Three days of early voting for the election runoffs in Miami, Miami Beach and Hialeah start Friday and end Sunday. Election Day is Tuesday. After that, we will have a new mayor and new commissioner in Miami and new representatives in the other two cities.
But the races in Miami, where almost 13,700 voters have cast mail-in or absentee ballots as of Thursday, are the main attraction.
In the mayoral contest, former Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins — who just gave up three years on her seat to run for the top job in Miami — is facing former Miami City Manager Emilio Gonzalez, who sued the city to get the elections back on in the first place after commissioners voted to move it to 2026 (and extend their terms by a year).
Read related: Eileen Higgins heads into partisan Miami mayoral runoff with momentum
Higgins is the front runner and is poised to become Miami’s first female mayor — following her BFF Daniella Levine Cava‘s historic election as Miami-Dade’s first female mayor. We may soon have two La Alcaldesas.
Turnout is below 8% as of Thursday. But let’s be clear: Without Gonzalez, nobody would be casting ballots in Miami right now.
Ladra thinks he could have won if he hadn’t gone hyper partisan. Gonzalez will be kicking off the early voting weekend Friday at a “Keep Miami red get-out-the-vote” rally at Little Havana’s venerable Versailles restaurant, sponsored by the Republican Party of Miami-Dade and featuring Sen. Rick Scott and Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar.
Also on the ballot is the commission race in District 3, where Joe Carollo is termed out. His baby brother Frank Carollo, who held the seat for eight years before Joe, is running against political newcomer Rolando Escalona, the manager at the popular downtown Sexy Fish. This one is more of anyone’s guess. Frank Carollo — who famously does not get along with his brother — has the name rec. But Joe lost the mayor’s race even in his own district, indicating voters may not want four more years of a Carollo.
And Escalona, for a newbie, has a lot of political support, including the same Higgins machinery run by consultant Christian Ulvert. So, let’s not underestimate him.
Read related: Miami Beach commission runoff: Two women, one seat — and the city’s future
In Miami Beach, you have the uber partisan race between longtime City Hall staffer Monica Matteo-Salinas, who has worked for two city commissioners, and MAGA-backed lawyer Monique Pardo Pope, the daughter of a Hitler-loving cop-turned-serial killer executed in Florida by lethal injection in 2012 who she calls her “hero” on social media that has since been scrubbed. She is also backed by the Christian Family Coalition, which is kind of a double whammy.
Behind Matteo-Salinas you have Commissioner Alex Fernandez, one of Matteo-Salinas’ former bosses, and Commissioner Laura Dominguez — both of whom won re-election rather easily Nov. 4.
“Monica is exactly the kind of leader Miami Beach deserves — compassionate, capable, and committed to doing what’s right for our residents,” Fernandez said. “She understands the seriousness of government and the respect our residents deserve.
“Having worked directly with Monica, I’ve seen firsthand the years she spent helping people navigate City Hall with compassion and integrity — fighting for families, schools, safety, and the character of our city.”
Dominguez echoed Fernandez’s confidence in the single mom and PTA veteran’s ability to serve effectively.
“Monica Matteo-Salinas has earned the trust of our community through her years of service, her compassion, and her results-driven approach,” Dominguez said. “She knows Miami Beach and our potential. Monica is exactly the kind of voice we need on the City Commission: experienced, empathetic, and focused on the issues that matter most to our residents.”
Who does Pardo Pope have, besides Daddy cheering on from Hell? Commissioner David Suarez, whose brother-in-law was arrested in the wee hours of Election Day last month — driving an unregistered golf cart that reportedly belongs to Suarez — after being caught on video removing Dominguez campaign signs and replacing them with developer’s favorite Fred Karlton’s.
Oh, and the bigots at the GOP and CFC, which might as well merge into one at this point.
Still, very few people are interested. Only 3,435 people have voted via absentee or mail-in ballot so far, according to the supervisor of elections website. That’s just over 8%.
Read related: Bryan Calvo breaks the Hialeah machine, wins mayor’s race outright
In Hialeah, where there are two open council seat runoffs, we have less than 5% turnout, with only 3,741 absentee or mail-in ballots received so far.
Gelien Perez, who worked for the city’s Human Resources Department, got 40.5% of the vote Nov. 4 and faces Jessica Castillo, who works in medical insurance sales and came in second with 36% in the Group 3 race. Perez was investigated by the Miami-Dade County Commission on Ethics & Public Trust, which concluded that there were signs she used her city position to benefit her private real estate business. Several of her real estate clients were also city employees under her supervision and, during that period, received substantial raises.
Now, that’s a great marketing plan.
In the Group 5 race, university student William “Willy” Marrero — the only candidate on Mayor Jacqueline García-Roves’ slate who didn’t lose Nov. 4 — got 25% of the vote in a five-way contest and faces land surveyor Javier Morejon who got just over 23%. This will likely be a close race. The difference in the first round was just 235 votes.
Morejon was chairman of the Hialeah Beautification Board and former vice chairman of the Miami-Dade County Historic Preservation Board. Marrero has served as an intern for Miami-Dade Commissioner Rene Garcia and as the administrative assistant to Hialeah Councilman Luis Rodriguez, who was re-elected Nov. 4. He also serves on the city’s centennial committee. The 21-year-old Florida International University student could become the youngest councilman elected ever, taking the record away from Mayor Elect Bryan Calvo, who was elected a commissioner at age 23.
“That’s okay,” Calvo told Political Cortadito. “Records are meant to be broken.”
Calvo also told Ladra that he has endorsed Perez, who was on the slate with mayoral candidate Jesús Tundidor, and Marrero, who was the interim mayor’s ally, in the two races. “I sat down with all four of them,” Calvo said. “I thought it was important to be conciliatory with the other camps. And out of the candidates there, I think these two are the best ones.”
For a full list of hours and locations for early voting, go the Supervisor of Elections website.
You can help get more independent, watchdog government reporting of our local government and political campaigns to our community with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Click here. Ladra thanks you for your support.
 
