The first thing voters need to know about State Rep. Alina Garcia, who will not seek re-election after only two years in the Florida House and will run for the first ever elected Miami-Dade elections supervisor instead — is that she won’t say that the 2020 elections were fair across the U.S.

“I can’t speak for the rest of the nation, but I can tell you Miami-Dade is one of the best run elections departments in the nation,” Garcia told Ladra Tuesday. “Ever since we had the issue with the Gore/Bush election, the hanging chads, we’ve been making laws to ensure elections are fair and just.”

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There are 17, count ’em, 17 candidates for the Miami-Dade County Sheriff’s election — so far. But only one of them scored what is likely the mother of all endorsements.

Congressman Carlos Gimenez — the former county mayor who served as the de facto sheriff in that role — has come out for Miami-Dade Police Assistant Director Rosanna Cordero-Stutz, the highest ranking county officer in the race and the woman in charge of the transition to the first Miami-Dade sheriff’s office in 57 years.

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Two commission meetings have come and gone since Miami City Manager Art Noriega said he would provide a report on his wife’s business dealings at the city. Y nada. And it’s odd that none of the commissioners — especially the two recently-elected, reform-minded guys — haven’t held his feet tot he fire.

Last month, WLRN exposed that Michelle Pradere-Noriega‘s family business was awarded more than $440,000 in city contracts for new office furniture and furniture assembly. The public documents obtained by the station show that $37,000 worth of furniture was purchased for his offices at City Hall and the Miami River Center over two months early last year.

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It’s on.

Absentee or mail-in ballots for the March 19 presidential primary were mailed out Feb. 8 to the voters already on file requesting one. Early voting starts March 4 and ends March 17.

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Miami Lakes Mayor Manny Cid has had a Wikipedia page up since November. But a couple of days after Cid, who is running for Miami-Dade Mayor, launched a video this week about incumbent Mayor Daniella Levine Cava‘s $2.5 billion bond initiative, an anonymous editor “nominated this article for deletion.”

Notes on the website page say someone named BottleOfChocolateMilk doesn’t think Cid, who has been mayor of Miami Lakes for eight years, deserves a page.

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