HUD Nominee Martinez Fills Several Bills

When George W. Bush announced Mel Martinez as his choice for Housing and Urban Development secretary, the president-elect managed to satisfy many needs--both political and practical.

In one fell swoop, Bush effectively paid a debt to Cuban Americans who supported him during the postelection debacle in Florida, was able to elevate a Latino with a dramatic immigrant story and succeeded in promoting someone who--although he lacks experience in the public housing arena--has been in the thick of governing the fastest-growing community in the country.

The 53-year-old Martinez, a longtime civic leader in Orlando, Fla., is the elected chairman of the county government. He is also a close political ally of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the president-elect’s brother.

When George Bush introduced Martinez as his “housing and human development” secretary at a news conference in Austin, Texas, on Wednesday, the nominee didn’t even chuckle at the error. Rather, he launched into an emotional recounting of his life journey--from a 15-year-old boy who left Cuba in 1962 as part of a clandestine exodus of children fleeing communism, to a successful trial attorney and then, just two years ago, to the dominant political figure of the sprawling Orlando area.

“Today for me is the fulfillment of the promise of America,” Martinez said. “The promise that--regardless of where you come from, what language you speak, the color of your skin, or your economic circumstances--if you share the dream of a brighter tomorrow and you’re willing to pursue it with respect for others and an abiding faith in God, all things are possible.”

Martinez fled Cuba as part of Operation Peter Pan, in which 14,000 children were smuggled off the island to the United States and placed with foster families around the country by the Catholic Church.

Over a four-year period, Martinez lived with two foster families. Finally his own parents were able to follow him to Orlando. He learned English, attended Catholic schools and eventually earned a law degree. He later became a trial lawyer and a loyal member of the Republican Party. But he showed his ability for mixing it up with Democrats by heading Florida’s trial lawyers’ association.

“He’s got a great facility with people, and he’s very disarming,” said Skip Dalton, Martinez’s former law partner. “He’ll do well in Washington because he really is without guile.

“But,” Dalton quickly added, “he’s not humble to the point that he can’t get the job done. And he’s very confident that he can do this job.”

As head of HUD, Martinez will inherit a $30-billion agency with 9,000 federal employees who run the nation’s public housing programs, oversee loans to low-income homeowners and provide block grants in troubled neighborhoods. HUD also attempts to revitalize depressed regions.

Martinez, who must be confirmed by the Senate, will succeed Andrew Cuomo--the highly political son of the former governor of New York, Mario M. Cuomo. The younger Cuomo has been considered an extraordinarily activist HUD secretary for speaking out on issues tangentially related to housing--such as gun control--and for attempting to find innovative solutions to housing problems.

Housing experts said Martinez’s challenge will be to continue to reform the Federal Housing Administration--which Cuomo and his predecessors Henry G. Cisneros and Jack Kemp all have had a hand in reviving--and to attempt to get congressional Republicans to pay more attention to getting the private sector to come into distressed neighborhoods.

Martinez’s only direct experience in housing management was chairing the Orlando Housing Authority from 1984 to 1986. Still, his friends and colleagues said that his experience running the Orange County Commission--as well as the regional utility and transportation authorities--when Orlando’s growth was outpacing any metro areas in the country has readied him for the job.

“Mel has been in the greatest breeding ground for crisis management you can imagine,” said Al Cardenas, the GOP’s Florida chairman. “He has been managing a place with an exploding population and overseeing all the infrastructure problems that creates--in housing, in transportation, in education.”

And he has made time for broader politics during his meteoric local rise. Martinez was an active supporter of Bush’s presidential bid, campaigning for him around the state and appearing on national television shows to attack Bush’s critics.

Within a week of the Nov. 7 election, Jeb Bush had recommended that his brother bring Martinez to Washington. Jeb Bush told reporters that his brother had been impressed with Martinez during his campaign swings through Florida.

“Jeb has had a lot of trust in Mel,” Cardenas said, noting that last summer the Florida governor put Martinez in charge of his state growth management commission.

When asked if the HUD appointment was a payback to Floridians, particularly Cuban Americans who resisted the Democrats’ recount effort in Miami and other areas, Cardenas acknowledged that it wasn’t “unrelated.”

“Mel provides a lot of positives to the administration,” Cardenas said. “He’s Hispanic. He’s a Floridian at a time when our state is very significant to the country and to the president, and he’s a popular leader in his own area. It all adds up.”