The post Early voting starts Friday for runoffs in Hialeah, Miami and Miami Beach appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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SB 700 takes aim at Alligator Alcatraz shenanigans
Florida lawmakers may finally be waking up and smelling the cortadito.
After years of the governor stretching “states of emergency” like chicle viejo to move money around with zero oversight, Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith has filed SB 700— a bill that basically says “oye, enough of the permanent emergencies already.”
And make no mistake: this bill, filed Tuesday, has Alligator Alcatraz written all over it. In neon letters. Visible from the Turnpike.
Because what better reason to rein in emergency powers than the largest, most expensive, most secretive, most environmentally disastrous boondoggle Florida has cooked up in decades?
That’s right. Ladra is talking about the infamous, billionaire-sized swamp headache known as Alligator Alcatraz, the “temporary” migrant concentration camp that was built on an “emergency” order that just kept being extended… and extended… and extended… while the state signed enough no-bid contracts to make every lobbyist in Tallahassee salivate like a hungry pitbull.
Read related: Daniella Levine Cava finally takes a tougher stand vs Alligator Alcatraz
Under SB 700, a governor can’t just keep renewing an emergency forever — or for two years, or three, or however long it takes to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars into politically connected contractors. One year. That’s all the guv gets. ¡Y basta!
The bill says:

Any state of emergency renewed by the governor expires after one year.
After that, the only way to keep it going is a two-thirds vote of both chambers.
And the Legislature has to put a firm end date — before the next regular session ends.
Oh, and if lawmakers pull the plug? The governor has to immediately issue an order ending it.
AND he can’t declare a “substantially similar” emergency right after to get around it. Bravo.

