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Miami-Dade Commissioner Roberto Gonzalez event blurs church-state line
Miami-Dade Commissioner Roberto Gonzalez, who was first appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and then elected for the first time last year, will host the county’s first ever “Faith and Family Festival” Saturday on the Youth Fair grounds.
The free event will include fun activities for the whole family: live music, basketball tournaments, bounce houses, a talent show, face painting, a petting zoo, and a special guest speaker. There will also be a food distribution to 2,000 families in need and representatives from county and state agencies for assistance will be available, according to the press release.
“The event is open to people of all faiths,” says a press release from the District 11 office.
There goes separation of church and state.
“We’re about to do something that has never been done before,” Gonzalez says in an Instagram post last week. “Doesn’t matter what faith you have, c’mon down. We’re going to pray for Miami-Dade together.”
Roly Gonzalez of Share Your Heart and Commissioner Roberto Gonzalez talk about the Faith & Family Festival.
Um, there might be a reason it’s never been done before. It’s inappropriate and seems a clear violation of the separation of church and state that is one of the pillars of the U.S. democratic government system. Are we dismantling that, too?
A big fan of Donald Trump — as evident by his social media posts, which also include bible verses and quotes from the Old Testament — Gonzalez may not be a big fan of the constitution. He recently responded with an “amen” to Trump’s post about bringing religion back to America.
David Gonzalez, his communications chief, stressed that the event was open to everyone. “It’s about bringing folks together of all faiths,” he said. “It’s interfaith. It’s not just one faith pushing an agenda.”
Really? Because Ladra will bet you’ll be hard pressed to find a Muslim there.
Read related: Kendall residents oppose early talks for development of waste transfer facility
David Gonzalez, who is no relation to the commissioner, said there’s already some crossover of religion in county government.
“Isn’t it already there? We pray at the beginning of commission meetings,” he said.”There’s a seal above [the commission dais] that says ‘In God we Trust.’”
Gonzalez ran in 2022 for State House in District 119 because God told him to, he said then. But the Guatemalan-born personal injury attorney’s platform was more in hardline with the GOP than it was with any heavenly body. He lost in the primary to Juan Carlos Porras, but raised $110,000 for the bid, according to his campaign reports, which is a lot for a newbie.
Two months after the loss, Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed him to the county commission to replace former Commissioner Joe Martinez, who was suspended after he was arrested on public corruption charges of conspiracy and unlawful compensation. Martinez was convicted in November, but his attorneys last month asked for a new trial (more on that later). Las malas lenguas say the appointment was a reward to then Lt. Gov. Jeannette Nuñez, now the president at Florida International University (I know!) and the campaign consultant she shared with Gonzalez, David “Disgustin’ Custin.”
Then, after serving as an appointment for two years, Gonzalez was elected for the first time last August with 57% of the vote against two lesser known candidates (but Bryan Paz-Hernandez got 26%, which is not bad for a newbie so we’ll hear from him again).
The festival was timed for the first Saturday after the National Day of Prayer May 1. There will be vendors and food trucks who pay for the privilege to be there, but all those proceeds, after expenses, will go to Share Your Heart, a non-profit program that is part of another non-profit, The Victory for Youth, that “recruits, trains, and screens caring adults who desire to serve their community in meaningful ways as a volunteer chaplain” and partners with government agencies and non-profit organizations to “respond to referrals for children, families, and vulnerable adults who have been identified as in crisis or distress,” according to the group’s website.
Read related: Miami-Dade taxpayers fund $1 mil move for Commissioner Rob Gonzalez
It’s not the same as Jar of Hearts, the non-profit that used to be represented by Gonzalez and then got a $10,000 county allocation two months after he was appointed. This is a different non-profit. Just sounds the same.
David Gonzalez likened the event to the Hometown Heroes Parade and Festival that Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins has in District 8 in the Fall or the annual CountryFest that Commissioner Anthony Rodriguez has at Tropical Park.
But it’s really not the same.
The Faith and Family Festival is from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, May 3, at the Miami-Dade Fair & Expo Center, 11201 SW 24th St. Don’t know what time is the prayer circle for Miami-Dade.
The post Miami-Dade Commissioner Roberto Gonzalez event blurs church-state line appeared first on Political Cortadito.
Frederica Wilson tours 2nd ICE jail with Congresswoman Cherfilus-McCormick
The day after Congresswoman Frederica Wilson visited the ICE Krome Detention Center in Miami-Dade to investigate claims of overcrowded, unsanitary, dangerous and inhuman conditions, a female Haitian detainee died at the Broward Transitional Center, another ICE facility 58 miles to the northeast.
On Friday, Wilson will be joined by Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick to visit the ICE facility where Marie Ange Blaise died last week. They will go in at 9 a.m. and tour the facility for 90 minutes, according to a press statement from Wilson’s office. There will be another press gaggle right outside afterwards at 10:30 a.m.
Read related: Frederica Wilson: ICE is building a tent city at Krome to house more detainees
Earlier in April, Wilson visited Krome but said she didn’t find the overcrowded conditions that had been reported and seen in videos taken by detainees and shared in social media. She suggested the federal government bussed detainees out for a “field trip” and cleaned up to cover up the real conditions detainees are living with.
How does she know they won’t do the same thing in Broward?
Blaise, 44, was arrested Feb. 12 as she tried to board a flight to North Carolina from the international airport in Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, according to a public statement by ICE. She did not have a valid immigrant visa, ICE said, and was issued a Notice of Expedited Removal immediately. She was first taken to a custodial facility in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and sent the following week to the Richwood Correctional Center in Louisiana. On April 5, ICE transferred her to the Pompano Beach Detention Center at 3900 Powerline Rd.
