In what can arguably be seen as a referendum on Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago, voters in the City Beautiful clearly and soundly rejected the proposed annexation of Little Gables in a non-binding question on Tuesday’s ballot that is meant to take the citizens’ pulse on the issue.

And the citizens’ pulse indicates that the annexation issue is dead.

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It’s over. There will be no runoff for the Miami-Dade mayor’s post.

In what was not a close race at all, La Alcaldesa Daniella Levine Cava won with 58% of the vote in the primary that ended Tuesday. Miami Lakes Mayor Manny Cid beat five other challengers to get second place and it was still only 23%.

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It’s here. The Aug. 20 election, which includes many county races and some partisan primaries, ends today.

More than 200,000 people have already voted either by mail or absentee ballot or in early voting. There’s a slight edge among Democrats, but Republicans narrowed the gap during early voting and now there’s just about 5,000 ballots between them.

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A county judge last week dismissed the defamation lawsuit filed by Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago against Actualidad Media Group for a Spanish-language morning radio broadcast where veteran journalist Roberto Rodriguez Tejera mentioned an investigation by the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust into the mayor’s lack of truthfulness regarding his conflict of interests in the annexation of Little Gables.

The ruling is important because it sends a clear message to Lago that he cannot silence his critics.

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On a short but heated exchange on Miami AM radio Wednesday morning, Trooper Joe Sanchez, a candidate for Miami-Dade sheriff, defended his record and rejected a one-on-one debate with attorney Ignacio “Iggy” Alvarez, a former Miami-Dade Police major and another candidate in the crowded GOP primary.

Sanchez, a former City of Miami commissioner who has been the Florida Highway Patrol’s pubic information officer for 15 years, called into Nelson Rubio’s En Directo show on America Radio WSUA to take issue with the characterization of his experience as mostly ticket-writing and protection of dignitaries, as he enjoys a hefty pension from the city.

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