Let’s remember how we got here.
Gov. Ron DeSantis declared an “immigration emergency” and, with that magic wand, bypassed standard procurement rules — you know, the boring democratic, open, transparent ones — and green-lit a massive detention camp in the Everglades on the Dade-Collier airstrip.
Within days — not weeks, not months, days — the state signed an avalanche of contracts:

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City Hall politicos must be starting to sweat
The citizen-driven overhaul of Miami’s busted political structure — the one the commissioners hoped nobody would pay attention to — is picking up steam. Stronger Miami, the political action committee formed earlier this year to put three major charter reforms on the 2026 ballot, announced this week that they’ve already collected more than 15,000 petition signatures from registered Miami voters.
That’s more than halfway to the 20,500 they need by this summer. And, believe me, City Hall is officially on notice.
This momentum comes right after voters last month overwhelmingly passed Referendum 3, creating Miami’s first-ever Citizens’ Redistricting Committee — something the commissioners did not want because, well, they prefer drawing their own electoral safety nets.
Read related: Miami Voters get it right on the fine print referendums: Yes, No, Yes, Yes
“Miami voters made their voices undeniable this November,” said Mel Meinhardt of One Grove Alliance, who has basically become Miami’s accidental good-government mascot after the city’s illegal 2022 gerrymander carved Coconut Grove into political confetti. One Grove is one of several community organizations in the Stronger Miami coalition.
“Fifteen thousand signatures and counting shows a city ready to turn the page,” Meinhardt said.
En otras palabras: People are tired of the five-headed political hydra running the city like their own private fiefdom.
The proposed charter amendment would bring exactly the kind of changes electeds would never put on the ballot themselves:

Expand the City Commission from five to nine members. Smaller districts. More representation. Less concentration of power. Also fewer opportunities for the infamous Three-Vote Mafia to cut deals in the dark.
Move city elections to November of even-numbered years. Higher voter participation. Lower costs. Fewer sleepy, manipulated 20% turnout races where commissioners get elected by their neighbors and donors’ employees.
Create real, enforceable redistricting standards. No more Franken-districts drawn around donors’ properties and commissioners’ future ambitions. The newly formed independent committee would actually have rules this time.

Commissioners had a chance in September to put the election year change on the Nov. 4 ballot — but it wasn’t as important as they made it seem when they didn’t get an extra year out of it.
Read related: City of Miami election year change won’t make November ballot, after all
There’s still a question about the election calendar move to even years. Does that extend the terms of whoever is sitting those chairs when the switch happens? That’s what Commissioner Damian Pardo wanted to do — give himself and Joe Carollo and Mayor Francis Suarez an extra year in office — when he proposed and passed moving this year’s elections to 2026. Thank Ochún (and Emilio González) that a judge set them straight: This kind of change has to be approved by voters.
And it looks like they may get the chance. Stronger Miami has more than half the signatures and have until the spring to get the rest if they want to put it on the 2026 ballot.
Back in April, Ladra told you how Stronger Miami launched this petition drive after the federal court ruling that shot down the city’s illegal 2022 redistricting maps. The judge not only tossed the maps — he slapped the city with marching orders to create a fair process going forward.
That ruling created the seed. The petition is the fertilizer. And City Hall’s arrogance is the sunshine.
Josh Kaufman, statewide organizer at the ACLU of Florida and Stronger Miami’s field general, said the quiet part out loud: “Voters are demanding a City Hall that truly represents them. With 15,000 signatures already collected, it is clear the movement for a stronger and more democratic Miami is only growing.”
Miami hasn’t expanded representation since it was founded. Yet the city has exploded in population and complexity. We still have five commissioners for 460,000 people — about 90,000 residents per commissioner.
Most well-run cities have half that ratio.
Read related: Petition aims to add Miami commission districts, change election to even years
But why change a system that works… for the politicians?
As Anthony “Andy” Parrish — PAC chair, watchdog and professional Miami BS detector — told Ladra once: “The solution to the pollution is dilution.” And baby, Miami has industrial-grade political pollution.
Parrish even suggested requiring commissioners to work out of district offices instead of that future Taj Mahal at Melreese. Imagine commissioners having to face actual residents on a daily basis. ¡Qué horror!
Increasing the commission to nine seats aligns Miami with the governance structure of other large metropolitan areas like Atlanta and Minneapolis, ensuring the city’s leadership reflects its diverse population. It also “lowers campaign costs for newer candidates to emerge, diluted concentrated power and makes local government more representative, and it makes it easier for city of Miami residents to have access to their city commissioner,” according to the Stronger Miami website.
Let’s be clear: this success will not go unnoticed. Miami commissioners love concentrated power like developers love variances. They are not going to sit back while residents take away their cozy little 3-vote empire. If history is any guide, we can expect dark money PACs and scare tactics, a barrage of bad texts, disinformation campaigns, whispers about “outside groups” and maybe even a last-minute “alternative” proposal designed to confuse voters.
Because nothing terrifies a Miami commissioner more than actual democracy.
The takeaway here is that 15,000 signatures isn’t just momentum — it’s a warning shot. Miami voters are awake. They’re angry. And they’re organizing.
Stronger Miami still has a mountain to climb, but they’ve already accomplished the thing the commission thought impossible: making real reform look inevitable.

