In this year’s November 3rd elections, one of the most significant victories for the Republican Party was the Miami, Florida mayorship won by Tomás Regalado, who received 72 percent of the votes. His rival, Democrat Joe Sánchez obtained a comparatively slim 28 percent. This particular victory was especially important for the GOP because both candidates were Hispanics in Miami, a multiethnic metropolis with a bright future ahead.
Adding to its importance, this victory for Tomás Regalado is a triumph based on a very specific way of doing politics and defending conservative values; this very successful method should be used as a model for future campaigns.

Miami’s new mayor has a professional background in journalism, having covered conflicts in Nicaragua and Angola in addition to his work as a White House correspondent. Regalado, after ten years as a city councilmember, continues to be an ideal politician, traditional and moderate, ever connected to his roots in the Cuban exile community and to his voters; he is a politician that knows how to articulate a positive discourse while reflecting the public’s inquietudes and doubts about government and policy.
Republican Tomás Regalado’s landslide victory teaches an important lesson that can be applied to national politics. With a well-focused campaign and clear objectives, Regalado fought against a way of doing politics that ignored the public’s voice; a way of doing politics limited to approving gigantic, excessively expensive plans, that have little or no impact on every day people’s lives. Conservative politicians and national leaders must take note of this particular point. We can win elections and win them by wide margins, if we pay attention to the public’s real concerns, if we leave behind political dogma and truly resolve these issues by proposing effective and positive solutions.

First and most important lesson to be learned: listen to citizens and get informed about citizens’ actual needs. Second lesson: those who present themselves for public office must address, as a priority, the economy, public deficits and budgets. The economy must never be neglected; spending and the deficit must decrease. These are the problems that will mark the development of all future politicians. Candidates that don’t address these issues will lose the support of citizens, and subsequently, their elections.
During his campaign, Tomás Regalado focused his attention on the lamentable state of municipal finances. In order to improve city residents’ quality of life, he guaranteed the close monitoring of municipal expenses and converted the city’s 118 million dollar deficit into one of the top priorities in his political agenda. By basically promoting stricter control of public expenses and a reduction of the budget deficit, Regalado committed to taking necessary measures to cause real improvement in the lives of everyday people and was thus able to connect with the average citizen’s goals and concerns.

Regalado knew how to capture local sentiment as well; great example is tourism. Using tourism to unite rather than divide his city, Regalado challenged citizens to work together to bring tourism to all of Miami, not just Miami Beach, by promoting other attractions and interests. This aspect of his campaign helped him to connect with and unite Miami citizens from various neighborhoods in the vast urban area.
In politics, apart from good political programs, one has to have integrity. In this sense, Regalado has promised a strict ethical code for all public servants. Herein lies the third lesson for future and present politicians; be committed to transparency and legality in the public life of politicians.
If we want to dignify politics and we want citizens to participate, politicians and public servants must play fair and follow the rules. Values and ethics will make the difference in elections.

Tomás Regalado is proof that the American dream lives on. This makes him the ideal mayor for a city like Miami that has grown and evolved with immigration.
Regalado was born in La Habana, Cuba, the 24th of May 1947. He is the son of Tomas Regalado Molina, the last president of the now-extinct Cuban Association of Journalists and Reporters and a political prisoner for 22 years. Regalado left Cuba at the age of 14, as a part of the Peter Pan project that transported exiled minors. After living with his aunt for a year, he was reunited with his mother.
Regalado dedicated his life to journalism from a young age, rising from reporter, to production assistant, at the WFAB La Fabulosa (The Fabulous) radio station, an affiliate of NBC. In 1970, he decided to leave behind local news and made the leap to international correspondent, reporting on the wars in Angola, and the conflicts in Soweto, South Africa, Mozambique and Nicaragua. Later he would become a White House correspondent.

His political profile of moderate conservative along with new management tactics and ideas won him votes this past 3rd of November, and an important victory for the Republican Party. In order to demonstrate his solidarity and the necessity of the public austerity he promoted as part of his campaign, Regalado begins his mayorship by lowering his own salary and reducing his own pension. With any luck and Regalado’s guidance, Sun City will get back to shining in no time.