If you have a problem with Jeffrey Loria and club president David Samson (above) sticking Miami-Dade County taxpayers with a more than half billion dollar tab for the construction of the Marlins’ new ballpark — or with former Mayor Carlos Alvarez losing his office as a result of said sweetheart deal — Samson would like you to know, “I don’t have to hold back now that the stadium is built — not that I ever have.” Flexing his oratory chops in front of 75 people at a Beacon Country breakfast, Samson’s preseason pep talk was transcribed by Miami Today’s Scott Blake.
Samson called politicians “not the intellectual cream of the crop,” adding about the entire population, “We’re not the smartest people in Miami. If you’re in this room, you’re instantly in the top 1%.”
“I went to Tallahassee,” he said. “I don’t know what they do up there. There are so many special interests. You walk through the building, and they’re watching “Family Feud.’ You see people running around, working on legislation. All I know is that gavel goes down and nothing gets done.”
During his speech Tuesday, Mr. Samson blasted Norman Braman, former owner of the National Football League’s Philadelphia Eagles and now a Miami auto dealer and activist who filed an unsuccessful lawsuit against the Marlins’ stadium deal.
“I don’t see Norman Braman trying to fix anything,” Mr. Samson said. “If he has the time and money, let’s see [him] run” for public office. “He should stop saying how bad it is, and start trying to make a difference.”
Mr. Braman helped lead last year’s successful campaign to recall Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Alvarez, who drew opposition for his pushing of tax increases and the stadium deal.
Calling voter turnout for recall elections “pathetic,” Mr. Samson said recalls have a negative effect on the political process by making public officials who are not even targeted “shake in their shoes” instead of “making them do what’s good for the community.”
Mr. Samson might have saved his most biting criticism for Miami Today Publisher and Editor Michael Lewis, who has written a number of editorial columns opposing and criticizing the public-private deal that financed construction of the Marlins’ complex.
“I don’t read his columns anymore,” Mr. Samson said. “It’s crushing to have someone write their emotions disguised as facts. People with a pen can use it as a sword to destroy a project without having all the facts.”