She wasn’t even there three weeks when ICE reported she had died.
Her death is under investigation.
Cherfilus-McCormick suggested on Wednesday on the House floor that Blaise did not get needed medical care while in ICE custody.
“Marie had been complaining about chest pain for hours,” Cherfilus-McCormick, the only Haitian-American Congress member, said. “They gave her some pills and told her to go lie down. Unfortunately, Marie never woke up.
“Her loved ones deserve answers. They deserve accountability,” she said.
ICE denied keeping Blaise from medical care and said all detainees get the proper treatment.
“ICE remains committed to ensuring that all those in its custody reside in safe, secure, and humane environments,” the agency said in a statement. “Comprehensive medical care is provided from the moment individuals arrive and throughout the entirety of their stay. All people in ICE custody receive medical, dental and mental health screening and 24-hour emergency care at each detention facility. At no time during detention is a detained illegal alien denied emergent care.”
But that is during normal operations. These facilities are reportedly stretched beyond capacity. At Krome, Wilson reported seeing a plexiglass or plastic tent had just been built to house up to 400 immigrants. Guards are likely overwhelmed and raw. The detainees are scared out of their minds. It is a recipe for disaster.
It certainly hasn’t been smooth going. At least six people have died in ICE custody so far this year, according to the agency’s own reporting.
Read related: Campaign ramps up vs Miami’s Cuban, Republican congressional delegation
“This Administration’s deportation process has been sloppy and reckless since Day 1. No due process and no transparency,” Cherfilus-McCormick said to her colleagues. “Just families being illegally ripped apart and left to fend for themselves.
“In severe instances, innocent people have actually died,” she said.
“Immigrants are being treated without basic dignity and being denied medical care,” Cherfilus-McCormick said. “It is this neglect and cruelty that is really hurting our American families who are being deported at this moment. We must have transparency. We must have justice.”
It seems like White House and ICE care about as much about a death on their watch as the Cuban-American Republican congress members who haven’t done much if anything to object to what’s been happening. Five days after Blaise died, ICE giddily announced it had arrested 66,463 people without legal immigration Status, deporting 65,682 in the first 100 days of Trump’s second presidency? Has anybody bothered to find out what happened to the other 981?
And it doesn’t look like the Trump administration is going to back off its aggressive tactics — recruiting local police and the United States Postal Service, raiding schools, snatching college students off the street or the spouses of U.S. citizens at immigration meetings — anytime soon. ICE just said that last week’s Operation Tidal Wave in Florida netted more than 1,100 detainees and Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday he wants the National Guard to act as immigration judges to deport people faster.
“What we’re doing is a change in the culture this first hundred days, and we are seeing success,” Homeland Security Spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told National Public Radio, which is doing a great job while it still exists.
“But we’re going to see those numbers increase in the next hundred days.”
What? The number of detainees that die in custody?
The post Frederica Wilson tours 2nd ICE jail with Congresswoman Cherfilus-McCormick appeared first on Political Cortadito.
Kendall residents oppose early talks for development of waste transfer facility
There’s a new battle potentially brewing between residents and the county government over a possible new waste facility — and, no, its not the will-they-or-won’t-they incinerator to replace the one that burned down in Doral.
A storage company with a 5-acre property in West Kendall wants county approval of a zoning change to build a waste transfer station off Southwest 136th Street and 127th Avenue — and residents nearby are, predictably, up in arms. They hope that, because the site is less than two miles from Miami Executive Airport (formerly Kendall Tamiami Airport), the federal government’s regulations will stop it.
But that didn’t work so well for the Miami residents who were against Miami Freedom Park, the mega real estate complex which is just a soccer kick from Miami International Airport (even though the issues are different). So they are organizing and trying to fight the proposal.
Read related: As Miami-Dade stalls again on incinerator, state legislators take it on
Secure Storage of Miami, Inc., owned by Jorge Pernas and Delfin Pernas, according to Florida Division of Corporation records, has a zoning application at the county to change the zoning from IU-C (industrial conditional) to IU-3 (industrial unlimited), which would apparently allow for the waste holding facility near several residential communities and next to an existing railway for trains to ship the garbage to landfills in the north. Miami-Dade has been increasingly shipping our solid waste in trains and will do so for the foreseeable future as the commission decides where and how — and even if — to rebuild the waste-to-energy incinerator destroyed in a fire more than two years ago.
Secure Storage purchased the West Kendall property in 1980 for $125,000. Today, the property — which looks like it is being used as a storage lot for trucks and construction or industrial equipment — has an assessed value of $464,000 and a market value of $1.4 million.
That would likely go up a lot if the property’s zoning is changed.
The proposal went before the county’s Community Council 11 on March 24 and was unanimously denied. But the property owner has appealed that decision, and the application is going through the county’s Regulatory and Economic Resources Department for review. It could end up back before the community council — it was denied without prejudice — or in front of the county commission for an appeal of their decision.
The letter of intent sent to the county by the applicant’s attorney in January does not state what they plan to do with the property if the zoning change is approved. Seems sneaky. Because a report on a “cursory review” by the Miami-Dade Aviation Department, dated April 14, says the intent rather clearly.
“While there are no plans associated with the zoning hearing request, according to RER’s Staff Report to Community Council No. 11, the applicant is seeking a zone change to IU-3 in order to operate a solid waste transfer facility, with the transfer being conducted to rail cars for outbound transportation,” Ammad Riaz, chief of aviation planning, wrote to RER Development Services Assistant Director Eric Silva.