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…Because Miami-Dade needs another committee
Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava announced last month that she’s forming yet another advisory committee — this one to help the county celebrate America’s 250th birthday in 2026. Because if there’s anything this county loves more than ribbon cuttings and slogans, it’s a shiny new task force stacked with political appointees.
They’re calling it the Miami-Dade 250: We Are America Celebration Advisory Committee, which is already a mouthful and sounds like something cooked up after a long branding session and an even longer cafecito break.
The mayor says Miami-Dade has “a unique story to tell — one defined by unity, resilience, innovation, and shared values.”Ladra will pause here so readers can stop rolling their eyes.
Sure, Miami-Dade has a story to tell. Several, actually. Whether this committee will tell the real one — the messy, complicated, sometimes scandal-sprinkled version — remains to be seen. But don’t hold your breath.
According to the press release, the committee will “guide and elevate” the county’s participation in the national Semiquincentennial. Say that five times real fast.
In practice, that probably means a long list of meetings, subcommittees, planning retreats, and PowerPoints before anyone decides whether we’re getting a parade, a mural, a hashtag, or all three.
Read related: Miami-Dade budget restores 100% funds to non-profits = self preservation
The new group’s homework assignment includes drafting a countywide plan, coordinating with state and federal partners, encouraging civic engagement (good luck), hunting for money, and making sure Miami-Dade’s efforts align with whatever the national commission is doing. In other words: bureaucracy meets birthday party.
And who gets a seat at this table? Nine appointees selected by:

The mayor
The county commission chair
The League of Cities
The Legislative Delegation
The School Board
GMCVB
HistoryMiami
AFL-CIO
And a youth representative, presumably to prove this isn’t just an adults-talking-to-themselves exercise.

“It’s an opportunity to celebrate our history, while showcasing our community’s incredible diversity and the values that unite us,” La Alcaldesa said in a Facebook video post. “To ensure Miami-Dade’s full participation in this milestone… the committee will bring together civic and community leaders from across Miami-Dade to help guide the preparations for this historic year.
“Its members will play a key role in developing a comprehensive, countywide plan for events and initiatives that honor our history and celebrate our patriotism. As the gateway to the Americas and one of the most dynamic communities in the nation, Miami-Dade County perfectly captures the spirit of unity, resilience and progress that define America.”
Read related: Financial finesse? Miami-Dade budget shortfall disappears in final version
The mayor’s office will staff the operation and start corralling appointees in coming weeks. The first meeting is set for January 2026 — because nothing says “sense of urgency” like launching a committee six months before the anniversary year actually starts.
Look, Ladra isn’t knocking the idea of celebrating America’s 250th birthday. It’s a big deal. But Miami-Dade has more pressing issues — you know, like housing affordability, transit that never arrives, and the small matter of sea level rise licking our toes — than figuring out which county department gets to cut the “We Are America” cake.
Still, Levine Cava gets to send out a nice press release, everybody gets to feel patriotic, and maybe — maybe — we’ll get a celebration worthy of the milestone.
Or at least a commemorative logo. We’re really good at those.

