Ticket sales from Sarah Palin’s visit to Miami on Oct. 6 will help fund voter outreach programs, possibly in Florida districts.
“Most of it will go toward covering the costs” of the event, said Victor Cocchia, executive director of the Liberty & Freedom Foundation, which is hosting the event. “The rest of the money that is raised will be used for things like outreach into the Hispanic community — it’s one of the important goals for the foundation, to reach into the Hispanic community and help raise awareness of conservative values and conservative principles.”
Cocchia couldn’t comment on which areas might be targeted, but said Florida has districts in the running for the educational campaigns.
“We’re going to concentrate on getting people out into Latin communities, speaking in Spanish, speaking in English, talking to them about what it means to be a conservative.”
The foundation is also considering Spanish-language radio and TV spots.
Cocchia said he expects strong turnout for Palin, even though the event is during work hours. The event location can accommodate 4,000 to 6,000 people.
“We think that there’s so much mass appeal for Governor Palin here, that we should be able to get that many there.”
The foundation has held several events with Palin — she will be appearing in San Francisco with the group the week after her Miami visit — but southern Florida stood out because of its economic struggles.
“We thought it was important to bring her down here because — I don’t know if you saw the last unemployment figures for South Florida, but they topped 14 percent,” Cocchia said. “This is an area that’s been hard hit by the economy over the last few years, and I think people need to see that conservative ideals and conservative principles, if implemented, could help change the structural face of the economy and help lift South Florida up out of the recession that it is still under.”
As a non-profit, the foundation isn’t allowed to endorse candidates. Cocchia said that the group is working on the legal issues of having Florida GOP candidates attend the event.
Palin will answer questions from area residents, who can submit their own via email to miamiforum@liberty-freedom.org