflorida.com/audio/06-03-09BRUTUSINTERVIEW.mp3
Independent and Indispensable
http://www.newsserviceflorida.com
