# Senator Mel Martinez (Fla.) new RNC "general chair"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-mel-martinez-fla-new-rnc-general-chair/380419>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [November 14, 2006, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-mel-martinez-fla-new-rnc-general-chair/380419 "2006-11-14T19:05:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Caffeine.addict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f475e1/32.png) [@Caffeine.addict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caffeine.addict)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-mel-martinez-fla-new-rnc-general-chair/380419/21 "2006-11-15T14:45:35Z")

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Those blogs were fairly interesting. By that, I mean holy crap, are those people to the right of Bush?!?

I don’t think that Martinez is stupid, the guy was a successful lawyer and from what I understand, he was fairly competent at being the Secretary of HUD, enough that the Republicans wanted him to run for Senate.

I don’t think that him being the face of the RNC will make much difference to the Hispanic vote since he is Cuban and not Mexican or Salvadoran. The Cubans have been Republican for ages and from my experience tend not to mix with other Hispanics as much.

Of course, the idea of a monolithic Hispanic vote is an interesting topic in and of itself.

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**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-mel-martinez-fla-new-rnc-general-chair/380419/22 "2006-11-15T17:43:48Z")

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[QUOTE=Caffeine.addict]  
Those blogs were fairly interesting. By that, I mean holy crap, are those people to the right of Bush?!?  
[/QUOTE]

AFAICT, only WRT immigration.

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**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-mel-martinez-fla-new-rnc-general-chair/380419/23 "2006-11-15T18:03:25Z")

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Seems to be mostly about outreach to Latinos, and a sop to Florida.

A friend of mine who worked for many years at HUD, including during Martinez’s time as SecHUD, has a very low opinion of him - thinks he was a right-wing zealot who spent very little time doing his job but was instead constantly angling for higher office. Which, alas, he’s achieved. :mad:

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**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senator-mel-martinez-fla-new-rnc-general-chair/380419/24 "2006-11-15T21:48:39Z")

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[QUOTE=Caffeine.addict]  
Those blogs were fairly interesting. By that, I mean holy crap, are those people to the right of Bush?!?  
[/quote]

Keep that in mind the next time they start spouting about “shrill extremist liberals”. :rolleyes:

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