Riaz also said that property is within the airport’s “critical approach zone” and the applicant needs a determination from the Federal Aviation Administration, which can take up to four months. He also said that one of the prohibited uses is “landfills…and any associated uses that attract or sustain birds and bird movements.”
That’s one of the worries residents have, as well. “These type of facilities attract birds and can cause plane accidents,” said Julio Forte, who lives in nearby Venezia Lakes. “Think of the catastrophe we could have on the ground.”
It’s not that far-fetched, considering all the aircraft accidents that there have been lately.
“This site will bring a foul smell, health hazards, and will lower our property values as no one will want to live near a waste station,” Forte said. Other residents who have expressed concern live in Three Lakes, Azzura, Courts at Tuscany and Caribe at Bonita Lakes, among others.
Many have health concerns.
“The Environmental Protection Agency, the Urban Institute, the National Institute of Health, they all have studies that say these things produce chemicals that lead to respiratory problems, asthma, birth defects, heavy metal poisoning,” Forte told Political Cortadito. “This is a well-established community and we’ve been here for over 20 years. Nobody moved here to have a dump site next door and be exposed to all those things.”
Forte, who also says there are 18 schools within a five mile radius, says it is more egregious than the rebuilding the incinerator in Doral — which has gotten major resistance — because that was there before the nearby homes were built and bought. “But we were here first,” said Forte, who has taken to social media to get his neighbors to help him “prevent this project from being built.”
So has Maria Teresa Acevedo, the owner at Pacheco International Realty and a resident of the Three Lakes neighborhood. She is worried about the potential contamination of Three Lakes and the endangerment of local wildlife. Zoo Miami is also nearby, she said. And there will also be increased noise, pollution, industrial activity, heavy truck traffic and road safety issues on streets that are not designed for industrial use.
“This site was never part of the original proposal and was suddenly introduced, leaving residents uninformed and out of the decision-making process,” Acevedo said. She and Forte have urged their neighbors to write emails to Miami-Dade Commissioners Kionne McGhee, whose district the property is in, Roberto Gonzalez, whose district includes the airport, and Raquel Regalado, who has constituents who live nearby.
Forte said the only way the neighbors learned about it was because someone saw a sign leaning over on the corner of 127th. “Nobody in the surrounding community knew about it.”
Lack of notice and outreach to residents was the main reason the community council denied the zoning change request, said Cristhian Mancera, chairman of the Community Council No. 11. “There was no time to study the impact,” Mancera said. “We were unanimous against it because of the concerns from the community. So they can meet with residents.
“These people bought their homes, some for $500,000, and now they’re going to have a garbage warehouse there?”
He said the applicant’s multiple attorneys promised a fence and air fresheners to mitigate the stench — really? How many rearview mirror hanging Christmas trees would they need for that? — but seemed to act as if the council didn’t matter and the zoning change was a foregone conclusion.
“There was no commitment to listen or pay attention to the community,” Mancera told Political Cortadito. “Their answer was, ‘Why meet with those folks?’”‘
Read related: Op Ed by KFHA’s Michael Rosenberg: ‘Kendall Talk!’ makes Kendall strong
The denial has given the community time to organize.
Three out of every four people who attended the Kendall Talk! town hall Tuesday hosted by the Kendall Federation of Homeowner Associations earlier this month were there to hear and talk about the waste transfer station proposal, said KFHA President Michael Rosenberg. “They don’t want a garbage dump in front of their house,” he said.
Among the people in the standing-room-only crowd, was a staffer with the office of Miami-Dade Commissioner Roberto Gonzalez. He may have known this topic was going to come up. He calls the county airport in his district “my airport” on occasion. Or she could have been there to hear what people had to say about fluoride in the water.
David Gonzalez, the commissioner’s communications director, said that there had been some emails sent to the district, but that the commissioner could not talk about it with any resident because of the Jennings Rule, which prohibits ex-parte communications by electeds on quasi-judicial matters, like a zoning change.
Calls to Kionne McGhee and his chief of staff were not returned. Deputy Chief of Staff Janie Olvera told Ladra she didn’t know anything about a waste transfer station.
But commissioners will likely hear about it soon, during public comments. Forte said he and a large group of neighbors are ready to go to whatever meeting when the appeal will be heard — to fight it.
“This is just bad for everybody, all concerned,” he told Political Cortadito. “It’s criminal that they would even consider putting a site like this in the middle of a community.”
If you like reading about land use and zoning issues in Miami-Dade County, please consider making a contribution to Political Cortadito and helping independent government watchdog journalism continue. And thank you for your support!
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Coral Gables Vince Lago may move to bring back City Manager Peter Iglesias
The seven items that newly re-elected Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago asked the city clerk to put on the agenda for next week’s special meeting of the city commission include “addressing current city manager and protocols for hiring charter officers.”
Many have speculated that this means Lago will bring back former City Manager Peter Iglesias, who was unceremoniously fired in February of last year at Lago’s loud objections by a new majority on the commission that may have been reversed with this month’s elections. Iglesias has been spotted at high profile events lately — like the swearing-in ceremony, where Lago thanked him, and the centennial gala Tuesday night, where he was hobnobbing with the mayor through the crowd.
Las malas lenguas say that Lago campaigned on bringing Iglesias back. It’s ironic because there was a whisper campaign against attorney and Gables activist Tom Wells, who lost against Lara, that said he had made a deal to name former Commissioner Kirk Menendez, who lost the mayoral race to Lago in the first round April 8, the city manager.
It’s ridiculous. Or maybe it was projection.
