Florida's growing Caribbean-American community is being heavily courted by the political heavyweights in the run up to next week's Presidential election.

Caribbean-American voters have traditionally supported the Democratic Party but their issues have been largely overshadowed by those of the African-American and Hispanic communities.

The head of the Democratic Caribbean Caucus, Thomas Pinder told the Associated Press news agency that the Caribbean community in Florida has not gone unnoticed by the political parties.

"Caribbeans are a growing community in the state of Florida - I mean tremendously growing - and we vote," he said.

The non-Hispanic Caribbean community has grown tremendously in recent years. Census reports show that in 2003, nearly 600,000 Floridians reported having West Indian ancestry - 100,000 more than in 2000.

There are around 2.1 million people of West Indian heritage living in the United States. New York has the largest West Indian community, followed by Florida.

The 2000 Presidential election was decided in Florida by 537 votes, and this year, the state is again one of the closely contested or 'swing states'.

In recent years, several Caribbean-Americans voted into municipal office. In 1999, the Miami suburb of El Portal became the first US community with a Haitian-American majority on its governing body.

Since last year, the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Miramar has been led by a council made up of mostly Jamaican-American officials.

Last weekend, Teresa Heinz-Kerry, wife of Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry, spoke to a crowd of about 300, largely comprised of Caribbean-American people at a rally in a Miramar park.

Mrs Heinz-Kerry's visit was the first to the city by a national political figure and activists view this as a sign that the Caribbean-American vote is finally being taken seriously.

"I've been here 15 years, and I've never seen it before. There's a new fervour," said Andrea Pedlar, wife of City Commissioner George Pedlar, one of three Jamaican-Americans on the five-member council.

Several campaigns have been aimed at voters in Florida's Caribbean community including Caribbean Power Vote which uses radio programmes to familiarise Caribbean voters with the candidates and the electoral process.

Following the tradition of Rock the Vote, a registration campaign that was launched by MTV several years ago, a campaign called Soca the Vote has used soca music to encourage new voters.

Carolyn Thompson, a director of Caribbean Power Vote said the community has reached a threshold that makes it possible to start unifying politically.

"We just feel it's time as a bloc to stand up and be counted," she said. "Our population has come of age politically and socio-economically. We are of age now."
Top among the political priorities of many Caribbean-Americans is immigration. Under the so-called "wet-foot, dry-foot" policy, Cubans who reach US soil are usually allowed to stay, while most picked up at sea are sent home. Haitians, by contrast, face detention and deportation no matter where they are found.

"Definitely, Haitians have been treated very unfairly," said state lawmaker Yolly Roberson, who immigrated from Haiti. "I don't think it's a bad policy. I think it's a great policy. I think that Cubans deserve it, but I think everybody deserves equal treatment."

Caribbean voters have come of age in South Florida in the shadow of the more powerful Cuban community. Winston Barnes, a Jamaican-born commissioner in Miramar who also hosts a local radio programme, said he hears frequent complaints "that the Cubans get what they want," but he said it's only a question of time.

"I say, these guys pay their dues. I lived in South Florida when it was not popular to be Cuban," said Barnes.
The Jamaican community has largely found its "political maturity and clout" in Broward County, just north of the Cuban-American stronghold in Miami-Dade County, Barnes said.


SOURCES: BBCCARIBBEAN.COM & JAMAICAOBSERVER.COM