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Haitian-American candidates faced a double challenge

The recent primary showed that, despite its perceived clout, South Florida's Haitian-American community has political growing pains.

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES AND TERE FIGUERAS NEGRETE

jcharles@MiamiHerald.com

Most Haitian-American candidates who ran for key posts in this year's primary election lost on Tuesday, sending a sobering message about the risks involved in courting South Florida's fractious Haitian-American community.

Of eight Haitians vying for office in South Florida, only two made it past the primary: State Rep. Yolly Roberson, who returns to Tallahassee, and Ronald Brisé, who won the Democratic primary for the House District 108 seat incorporating parts of North Miami, Miami Shores and Golden Glades. He faces Republican Prospero Herrera II in the November election.

Six Haitian-American candidates, including state House candidate Alain Jean in Broward, lost.

Haitian candidates, perhaps more than any other ethnic group in Miami-Dade, face a twofold challenge in attracting voters, political observers say.

First, infighting carried over from their homeland -- and which played out over Creole-language media this election season -- divides what otherwise could be a powerful bloc of local voters.

NON-HAITIAN VOTERS

Second, Haitian candidates can have a hard time gaining traction among Dade's white non-Hispanic, African-American and Hispanic voters.

''They don't feel they can vote a Haitian in,'' Dr. Laurinus Pierre, a longtime observer of South Florida's Haitian politics, said of the non-Haitian electorate. ``They still see us as a new immigrant group.''

Tensions between Haitians and U.S.-born blacks are nothing new. In recent years, leaders of both communities emphasized common concerns, including the treatment of Haitian migrants under U.S. immigration policy.

But old tensions reemerged in the recent campaign.

Former Miami-Dade County Commissioner Barbara Carey-Shuler said her one-time seat in District 3 was ''carved out for an African American.'' Her African-American protégé, incumbent Audrey Edmonson, was elected.

State Rep. Phillip Brutus, a Haitian American, said fears of a Haitian ''takeover'' spread when many African-American pastors, leaders and newspapers chose African-American opponents over Haitian candidates in a majority of races.

Only one Haitian-American candidate, Brisé, was endorsed by a prominent African-American leader. U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, himself facing a Haiti-born challenger, endorsed Brisé at the 11th hour, Brutus said. Meek, a Democrat, easily won reelection Tuesday.

'There is like an unspoken rule: It seems like, `Those Haitians are coming, they are going to take over.' We are the same Africans in America, born in different places vying for the same dream,'' said Brutus, who did receive some support from African-American pastors. ``They galvanized anti-Haitian feelings and ignored the issues, housing and the homeless.''

It was especially galling to Brutus, who hoped to oust incumbent Dorrin Rolle from his District 2 County Commission seat.

HOUSING SCANDAL

Rolle campaigned under a cloud cast by a lingering housing scandal, which has prompted a criminal investigation and public outrage. Brutus said the mismanagement and alleged fraud within the county's housing program happened on Rolle's watch. Rolle countered he was not to blame. Brutus came within 225 votes of a runoff with Rolle.

Brutus and Haitian-American School Board candidate Gepsie Metellus, a community activist, also were ensnared in a negative campaign on Creole-language radio -- portrayed as upper-class Haitians opposed to former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who counts Haiti's poor among his base.

With the politics of Haiti a no-win battle, observers say Haitian candidates need to focus more on wooing white non-Hispanics, Hispanics and African-American voters.

''It's a Catch 22,'' said Metellus, who came in a close third in the School Board race for District 2. ``You can try and convince people not to let Haiti politics interfere in local elections, but then non-Haitians see you devoting all this energy [to Haitian issues] and misunderstand.''

Only 209 votes separated Metellus from Darryl Reaves, who will face incumbent School Board member Solomon Stinson in the November runoff.

In his campaign, Reaves criticized Metellus as too focused on the Haitian community -- a notion Metellus disputes.

She said she refrained from buying radio time on Creole-language stations until the week before Election Day, even as she -- along with Brutus and Roberson -- came under heavy fire from some Haitian radio personalities as unsympathetic to the island nation's underclass.

HARD TO TRACK

Even tracking potential voters among the 245,000-strong South Florida Haitian community can be troublesome, said Pierre. Local elections departments, while keeping statistics on black and Hispanic voters, do not have a separate category for Haitians.

Candidates often try to track Haitian voters by looking for French-sounding surnames on district rolls -- far from an exact science.

''I think our community is still going through growing pains,'' Metellus said, adding that while she was perturbed by Carey-Shuler's comment this election season, she keeps another phrase favored by her former boss closer to heart:

''You have to go after power, because nobody will just give it you,'' she said.