At the swearing-in Friday, which was at the Coral Gables Police and Fire headquarters while City Hall undergoes renovations, the mayor — who beat Menendez and resident Michael Abbott — thanked his friends and supporters and then told Iglesias to “please stand to be recognized,” which he did and got applauded by the Lago-friendly, standing-room only crowd.
Then he proceeded to really lay it on thick.
“You embody everything that is right in government. You are the human spirit. You and I have disagreed, prior to you even being in the city of Coral Gables,” Lago said, referring to Iglesias prior job at the city of Miami and Vinnie’s private sector job in construction. “But you were always right because you did things humbly and you did things for the right reason.
“I am honored to be by your side.”
Be by your side? Not have been, but be?
By then, Lago had already told City Clerk Billy Urquia to schedule the special meeting.
Read related: Coral Gables manager fired, MIA Director Ralph Cutie could replace him
“Per my conversation with the City Attorney yesterday, April 23rd, I would like to call for a special commission meeting on May 6th to take up the following items,” Lago wrote to the city clerk on Thursday, two days attorney Richard Lara won the runoff. He numbered the items:
Commission meeting procedures/legislative protocols for sponsorship
Address Commission salaries
City election date
inspector general
Addressing current city manager and protocols for hiring charter officers
Addressing current Charter review
City reserves
Urquia told Ladra that the agenda will be posted on the city’s website on Thursday.
Three of those things on Lago’s list are similar to items that he tried but failed miserably to get on a referendum last year via petition — rescinding the salary increases approved in 2023, moving the municipal election from April to November and needing a super majority to dip into the reserves for operational or capital expenses.
But the first item, “commission meeting procedures/legislative protocols for sponsorship,” sounds like L’Ego is trying to further control the commissioners he doesn’t like by controlling when and how they can put items on the agenda. What else could it be?
Anderson, Lago and Lara — the new commission majority — at the centennial celebration this week.
Everyone, even Lago, thinks that Lara is going to be the mayor’s needed third vote to move his agenda along. They both campaigned on the same things. But one of those things was having a process for the selection of the city manager. If Lago fires City Manager Albert Parjus, or demotes him and rehires Iglesias, isn’t he doing the same thing he accused rival commissioners Melissa Castro, Ariel Fernandez and Menendez of doing?
Read related: Coral Gables skips search, hires new city manager Amos Rojas on the spot
How many times did he repeat the message that the city “has seen three city managers in two years”? He’s going to make it four?
Neither Lara nor Lago returned calls from Ladra, but several people close to Lago told Political Cortadito that they had advised him not to rock the boat by hiring Iglesias and to tone down the rhetoric.
This will be Lara’s first true test. The first-time elected said during the campaign that the Gables should have a process for the hiring of a city manager. Let’s see if he sticks to that.
“We have the most qualified city manager that we’re going to find,” Fernandez told Political Cortadito Wednesday, citing Parjus’ experience at the county and in the Gables, where he was hired by Iglesias as his No. 2. “We’re heading into the budget season. We are looking at possibly cutting the millage rate and eliminating or lowering the garbage fee.
“This is not the time to change city managers.”
Somewhere, Kathy Swanson Rivenbark is laughing and raising her martini.
The post Coral Gables Vince Lago may move to bring back City Manager Peter Iglesias appeared first on Political Cortadito.
Petition aims to add Miami commission districts, change election to even years
A new political action committee led by Miami activists announced Tuesday the launch of a citizen-led petition to amend the city’s charter, “aiming to create a more representative, accountable and transparent local government.” The petition proposes three changes that would go to voters: holding city elections in even years, expanding the size of the city commission, and adding fair district guidelines.
“We all deserve real representation in government. Too often, our neighborhoods and residents go unheard,” said Mel Meinhardt, a lead organizer for the Stronger Miami PAC and co-founder of One Grove Alliance — which formed in the wake of the illegal and invalidated 2022 redistricting of Miami that cut Coconut Grove into three districts.
“Voters should choose politicians, not the other way around,” Meinhardt said in a statement. “This amendment will reduce political corruption by ensuring districts are not drawn to benefit any specific party or candidate — a fair redistricting system that accurately represents our city.”
Read related: Coconut Grove residents are ignored as Miami carves up D2 in redistricting
A federal judge already ruled in favor of the ACLU and a group of Grove residents who sued after the redistricting and has ordered the city to establish a process, which should include a committee, for redistricting in the future. This petition, Meinhardt told Political Cortadito, would ensure that the mission of that process and committee is to draw fair districts and not gerrymander for partisan or other reasons, like keeping incumbents in office. “It gives the committee direction,” he said Tuesday.
The PAC was filed its paperwork with the city clerk March 28 and is chaired by another Miami activist, Anthony “Andy” Parrish, another redistricting critic who served on the city’s planning and zoning board.
To get the proposed charter changes on the on the November ballot, the PAC needs to have 26,000 signed petitions by sometime this summer. That’s a hard haul. A coalition of groups — which includes Engage Miami, One Grove, and Florida Rising — are getting members to collect signatures.
The petition also aims to divide the city into nine smaller districts, rather than the five there are now, and move the election from odd years to even years that coincide with the state and national elections, to both reduce city costs and increase participation. These changes would make the city government more representative and elections more accessible, the activists say.
“In the 2023 elections, fewer than 16,000 people voted in a city of nearly half a million,” said Rebecca Pelham, executive director of Engage Miami, in a statement from the PAC.
“This means a very small number of people are making important decisions that impact everyone in the City. We need a system that genuinely represents all of us so residents have a real voice,” Pelham said. “Moving city elections to even years when other statewide elections are held will encourage more people to participate in local elections and be involved locally.”
