Internal disputes shake unity of Florida GOP

From the alleged use of racial epithets to charges of back-stabbing and backroom deals, the bad blood in Miami-Dade's Republican legislative delegation spilled out Monday when six lawmakers threw their support to embattled Sen. Alex Villalobos and blamed some of their colleagues for his troubles and their own.
Villalobos was ousted as future Senate president this year after blocking some of Gov. Jeb Bush's education plans, and now -- for the first time in 14 years in office -- faces a political opponent in a race that has sent shocks across Miami-Dade's long-standing political fault lines.

The aftershocks of Villalobos' race against Miami-Dade School Board member Frank Bolaños could rumble through the state Capitol, affecting the race for Senate leader, the Republican contest for governor and Miami Rep. Marco Rubio's agenda as House speaker, a post he is to assume this fall.
Adding to the drama: Rep. Gus Barreiro's first public admission that Hialeah Rep. Ralph Arza left him a cellphone message using the n-word to describe Miami-Dade's black schools superintendent.

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Arza is already closely tied to the campaign of Villalobos' opponent, Bolaños, who was appointed to Miami-Dade's school board by Bush in 2001 before winning election outright. Bolaños told The Miami Herald in a previous interview he's ''closer to good conservative ideals'' than Villalobos, and objected to the incumbent's votes opposing Bush's ''legacy issues'' -- steering more public money to private schools and scaling back a class-size reduction law.

Villalobos said he was representing his constituents.

''They call us troublemakers,'' Villalobos said. ``We're bad Republicans. We're bad Republicans because we supported our community.''
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''It's about time we spoke the truth,'' Robaina said. ``We're trying to defend our districts but we're being run over at times by our own.
He added later: ``This is not just about class size. It's about people who are cutting deals to be in power. . . . The ill will has been building for a couple of years but it's gotten worse in the past year.''

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And Bush himself might become involved in Villalobos' race as well.

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