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This time there’s an audience, pero igual
Ladra would like to congratulate the Miami Dade College Board of Trustees for finally holding a real public meeting on the Donald Trump Library land giveaway — or, as it will go down in history, The Hialeah Shuffle.
Because make no mistake: Tuesday morning’s “do-over” vote — in which the bootlicking board reaffirmed their decision to giveaway 2.6 acres of prime real estate meant for the school’s growth to their cult leader like it was a promotional tote bag — was less about transparency and more about checking a Sunshine Law box while keeping the public at arm’s length. Far from the downtown campus this impacts, far from students, far from the faculty, and far from the local downtown residents with the most at stake.
Seriously. Why else would you move the meeting from MDC’s central Wolfson Campus — you know, across the street from the land in question — to an 8 a.m. meeting in Hialeah? Ladra sees you, Board. That’s called crowd control.
And yet, even in Hialeah, even fighting rush hour traffic, nearly 80 people showed up. Imagine how many would have packed the room downtown. Ladra imagines it, and the trustees probably did, too. Which is precisely why they drove everyone out to the Ciudad Que Progresa for this little performance of “public engagement.”
Read related: MDC Trustees to vote again on Trump library land; still smells like a done deal
Let’s be clear: The re-vote was never in doubt. The trustees were going to vote yes again no matter who spoke or what they said. A couple of them had made that abundantly clear. Tuesday wasn’t a decision-making meeting; it was a legal maneuver to wipe away the stink of that September vote — the one they took without letting anybody know what land they were giving away, to whom, or for what purpose.
That’s the vote that triggered university professor and historian Dr. Marvin Dunn’s Sunshine Laws lawsuit. The one that says the college’s trustees broke Florida’s Sunshine Law when they quietly voted to deed over the property to the Florida Internal Improvement Trust Fund, which just so happens to be controlled by Gov. Ron DeSantis and his cabinet — the same folks who, surprise surprise, turned around and voted to gift that same land to Trump’s library foundation.
In other words, no open discussion, no transparency, no real public notice — just a “potential real estate transaction” that somehow turned into this giveaway.
Dr. Marvin Dunn leads a protest at the Freedom Tower weeks ago.
And Dunn, who has become a one-man moral megaphone in this mess — and also organized “Stop the Steal” protests in front of the Freedom Tower — showed up Tuesday to remind them: “This sham meeting will not get rid of my lawsuit.”
Woof.
Despite this re-vote, Judge Mavel Ruiz hasn’t dismissed Dunn’s lawsuit, and she already blocked MDC from transferring the deed once. Dunn’s attorney, Richard Brodsky, said it wasn’t over yet: “We will conduct discovery, depositions, document request and the like to get the bottom of what happened here.”
Meanwhile, the college’s lawyer compared Dunn’s transparency lawsuit to “the lawfare the 45th and 47th president faces every day.”
Ladra eye-rolls in Spanglish.
Read related: Lawsuit challenges MDC giveaway of downtown Miami lot for Trump library
Tuesday’s meeting wasn’t a public hearing. It wasn’t livestreamed like regular meetings. Some speakers were even told they needed “permission” to speak until Chairman and former State Rep. Michael Bileca walked it back at the last minute. Very Sunshine adjacent.
Most of the speakers were against the giveaway. Ladra wasn’t there, but Politico’s Kimberly Leonard live tweeted the whole thing (bless her heart) and kept a pretty solid count, and several local TV news channels also recorded and aired snippets.
Many noted that it might not be the best use for the land, which was purchased by the college un 2004 for projected student growth and used as a parking lot in the meantime. One man called the location — next to the Freedom Tower, a beacon for local immigrants — “an abomination.” Trump’s treatment and policy toward immigrants has been cruel and unusual.
“The irony of building this facility next to the Freedom Tower, Ellis Island of the south, is too rich to pass up,” said award-winning documentary filmmaker and local activist Billy Corben.
He also warned that it may not just be a library. There has been talks about building a hotel next to it as well.