There’s a question about whether or not this would extend the terms for the electeds who are there when the change comes. It seems that it would. But the activists don’t know about that. And there might be some backroom movement on the commission, anyway, to get that change of year on a ballot as well, but before the November election, to extend the terms of the mayor and Commissioner Joe Carollo (more on that later).
The smaller districts could also drive up turnout because they not only put elected officials closer the constituents they serve, but also create a dais that is harder to influence because three votes are easier to buy than five.
“The solution to the pollution is dilution,” Parrish told Ladra, using a tried and true environmental slogan to describe the Miami political climate. “We definitely have pollution,” he said.
He wold go even further, requiring each commissioner to work out of a district office. “Instead of having them all at Melreese, which is where they are going,” he said, referring to the former Melreese municipal golf course that is going to become a real estate complex with soccer stadium and a new city administration building in it.
Meinhardt said it was illogical that the city has not changed its representation since it was founded 100 years ago, while the population has exploded. “It’s only getting acceleratingly worse,” Meinhardt said. “I looked around the country for best practices. We’ve got like 90,000 citizens for every commissioner. The average in well-run cities is more like 40,000.”
Read related: Miami should have more commission districts for fairness, not fewer of them
Ladra advocated for more districts two years ago when the redistricting kerfluffle led then District 1 Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla to suggest eliminating districts completely.
Miami is the 43rd-largest city in the U.S., according to the 2020 Census, and the core of the nation’s eighth-largest metropolitan area. But cities of comparable size normally have more districts and more electeds.
Atlanta has a population of 498,715, or just about 30,000 more people than Miami. But Atlanta has 15 city council members — 12 elected in districts and three at large. Long Beach, California, just a little smaller than Atlanta and a little bigger than Miami, with a population of 466,742, has nine district council members. The city of Oakland, which is a little smaller than Miami, with 440,646 residents, has seven district council members. The city of Tampa, pop. 384,959, also has seven districts.
Esto no le conviene a los politicians who are there now. They like having the influence that comes with being one of three votes.
That’s why this is a citizen-driven initiative — because the electeds would never go for this. In fact, Ladra fully expect a campaign against it.
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Joe Sanchez ‘seriously considering’ run for Miami-Dade Commission in D5
Former Miami Commissioner Joe Sanchez, who lost a tough Republican primary for Miami-Dade Sheriff last August, is “seriously considering” the commission race in District 5, now that Commissioner Eileen Higgins has announced her Miami mayoral run. It would pit him against former State Rep. and Miami Beach Commissioner David Richardson.
He is absolutely not running for Miami mayor, as was rumored during the campaign for sheriff. “I was never interested in the Miami mayor position. I always said that,” Sanchez told Political Cortadito Tuesday.
Sanchez has been strongly encouraged, practically pressured, to run by several friends and supporters, several homeowner associations, and his American Legion buddies who want to see a veteran on the commission dais.
Read related: Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins could join Miami Mayor’s race
“None of our commissioners are veterans,” said Hector Schwerert, a vet who is 70% disabled and having a harder time every day surviving on his social security and retirement benefits.
“We want someone who really knows us and feels our pain. We need someone who understands our issues and knows our problems,” Schwerert said, citing the rising number of veterans who are finding themselves homeless.
A number of other sources told Ladra that Sanchez has been seeking financial support commitments before he announces. He could also be hesitant after the bruising he took last year in the Republican primary for the first elected Miami-Dade sheriff in six decades. It was a bitterly fought campaign and Sanchez took a lot of hits before eventually losing to Rosie Cordero-Stutz, in a crowded field of 11 candidates with 22% of the vote. Cordero-Stutz, who ended up winning the general and is now our sheriff, got 24%.
Is Sanchez — who took a leave of absence from his job at the Florida Highway Patrol to campaign but is now nearing retirement — ready to put himself out there again?
“That’s something me and my wife will decide when the time comes,” he said. But he is not jumping the gun. He said he wants to see what Higgins will do first.
Higgins filed her candidate’s oath and campaign account information on April 2 with the intent to run for Miami mayor, but not everyone believes it. La Gringa would have to resign to run and give up two more years of county government, where she is the senior lawmaker, for a very risky race against, we think, Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo, former Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla — who Higgins already beat once, but not citywide — and former City Manager Emilio Gonzalez, as well as a few other candidates. She has until September to qualify.
Read related: David Richardson seeks to replace Eileen Higgins on county commission
“If it does open up, I would be interested in running,” Sanchez said. “If that were to happen, yes, I’d probably run in District 5, a district I’ve lived in my whole life, a district I represented as a city commissioner.”
Joe Sanchez posted on social media last year that he was happy to be back at work after the sheriff’s campaign.
But would September be too late?
Richardson, who lost a constitutional race of his own in November — for tax collector to Dariel Fernandez — has already filed paperwork intending to run for the commission seat should Higgins bail. There’s no special election set yet — and there will have to be one if it’s not in November because there are three years left in Higgins’ term. So he’s filed for the 2028 race, but that can easily be changed if Higgins jumps.
That means Richardson could have a significant advantage in fundraising and connecting with voters if Sanchez waits until September.
There may also be other candidates that decide to jump in, say, another Hispanic candidate to force a runoff. Knowing Miami and its penchant for politicos reciclados, we may still get a Renier Diaz de la Portilla, who lost a the 2020 race against Higgins but came too close for comfort with 48% of the vote. Or, say, former county commissioner Bruno Barreiro — who used to sit in that seat but resigned to run for Congress (he lost) — or his wife, Zoraida, who ran against Higgins in the 2018 special election to replace Mr. Barreiro and lost with 47% of the vote.
