Five incumbent state representatives in Miami-Dade — four Republicans, one Democrat — were re-elected more than two months before the primary Friday when nobody qualified to run against them.

State Reps. Tom Fabricio in District 110, David Borrero in 111, Alex Rizo in 112 and Daniel “Danny” Perez, the future Speaker of the House, in 116 can all relax for the next few months. They drew zero challengers in the primary and Democrats were unable or unwilling to throw anyone at them in November.

Read Full Story

Former Congressman David “Nine Lives” Rivera just sucked all the air out of the Florida state primary this August.

Rivera surprised everybody when he qualified Friday to run for state rep in the open 119 District against a bunch of other Republicans who are suddenly in an interesting, nationally-watched race.

Read Full Story

The sudden and unexpected plan to put the city of Miami’s administration building and City Hall at the publicly-owned Melreese — adjacent to the future Miami Freedom Park — grew like a hungry monster last week when Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla suggested moving the police and fire departments and, heck, solid waste to the potential future offices there.

ADLP apparently wants to have a fire sale of downtown public properties.

Read Full Story

At noon Tuesday, former Miami Beach Commissioner Micky Steinberg became a Miami-Dade county commissioner after nobody qualified to run against her in District 4, where Sally Heyman is termed out.

It is the only county commission race that is uncontested — maybe the $400K she raised scared would-bes away — as 19 other candidates qualified in the five other districts on this year’s ballot.

Read Full Story

Former elected and three-time loser Renier Diaz de la Portilla has raised $62,700 in little more than a month for his judicial race, according to the latest campaign finance report. And many of the campaign contributions are from real estate developers and special interests in the city of Miami, where his big brother is a sitting commissioner.

In addition to the $3,500 he’s loaned himself, the youngest of the Diaz de la Portilla brothers has collected a few checks and bundles most likely thanks to his brother, Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla, who is also the chair of the Omni Community Redevelopment Agency.

Read Full Story