“It’s a real estate deal guys, that’s all,” Corben told board members. “I presume some of you own property in the county, residential, commercial. Why don’t you donate it for free to the present? Of course not. It’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous for me to even say it or suggest it. It was absurd when you heard it out loud.
“If you wouldn’t do it with your property, don’t do it with the college’s property.”
Read related: Miami Dade College gifts Donald Trump land for his library — and a hotel
Democratic Party Chair Laura Kelley broke it down to the bottom line: Giving public institutional land to a politically affiliated private foundation undermines MDC’s neutrality and distracts from educating students. There has been and will be backlash.
A recent poll shows 74% of Miami-Dade residents — including 59% of Republicans, 94% of Democrats, and 69% of independents — are against this scheme.
But on Tuesday, there were also a number of speakers who were supportive of the move. That included a group of Miami Young Republicans who were on a field trip — Ladra hopes they carpooled — and our very own Republican Supervisor of Elections Alina García, who loves the idea of a Trump library, “regardless of whether you like the President or not,” she said, while definitely liking him.
“It’ll be a great tourist attraction, a place for our kids to go learn about the office of the presidency,” Garcia said.
Other supporters also noted that it would be a great tourist attraction and an “honor” to have the Trump Presidential Library in the city’s downtown. One man urged the board not to “cave to a woke and angry mob.” He really didn’t need to worry.
After the speakers had their say, almost three hours worth, the board had its script. Board Member Roberto Alonso, who also serves on the Miami-Dade School Board (and was first appointed there by Gov. Ron DeSantis), told WSVN Channel 7 that it was “a great opportunity to listen to the feedback and to take that into account on our vote.” Ladra calls BS.
For all the trustees’ claims that they wanted to “hear from the community,” they revealed next to zero new information about what MDC is getting in exchange for land appraised at $67 million and likely worth hundred of millions more.
No public negotiations. No benefit agreements. No cash. Not even renderings. Allegedly there is $3 million earmarked for “architecture and engineering,” pero nobody can see a single drawing? Dale.
Read related: Donald Trump’s Thanksgiving social screed serves hate instead of turkey
In fact, the last time MDC sought to develop this exact same property — in 2016 — they wanted $20 million plus student-focused cultural amenities. This time MDC gets…checks notes…zero dollars a promise that Trump’s billion-dollar legacy tower will somehow, someday be good for the college. Y ya está.
The only thing we got from Bileca was justification. They did it in Boston. They did it in Austin. The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, sits on 9.5 acres donated by the University of Massachusetts — but in 1976, 13 years after JFK was assassinated. The University of Texas Austin donated 30 acres for the Lyndon B. Johnson Library (okay, before he died).
Trustee Marcell Felipe even told the public they should be grateful — because according to Trump advisor Steve Witkoff, “Miami was lucky” to get chosen. Other cities would “donate the land and pay to build the library,” he claimed.
So, by that logic, MDC should feel honored to give the land away for free. Even tu abuela would call that gaslighting.
The trustees — five in person, two by phone — voted unanimously again to hand the land to the state’s Internal Improvement Trust Fund, which already approved giving it straight to Trump’s library foundation. MDC officials promise they’ll negotiate conditions later, maybe even get a revenue share someday, if something profit-making appears.
But once you give away prime Biscayne Boulevard real estate, that leverage is gone faster than a taxpayer dollar in Tallahassee.
The only requirement the state placed on Trump’s foundation? Start construction within five years.
No student impact analysis. No community benefits agreement. No financial return to the college. No transparency.
But hey, why start doing any of that now?
At least they got their redo vote. In Hialeah. At 8 a.m. With the board members’ minds already made up.

You can help get more independent, watchdog government reporting of our local government and political campaigns to our community with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Click here. Ladra thanks you for your support.

The post MDC Trustees rubber-stamp Donald Trump library land giveaway — again appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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