We still have 144 days til the qualifying deadline at 6 p.m. on Sept. 20.
The post Joe Sanchez ‘seriously considering’ run for Miami-Dade Commission in D5 appeared first on Political Cortadito.
Campaign ramps up vs Miami’s Cuban, Republican congressional delegation
… And Secretary of State Marco Rubio
A new non-profit that produced videos earlier this month critical of Congress Members Carlos Gimenez and Mario Diaz-Balart — calling them cowards for their silence and complicity in the detention and deportation of thousands of immigrants from our community — has ramped up its campaign with billboards in many of the neighborhoods they and other Cuban Americans in the Republican Party.
¡Ya tu sabes!
Keep Them Honest, Inc. a “nonpartisan public information organization,” announced on Monday the launch of a “paid advertising initiative aimed at exposing the cruelty and complicity of South Florida’s top Cuban-American Republican officials as immigrant families face unprecedented threats under the Trump administration’s inhumane and un-American executive orders.”
The multi-platform rollout — billboards, digital advertising, commercials and targeted social media messaging — the campaign specifically calls out Gimenez, Diaz-Balart, Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a former Florida House rep and U.S. Senator, for failing to represent the very communities that elected them.
They haven’t even raised their voices for Cuban mother Heidy Sanchez, who is in Havana today, having been separated from her U.S.-born husband and 1-year-old daughter in Tampa and deported.
Read related: Video blasts U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez for silence on ending TPS, deportations
“The Secretary of State and these Members of Congress are the children of immigrants and represent Miami-Dade County, but their cowardice and silence has created fear throughout the community and this initiative calls upon them to speak up and take action on behalf of their constituents whom they have thus far betrayed with their silence and inaction,” reads a statement from the organization.
Earlier this month, Keep Them Honest posted their first video, calling Gimenez a coward who has betrayed his community, not just for staying silent on the revocation of Temporary Protective Status and parole protections for over 500,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, but also on the defunding of Radio and TV Martí. They later followed up with a similar video targeting Diaz-Balart.
“Mario? Bro? Wake up,” it says.
They are now placing billboards — like the one that the Miami-Dade Democratic Hispanic Caucus has on the Palmetto Expressway between Doral and Hialeah — across every major highway in the county and web app in the districts that Diaz-Balart, Gimenez and Salazar represent.
“These ads spotlight the urgent need for these elected officials to speak up for human decency and take action for the people of South Florida,” the statement said.
Seven total billboards will be purchased on the Palmetto, the Don Shula Expressway, and the Florida Turnpike, said Chris Wills, the former co-founder of Cubanos Con Biden and vice president of Keep Them Honest, Inc.
“No matter where you go in Miami-Dade County, whether you are one of these congress members or one of their constituents, you will see the message loud and clear,” Wills says. One of the digital ads says “Deporting good immigrants back to dictatorships is cruel.”
The photos chosen of the “Gang of Four,” as the Hispanic Caucus President Abel S. Delgado calls them, are not flattering.
Keep Them Honest is a 501(c)4 non-profit and does not have to disclose who is funding this campaign.
Read related: Cuban American congress members stay silent on TPS, immigrant detention
There are Trumpistas in South Florida who hysterically accuse the group of being funded by foreign enemies. “For all we know it’s Diaz-Canel people or the Chinese,” posted one of the crazy right-wing fans of Political Cortadito, referring to Cuban President (read: Dictator) Mario Diaz-Canel. She also said that Gimenez “doesn’t need to acknowledge provocateurs.”
This is what the Trumpistas think of anyone who disagrees with them. They are “provocateurs” that need not be acknowledged. Sound familiar? That’s exactly what Diaz-Canel says.
The most likely source of funding is some rich and outraged Cuban-American, like healthcare mogul, philanthropist and serial campaign contributor Mike Fernandez, who wrote an “open letter” to the Cuban-American politicos earlier this month calling their silence “complicity and cowardice.” Or someone like him.
“We don’t disclose our donors,” said Wills, a former Republican who is listed as the non-profit’s Vice President in the Florida Division of Corporation records. The president is Juan Carlos “JC” Planas, a former Republican state rep who later switched parties and ran for Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections last year, losing to Alina Garcia.
“As a former Republican who helped elect Republicans and JC Planas being a former Republican legislator, it would be a hard press to tie us to any communist organization,” Wills said, adding that they are getting checks “from people who agree with us, which is growing more and more by the hour.”
It’s apparently enough, he said, to make an “unprecedented” media buy in a year with no state or national elections.
“We’ve never had, especially in a non-election year, this level of investment into ensuring that the voice of the community that needs to be heard is heard,” Wills is quoted as saying in Florida Politics.
Planas, who is tasked with the organization’s legal compliance, said that the non-profit operates much like conservative non-profit Citizens United and others who have the right, protected by the Supreme Court. They have a CPA. They report to the IRS. Their bank would issue a red flag for any foreign deposits or checks.
“How do we know Citizens United wasn’t funded by the Russians,” Planas asked. “Because there are checks and balances.”
Well, so far. But that’s something that is also being attacked by the Trump administration — as the Gang of Four stand by.
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Denise Galvez Turros announces she’ll run for Miami Commission in District 3
On her 50th birthday, Denise Galvez Turros — a longtime resident, marketing professional and community advocate — will officially announce her candidacy Tuesday and file paperwork to run in the November election for the commission seat in District 3.
Today, that is Commissioner Joe Carollo‘s seat. But he is termed out and threatening to run for mayor.
