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Channel 10 Reporter Joins McCain Campaign, Looks Forward To 'The Ride Of A Lifetime'

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By WALT BELCHER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 19, 2008

Mario Diaz is going from political reporter to political operative.

The 35-year-old former morning anchor at WTSP, Channel 10, resigned from the station Tuesday to take a job with Republican John McCain's presidential campaign.

Diaz says he is headed to Tallahassee to become the campaign's Southeast regional communications director. He will coordinate media efforts in Florida, Georgia, Alabama and the Carolinas.

"It's an opportunity I couldn't pass up," he said Wednesday. "This is where my heart really lies now. To me, it's an honor to be part of a historic moment in politics. And it will be the ride of a lifetime."

Diaz's parents emigrated from Chile in the 1970s, relocated to Whittier, Calif., and became Republicans. Diaz grew up in Las Vegas and was a television sports anchor there before he came to WTSP in 2002.

He says people in the WTSP newsroom were surprised about his party affiliation because he never discussed politics at work and, as a journalist, took a nonpartisan approach to his beat.

Diaz was co-anchor of the station's morning newscasts until December, when he became the station's political reporter.

He says he developed the beat after being taken off the morning show. While some might consider going from anchor to reporter a demotion, Diaz says that, for him, it was an opportunity to cover something he loved. "Politics have always intrigued me," he says.

WTSP spokesman Pete Nikiel says Diaz was "moved up" from the morning news to reporting for the 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts because he was such a good reporter.

"He has always been interested in politics, and he did a good job for us," Nikiel says.

Diaz says the offer from the McCain camp came after he attended a Republican Hispanic political conference in Orlando in May.

Diaz was one of several journalists who participated in a panel discussion on issues that concern Florida's Latino community.

"I had the blessing of Channel 10 to attend the conference," he points out. "After the session, people were coming up to me asking if I had ever considered going into politics."

He says WTSP had offered him a two-year contract to continue as a reporter, but he felt the time was right to make a change.

"I respect Sen. McCain; he's an American original," he says. "And he's a true war hero."

Diaz says he hopes to continue his freelance job with HBO and ESPN as the ringside announcer for the Spanish simulcasts of professional boxing matches.

Diaz is not certain what his prospects are beyond the campaign, which will end with the November election. "When I told my mother that I was taking this job, she was concerned about my future and job security," he says. "But I told her to think about the fact that my grandmother lived in a hut in Chile and here I am working on the campaign to elect an American president."

RATINGS BLUES: Blue Collar Comedy Tour veteran Bill Engvall has said that a lot of people came up to him this year to say "thanks" for doing a TV show the whole family can watch.

Now, if only more people would watch it. When the wholesome, funny, old-school "The Bill Engvall Show" returned for its second season on TBS on June 12, it was missing about 1 million viewers.

The series averaged about 4 million viewers last summer. That's a hit by cable ratings standards. And 6.4 million viewers tuned in on June 9 for an "Engvall" episode that aired on CBS. So the second-season debut three nights later should have done better than 2.9 million viewers.

TUNE IN TONIGHT

Swingtown, 10 p.m., CBS

After an impressive debut, ratings have slipped for this drama about wife-swapping, pill-popping swingers in the '70s.

Fear Itself, 10 p.m., NBC

Colin Ferguson ("Eureka") guest stars in a horror tale about a family man whose soul is trapped in the body of a serial killer.

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