Miami Commissioner Damian Pardo loses support, inspires recall threats

Ay, Damian. ¿Que te pasó?
The progressive darling of District 2 — the man who ran on transparency, accountability, and standing up to the political establishment — has started to look a lot like, well, the political establishment. And people are noticing. Loudly.
When Commissioner Damian Pardo was elected in a historic victory almost two years ago, becoming the city’s first openly gay commissioner — which seems like such a nostalgic notation nowadays — over a much better funded, establishment-backed, incumbent-like candidate, he seemed like a breath of fresh air. People thought that sunlight was coming into a dark place.
But he was apparently full of hot air and has seemingly closed the blinds at City Hall.
He said he would bring reform, public engagement, an end to backroom deals. But he’s just brought more of the same.
Okay, he hasn’t been all bad. Pardo helped get rid of former City Attorney Tricky Vicky Mendez and voted against the $10M giveaway to the Miami Freedom Park developers in February. But he has been an enormous disappointment to a lot of people who still can’t believe this is the man they supported in 2023, and he’s been on the wrong side of the vote or issue more times than not.
Let’s start with the big one: Pardo sponsored the ordinance to cancel the 2025 mayoral election and push it to 2026, effectively extending everyone’s term by a year, including current Mayor Francis Suarez — the same guy Pardo asked to resign in 2023. Now, he’s carrying the mayor’s water. It was a move that stank of political payoff, not people power. And the worst part? He did it with a straight face while calling it a “cost-saving measure.”
He actually keeps saying that the election wasn’t cancelled — because there are a couple of ballot questions. The election for mayor and two commission seats was definitely cancelled. But this is how Pardo speaks these days. All politician, no activist.
Read related: Miami Commissioners pass election date change — and steal an extra year
Come on, Damian. Miami’s voters aren’t stupid. We know the cost of democracy — and it’s a lot higher when you decide it’s too inconvenient to hold an election.
Then there’s the Olympia Theater deal. You’d think the guy who won in large part thanks to preservationists, urbanists, and civic watchdogs would have raised a red flag or two when the city tried to quietly sell off a historic landmark to a charter school for $10. But nope. Pardo didn’t only back the deal, he praised it. He practically lobbied for Sports Leadership Arts Management charter school and Academica, who are stealing the city’s jewel.
A giveaway of public land, no open bid, no community referendum, no long-term vision for cultural use — just a warm handshake with a politically connected charter school empire. What happened to public process, Commissioner? What happened to being the check on the same old politics?
Even his allies are confused. Former supporters have started calling him Disappearing Damian — because apparently once he got elected, access to him vanished. Constituents who once had his ear say now they get silence, staffers who shrug, and very little actual follow-through.
And as one Grove resident told Ladra, “I didn’t vote for him to become Francis Suarez’s wingman.”
In more than a dozen interviews with residents from Coconut Grove to Morningside, Miamians told Political Cortadito that they wouldn’t vote for Pardo again. Some are longtime friends. Others didn’t only vote for him, but wrote him campaign checks.
Now, he doesn’t call them back.
“He doesn’t listen to anyone anymore,” one old friend said.
“He gotten too big for his britches,” said an ex supporter.
“I think he saw how well it’s gone for Mayor Suarez and he wants to do the same thing.”
The list of failures began when he went on vacation and missed a meeting — and Commissioner Joe Carollo got the best of him and put the outdoor gym at Maurice Ferre Park on the citywide ballot, against the wishes of the downtown residents who had complained to the planning and zoning board, which found that the gym was builit. But in addition to that early gaffe and the election year change and the Olympia Theater giveaway, Pardo’s base says he has been on the wrong side of a series of important issues and/or votes, surprising them with his position on:

The noise ordinance
The tree ordinance.
The mess the PAMM billboard, which is still up there, and he’s bending knee.
The watering down of ‘lifetime’ term limits, which now won’t apply to Carollo or former Miami Mayor Xavier Suarez. even if they are passed in November by voters.
Sidewalks in Morningside that many residents say are being forced on them.
A yes vote on the Transit Station Neighborhood Development ordinance, which will upzone certain areas and seems custom written for a large property owner in Little River.
The abolishment of the Bayfront Park Management Trust.
The refusal to put the Downtown Development Authority tax on the ballot.
The move to sell five acres of public land on Watson Island to developers for two condominium towers and a gifted waterfront park.

