Florida House District 103 covers part of southwest Broward and is dominated by northwest Miami-Dade. It includes portions of Miramar, Miami Lakes, Doral, Hialeah Gardens, Medley and the Palm Springs North community.
Cindy Polo was not supposed to win, but she did.
The outspoken progressive Democrat from Miramar broke the Republican grip on a seat in the Florida House two years ago. She scored an upset victory in District 103, which straddles the Broward-Dade line and is bisected by I-75 and the Palmetto Expressway.
A stay-at-home mother and former communications director for the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority, the 42-year-old Polo is running for a new two-year term in November. She faces a serious challenge from Tom Fabricio, 43, of Miramar, an insurance defense lawyer and first-time candidate. It’s a swing district, meaning either candidate could win.
For lots of reasons, the Sun Sentinel recommends that voters keep Polo in the Florida Legislature, which needs her fighting spirit. She’s one of just 32 women in the male-dominated club of 160 politicians.
Do not silence this voice, voters. Polo is truly representative of District 103. She’s a single mom of Colombian-American descent who struggles to support herself and her four-year-old son on a meager legislative salary of $29,697 a year. A self-described “girl from Hialeah,” she has lived in the area nearly all of her life and told us she’ll be there long after her legislative career is over.
As sometimes happens, Polo got off on the wrong foot in Tallahassee due to local factors. She defeated Frank Mingo, a better-financed Republican who was a favorite of House Speaker Jose Oliva, R-Miami Lakes. After winning a seat that had long been in GOP hands, Polo refused to follow the go-along-to-get-along rules.
She can be noisy at times. She regularly criticizes Republicans for misplaced priorities and toadying for moneyed interests. Some in the GOP hierarchy find her style insufferable. Good. Her description of what it’s like to be a Democrat in the Republican-led House is spot-on: “Do as we tell you or we will take everything away from you.”
Polo uses her communication skills on social media to lash Republicans for labeling Democrats as “socialists.”
Fabricio, 43, looks like he would easily fit in with the Tallahassee club. He’s an insurance defense lawyer who served on the Broward County Charter Review Commission where, to his credit, he supported a proposal that would have let voters decide whether to create the position of an elected county mayor. Unfortunately, the measure never reached the ballot.
The Republican took part in a Sun Sentinel candidate interview before the Aug. 18 primary. But his unwillingness to complete a detailed candidate questionnaire is not encouraging. It’s also surprising because journalism runs deep in his family. He’s the son of Roberto Fabricio, a veteran South Florida journalist who covered Latin America for the Sun Sentinel and The Miami Herald.
Fabricio did complete a questionnaire for the conservative Christian Family Coalition in which he expressed support for abortion restrictions and for conversion therapy, the counseling of young LGBTQ+ people to change their sexual identity.
The most important and nerve-wracking issue in District 103 is rock mine blasting, with many residents reporting cracks in driveways, pool decks and home foundations. Republicans who control Tallahassee have done virtually nothing to address the issue, other than shift regulation from cities and counties to the state (in 2012), as mining interests wanted.
Polo filed a simple three-page bill on blasting in the 2020 session. Republican leadership sent House Bill 1431 to a subcommittee chaired by Rep. Chuck Clemons, R-Newberry. The subcommittee met eight times and took up drones, bear hunting, amusement rides and other subjects. It never heard Polo’s blasting bill. Now, Republicans are criticizing her for failing to take action.
What passed was largely window-dressing, a Republican bill (HB 1047) to improve the monitoring of blasting. That bill, by Rep. Bryan Avila, R-Miami Springs, takes effect Oct. 1.
Fabricio, whose campaign website says he opposes “frivolous lawsuits,” has suggested a possible new cause of action against blasting. But creating a new legal path to sue blasting companies would face massive resistance in a pro-business Legislature.
This race is a true test of the strength of Polo’s people-powered, grassroots style of politics in a presidential election year. What makes it more interesting is that independent or no-party voters known as NPAs outnumber both Republicans and Democrats in this district.
As a candidate, Fabricio is no slouch, either. He and his supporters also have been pounding the pavement and knocking on doors, despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
Polo has raised more money, about $86,000, more than a third of which has come from the Florida Democratic Party. Fabricio has raised $67,000, including more than $20,000 from the Republican Party and a personal loan of $10,000.
In Florida House District 103, the Sun Sentinel recommends the re-election of Rep. Cindy Polo.
Editorials are the opinion of the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board and written by one of its members or a designee. The Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Rosemary O’Hara, Dan Sweeney, Steve Bousquet and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson.
