From the "Home Office"

Greetings everyone,

Another successful weekend for volunteers has come to a close. Thank you for your hard work.

GREAT NEWS!!! We are in the Miami Herald AGAIN both yesterday and today. The first is an article from the Sunday Metro section page 3 untitled “Democrats aim at tough incumbent Ros-Lehtinen.” The second is an excellent letter to the editor from today’s paper titled “Cuban Politics” written by Elaine Cruz (The text for both are included at the end of this posting). That is Dave Patlak in the press 5 times in the last week and half. Help us keep the press coming by writing a letter in response to the Sunday article. The contact info on where to send your letter is printed right before the articles at the bottom of this post.

TAKE ACTION RIGHT NOW!!!

There are three quick actions you could do right now that would significantly help our campaign.

• Click on this link and sign the internet petition to make Dave one of the last Dean Dozen. It will take you 1 minute to do, yet if we are successful it could mean thousands of dollars for our campaign.


• Send this e-mail to friends on your list and ask them to sign the petition as well. It doesn’t matter where in the country people live. Congress is a national office and Dave’s race will make the difference for John Kerry in South Florida.


• Contribute right now. We have begun a 10 day fundraising blitz to double our money. HELP US REACH OUR GOAL by contributing what you can now. We have an incredible campaign plan for the general election.

We are David fighting Goliath when it comes to fundraising, but never forget that DAVID WON. We don’t need 2 million to go head to head. We need $200,000 and her game is over. At our last filing with the FEC, we had raised $30,000. That’s it and look what we have done. All of us. Together. Help us double our money and reach $80,000 by August 31st. Contribute now.

Here is the address to write a letter to the Herald:

• e-mail HeraldEd@herald.com or


• Fax to: 305 376-8950 or


• snail mail it to: The Readers’ Forum, The Herald, One Herald Plaza, Miami, FL 33132-1693

REMEMBER: All letters to the Herald MUST INCLUDE your name, address, and a daytime phone number. They almost never call, but they won’t print your letter without it.

Thanks again EVERYONE!!!!!! Enjoy the reading below!

Sincerely,
Charles Chamberlain
Charles@PATLAK.org

MIAMI HERALD ARTICLE from Sunday, Aug. 15, 2004

“Democrats aim at tough incumbent Ros-Lehtinen”

The Democrats who will square off in an Aug. 31 primary in U.S. House District 18 are taking shots at incumbent Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and her support for President Bush.

BY NICOLE WHITE

The effort to unseat Republican congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen essentially comes down to this: a battle cry to defeat the woman who opponents say has ignored the needs of U.S House District 18 to campaign tirelessly for President Bush.

Democratic candidates Dave Patlak of Miami Beach and Samuel Sheldon of Pinecrest both say that belief was at the core of their respective decisions to seek to represent the district that stretches from Miami Beach to Key West.

Patlak and Sheldon are competing in the Democratic primary on Aug. 31 for the nomination to run against Ros-Lehtinen, an eight-term incumbent heavily favored to keep her seat.

NOT BEING SERVED

''I just had enough,'' said Patlak, 49, a retired U.S Coast Guard officer, who touts his 25-year experience in the agency and his knowledge of the nation's waterways.

''It sickens me to hear Ileana get on the radio to urge voters to stay the course for four more years when the people of her district aren't being served,'' he said.

Sheldon, 28, a University of Virginia Law School graduate and a political neophyte who admits to having ''underestimated the amount of work this campaign would take,'' said he is offended by the congresswoman's routine defense of the Bush administration.

''I see Bush as a problem on many levels and Ileana as an enabler who has to go,'' Sheldon said.

Whoever wins the primary will have to do more than deliver firecracker rhetoric to topple the popular incumbent.

Ros-Lehtinen has retained her congressional seat in seven elections with only token opposition, and she is a veritable ''institution in Miami-Dade politics,'' said Miami-based pollster Sergio Bendixen.

Ros-Lehtinen's 1989 victory in a special election to replace beloved congressman Claude Pepper after his death represented the ''the beginning of a chapter in Cuban-American politics,'' Bendixen said. ``It was one of the great victories of Cuban Americans. She'll be very difficult to defeat.''

In addition to shaking that legacy, whoever wins the primary must also overcome Ros-Lehtinen's near $2 million campaign war chest. Patlak and Sheldon have so far raised a combined $30,800.

As the incumbent, Ros-Lehtinen, whom The Herald could not reach for comment for this report, also enjoys the ability to remind her constituents of her accomplishments. She does this via newsletters and mailers that emphasize her role in securing funding to help clean the Miami River and her role in helping to introduce the Early Treatment for HIV Act ``to allow states to expand their medicaid programs to cover HIV positive individuals before they become disabled.''

The two Democrats are taking different approaches. Sheldon has sent no direct mail and will not campaign door-to-door. He'll embark instead on an Internet campaign blitz.

Patlak, on the other hand, has been more old-school, going door-to-door, even hurricane warnings Thursday night in Marathon.

He has seized on the chance to woo Cuban-American voters who aren't happy with Ros-Lehtinen's support for President Bush's tough new Cuba travel policy.

The new policy cuts remittances to $100 a month and travel to the island by Cuban Americans from once a year to once in three years.

Patlak's campaign postcards, signed by 150 Cuban Americans, declared the new policy ``Un-American, unjust and inhumane.''

He has also responded to Ros-Lehtinen's claims that the foundation run by Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's wife may have indirectly helped the Cuban government link to the Internet more than a decade ago. Democrats dismissed the accusation against Teresa Heinz Kerry as an absurd smear.

Patlak called it ``the worst kind of negative campaigning I've seen in years.''

THE REAL CHALLENGE

While Patlak's strategy -- admittedly designed to woo Hispanic voters who make up 56 percent of the district's more than 285,000 registered voters -- could very well earn him the Democratic nomination, he would face an uphill battle against Ros-Lehtinen, Bendixen said.

''Patlak seems like an earnest person, but he's going to have to work hard, and he's going to have to do much, much more to win this race,'' he said.


LETTER TO THE EDITOR in Monday, August 16, 2004 Miami Herald

Cuba politics

Re the Aug, 12 article Cuba policy is used against GOP:

It is not candidate Dave Patlak who is using President Bush's latest travel restrictions for political gains. Patlak is simply standing up for a basic human right to visit family. President Bush is the one who implemented cruel restrictions aiming to secure the votes of right-wing Cubans.

I'm a Cuban American who applauds Patlak for standing up against measures that only serve to divide the Cuban family.

/s/ ELAINE CRUZ, Miami