Galvez — who lost a previous bid for office in 2017 — says her vision is to “create an Efficient, Safe, Clean and Smart Miami.” ESCSM? You can’t even pronounce that. A marketing guru should know better.
Read related: Is Miami’s Joe Carollo using District 3 public money to campaign in District 4?
Galvez has been a champion and activist for Little Havana for several years and has spoken out against corruption at City Hall and, specifically, Carollo, who she often blasts on her social media. She served on the city’s Historic Preservation Board and is taking credit, in her statement, for exposing City Attorney Victoria Mendez‘s family scheme involving the state Guardianship program and the homes of elderly, vulnerable people. Mendez and her husband have been accused of gaming the system to buy properties for much less than they were worth. She was eventually fired, though it was for far more than that, believe it or not.
And, here, Ladra thought it was the dogged reporting by WLRN that exposed Tricky Vicky.
In 2017, Galvez ran in District 4 against Manolo Reyes, who won and passed away earlier this month, and lobbyist Ralph Rosado, who is running to replace Reyes in the June 3 special election against Jose Regalado, son of the former mayor and current property appraiser and brother of the county commissioner. Galvez got 534 votes out of 7,413 for 7%.
She had sued to get her name first on the ballot as Galvez instead of Turros, which is the name of husband, a well-known local musician. It would have given her an edge, but would have delayed the election, and a judge ruled against her. The court battle, however, caused Ladra to sniff around and learn that Galvez, sans Turros, was arrested in 1994 for credit card fraud and 2010 for driving under the influence.
Since the redistricting, her home has been shifted into District 3 and she could be running in a crowded field that includes former Commissioner Frank Carollo, brother of the current commissioner who served there previously, and Brenda Betancourt, president of the Calle Ocho Inter-American Chamber of Commerce and a frequent speaker at commission meetings, too.
Read related: Jose Regalado resigns city job to run for Miami commissioner in District 4
Thee other candidates have filed paperwork intending to run: Oscar Elio Alejandro, Yvonne Bayona and Rolando Escalona, who reported raising the most in the first quarter with $37,722 — $5,000 of which came from lobbyist and former State Rep. Manuel Prieguez, who also helped elect former Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla and current District 1 Commissioner Miguel Gabela.
“After years of pushing for meaningful change from the outside as an activist, Galvez Turros is now stepping forward to deliver results from within City Hall,” said an email announcing her candidacy. “Her campaign focuses on enhancing public safety and public transportation, revitalizing neighborhoods, preserving Miami’s historic character and tree canopy, and cutting government waste and corruption.
“Miami deserves a government that works for them. Galvez Turros’ priorities will include a review and overhaul of our entire City codes including the many conflicts in Miami 21 that have for years been a barrier for small businesses and residents navigating the bureaucracy.”
“I’m ready to get to work,” Galvez said in a statement. “I’ve been building a list of priorities since 2017. I know exactly what needs to be done — and I’m not here to make a career out of politics. I won’t be deterred by political games or special interest pressure.
“Let’s fix what’s broken, protect what matters, and plan boldly for Miami’s future.”
The post Denise Galvez Turros announces she’ll run for Miami Commission in District 3 appeared first on Political Cortadito.
Is Miami’s Joe Carollo using District 3 public money to campaign in District 4?
Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo is having a Mother’s Day event this Friday — but it’s not in his district for his own constituents. It’s in District 4, where there is a special election next month to fill the vacancy caused when Manolo Reyes died.
Ya think Crazy Joe could be thinking to take D4 candidate Ralph Rosado, the lobbyist that Carollo is openly supporting in the race? That election is June 3 and there’s not a lot of time to do the meet and greets — or to get people to request their absentee or vote-by-mail ballots.
Even if Carollo doesn’t take Rosado (now that he is busted), it looks like an official city event. That means he is using District 3 funds and staff for an event at the the gallery at Smathers Plaza in District 4, an affordable housing community for seniors with 182 units, the same year that he is threatening to run for mayor citywide. Smathers is a beehive of super voters on 30th Avenue, about eight blocks out of District 3. And Carollo needs some help in District 4 if he wants to beat the boatload of other candidates that are signing up for the mayor’s race in November.
Read related: Miami voters to fill Manolo Reyes’ District 4 seat with June special election
Why not a Mother’s Day event? He or Rosado can bring roses with the pastelitos. The ladies will go nuts.
Who cares if he’s campaigning on city time and the city’s dime? It’s not like he needs it. Carollo has more than $1.7 million on hand in his political action committee, Miami First. But Ladra bets he has other events planned outside District 3.
The party Friday gets started at 3 p.m. and there will be music, food, entertainment, “gifts and more,” according to the poster that was spotted on a wall in one of the towers.
And, just maybe, there will be absentee ballot requests.
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David Jolly, Jason Pizzo switch parties to possibly run for Florida guv in ’26
From town halls in Apopka county and Tampa Bay to caucus powwows in Tallahassee, it looks like David Jolly — a former Republican congressman who fled the party due to Donald Trump and has been a commentator on MSNBC for several years — was already campaigning earlier this month for the Florida governor’s seat in 2026.
Then he announced Thursday that he changed his voter registration from no party affiliation to Democrat, which is a necessary step in that direction.
Meanwhile, State Sen. Jason Pizzo, the now former Senate minority leader who has also toyed with a gubernatorial run, announced that he had changed his registration from Democrat to no party affiliation, saying the blue party “is dead.”
Is this setting Florida voters up for a gubernatorial race between Jolly and Pizzo and whoever is the Republican nominee?