To make matters worse. He’s not accessible. Not if he doesn’t want to hear what you have to say. He won’t return calls. He won’t give you an appointment. So people can’t tell him what a complete and total tonto util he’s being. He stopped calling Ladra back weeks ago. He doesn’t like anyone to question him or hear a contradicting point of view. He says any critical or opposing voices are limited to a few radical malcontents and troublemakers.
“He has not responded to one email,” said Morningside resident and environmental activist Sandy Moise, who has battled Pardo on the tree ordinance and the 15-foot wide Bay walk he wanted to build in Morningside Park.  She believes he is prodevelopment and, honestly, his votes do seem to go that way. Moise didn’t vote for Pardo. But most of the people who spoke to Ladra spoke on background in part because they did vote for him and got others to vote for him — and now they feel guilty.
Read related: Longtime activist Damian Pardo joins Miami District 2 commission race
Damian is a big boy. He wasn’t a total political newbie when he was elected. Pardo had been the co-founder of SAVE, which used to be SAVE Dade, the LGBTQ advocacy group that was able to get the county to pass the first gay rights protection ordinance in the 1990s. He has also been involved in the 4Ward Miami advocacy group and their Gay8 Festival on Calle Ocho, as well as Care Resource and the Miami-Dade Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.
That’s why we all thought he would be the perfect public servant. Because he had fought the system before. People always tell Ladra that she has to stop believing there are any good politicians. There are good people who run for office, but once they become politicians, it’s over.
Pardo’s term is only halfway through, however. There’s still time to course-correct. To remember who got him there. To start acting like the reformer he claimed to be — not just another player in the palace drama that is Miami City Hall.
But if Pardo keeps voting with the King-and-Carollo faction, rubber-stamping insider deals, and treating public meetings like formalities instead of the democratic bedrock they are, his progressive base might not wait until 2027 — or 2028 — to get him out.
There has been some talk about a possible recall effort. Pardo’s primary and most persistent critic, Downtown Neighborhood Association President James Torres, — who endorsed Pardo after he lost the D2 in the first round in 2023 — commissioned a survey last month that found more than half the 476 respondents would recall him if they could. Based solely on the cancellation of the election, which didn’t go well with residents.
Turns out, people want to vote on a big thing like that.
This decision is the main one pushed by a mobile phone poll with one question: “Commissioner Damian Pardo voted to cancel the 2025 election for Mayor and Commissioners, giving himself and others an extra year in office — even after Florida’s Attorney General said this ordinance is unconstitutional. Do you support recalling Commissioner Pardo for this overreach?”
The poll of 476 likely voters conducted on July 1 and 2 shows that just over 52% would support recalling Pardo if a recall were initiated, while just over 40% would oppose it. The rest are reportedly undecided.
Torres says that Pardo isn’t doing himself any favors by acting like he’s the smartest guy in the room. “The cockiness and arrogance is not the vision he gave us,” Torres told Political Cortadito.
“Damian Pardo has become the face of failure in our local government, pushing flawed policies through broken processes, shutting out the voices of the community, and doing it all with a level of arrogance that insults the very people he was elected to serve,” said Torres, who was on a Zoom call Sunday with about seven people to “explore” the recall.
And, yes, it seems he is campaigning for a rematch already. Thank goodness someone is.
Read related: Miami-Dade Judge: Miami Commission can’t cancel election without public vote
The poll’s partisan breakdown of respondents reportedly mirrors the district’s demographic and is a diverse cross-section of the electorate. Democrats accounted for 39.7% of the sample, NPAs (No Party Affiliation) made up 30.8%, and Republicans represented 29.5%. White respondents were 49.4% of the sample, Hispanic accounted for 44.0%, and Black made up 6.6%.
Overall, the results indicate that a recall effort could gain support across political and demographic groups.While there remains a small undecided segment, the existing margin suggests that, if an election were held today, the recall would likely pass.
One might think that Pardo would ease off the gas pedal on moving the election, pero no. Pardo has dug in his heels, supporting the city’s appeal of a court decision earlier this month that invalidated the ordinance changing the election because it’s unconstitutional. He could save face by going along with the judge and putting it on the ballot for voters to decide.
But maybe he is doubling down on that extra year in office because he knows he is a one-and-done commissioner and will not win another election again.
The post Miami Commissioner Damian Pardo loses support, inspires recall threats appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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