Jolly still says he is only “seriously considering” a run for the state’s top job. “Exploring,” is another word he uses a lot.
“It’s clear to me there is a coalition of Floridians that want change,” he was quoted as saying last month in POLITICO. But some who know him say his mind is pretty made up. And now he has a political action committee, curiously called Florida 2026, so he can start to raise campaign dough to “engage in voter outreach and research work focused on key issues in the Sunshine State,” according to the website, which is found at Florida2026.com or DavidJolly.com. Either takes you to the same page.
Sure, there are already the inevitable comparisons to Charlie “Turncoat” Crist, another former congressman who ran for governor and lost in 2022 against Ron DeSantis. Sure, there are about 1.2 million more Republican voters in Florida than Dem voters. Sure, there isn’t a single Democrat elected statewide. Sure, Trump has won Florida three times. Sure, Florida hasn’t elected a Democratic governor since Lawton Chiles in 1994.
That’s more than 30 years.
Read related: Downtown Miami protest planned Saturday vs Donald Trump policies
But if there’s someone who can bridge that gap, who can reach out to the middle and get the desilucionado Trump voters, it might just be David Jolly. Everybody says, like a broken record, that the only way to beat a Republican candidate for governor is to get all the Dems, most of the NPAs and, say, 1 out of 10 Republicans. Who can do that better than a desilucionado Republican himself?
“I’ve considered myself a proud member of the Democratic Coalition for years now,” Jolly told Florida Politics in March. “The coalition I would need is essentially the same. You need Democrats, independents and kind of mainstream Republicans to build a coalition. If you do it as an NPA (no party affiliation candidate) or as a Democrat, you are still asking if you can change the state.”
That seems to have been foreshadowing.
Jolly, an attorney and former lobbyist, is a fifth generation Floridian who grew up, by the way, in South Florida. So he understands our rhythms and strengths and issues, despite now living in the St. Petersburg area, where he served as the U.S. representative for Florida’s 13th congressional district from 2014 to 2017 — as a Republican who won a Democrat-leaning district. He was unseated by Crist. After leaving office, Jolly became a outspoken and prominent critic of President Donald Trump and a political pundit on MSNBC, where he did things like deconstruct the GOP’s approach to the Trump indictment.
In September 2018, Jolly left the Republican Party and registered as an independent.
“I’ve had the pleasure of knowing him for years and I’ve known him to be a brilliant, ethical, good-faith individual who is truly concerned about the state and the country,” said Fernand Amandi, a well-known Democratic strategist who helped Barack Obama win Florida in 2008 and 2012. “He’s always had a congenial willingness to solve problems. He reminds me of the great Florida leaders of the past. People like Ruben Askew, Bob Graham, Lawton Chiles.
“When people hear Jolly speak, they are shocked at how personable and knowledgable he is,” Amandi told Political Cortadito. “When people are exposed to David Jolly, they see someone they like and who they trust is telling the truth. That is something rare in U.S politics and completely lost in Florida.”
Jolly has been described by many as an extremely talented communicator with an analytical mind who doesn’t speak in insider language. “He connects very quickly with the concerns of the people,” Amandi said. “Not only is he aware of the problem, he has a way to solve it.”
It certainly speaks to his appeal that all he has to do is suggest he’s seeking the Democratic nomination for governor and that scrambles the ambitions that Pizzo may have had, switching to NPA rather than face a potential primary with him. “If David Jolly had not announced his potential run as a Democratic nominee,” Amandi said, “I don’t think Jason Pizzo would have left the party last Thursday.”
The timing certainly seems sus.
But a potential Pizzo candidacy as an independent — and about 26% of Florida’s registered voters are NPAs — could actually help
whoever the Republican nominee ends up being, most likely Republican Congressman Byron Donalds of Naples, a financial analyst and onetime contender for VP for Donald Trump. Daniels has the POTUS endorsement. Casey DeSantis, the current governor’s wife, is still flirting with a potential run, but we know that spouses of electeds traditionally don’t win elections. And she has that Hope Florida scandal now blemishing that pipe dream.
Democrats have blasted Pizzo, a former Miami-Dade assistant state attorney first elected in 2018, for abandoning the party, saying, basically, “good riddance.” Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said he was useless, anyway.
“Jason Pizzo is one of the most ineffective and unpopular Democratic leaders in recent memory, and his resignation is one of the best things to happen to the party in years,” Fried said in a statement Thursday. “His legacy as leader includes continually disparaging the party base, starting fights with other members, and chasing his own personal ambitions at the expense of Democratic values.”
Read related: A red wave rode over the U.S., Florida and Miami-Dade on Election Day
If the party is dead, as Pizzo claims, isn’t it also to blame?
Pizzo did not return calls and texts to his cellphone.
Jason Pizzo on the Senate floor.
Fried, too, believes that Jolly possibly entering the guv’s race as a Democrat was the last straw.
“Jason’s failure to build support within our party for a gubernatorial run has led to this final embarrassing temper tantrum,” Fried said. “I’d be lying if I said I’m sad to see him go, but I wish him the best of luck in the political wilderness he’s created for himself.
“The Florida Democratic Party is more united without him.”
Ouch.
Still, many Dems are concerned that if Pizzo runs, he could hurt any chances that Jolly — or whoever ends up being the Democratic nominee — may have to win.
“Jason Pizzo has a decision to make, and I hope and trust he makes the right one,” Amandi told Political Cortadito. “But if he decides to barrel forward anyway and run as an independent, he’s only going to guarantee that the Republican wins. And if he does that, he should probably change his name to Jason Spoiler.”
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