Miami is a fast paced community with a rapid fire news cycle. Our blog keeps you current on the most important issues affecting the tax payers of Miami-Dade county. Read, share, comment, and as always let us know what topics you want us to tackle.
Early voting in Miami-Dade is popular, with a surge of almost 600,000 ballots
More than twice as many people voted at early voting locations in the past two weeks than those who returned absentee or mail-in ballots.
As of Monday morning, and early voting ended Sunday, with 597.769 people going out to one of the 33 voting locations — mostly libraries — since Oct. 21, according to the number published by the Miami-Dade Elections Department.
Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago gets an opponent for next year’s April elections
Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago got an opponent to challenge his re-election easier this month when Michael Anthony Abbott filed paperwork indicating he would run.
Abbott is an accountant who has lived in Coral Gables since 2002. He said he is also a founding member and CFO for SynXGlobal, Inc., a logistics transportation company. His late brother, John Abbott, worked at the city’s building and zoning department.
Alina Garcia joins ‘angry mob’ to heckle Democrat candidate at early voting
And she wants to be supervisor of elections
Kendall Federation posts picks for Miami-Dade seats, state amendments
It’s tradition now. The Kendall Federation Political Action Committee, the political arm of the Kendall Federation of Homeowners Associations, has come out with their endorsements for both Miami-Dade candidates and the state amendments on the ballot.
The PAC decided not to endorse anyone in the State House races in districts 118 and 119, which cover parts of Kendall. But they have their favorites in all the county constitutional offices, a school board race and a county commission runoff. These are them:
In final stretch, Debbie Mucarsel-Powell has 3 new TV ads vs Rick Scott
With a little more than a week before the Nov. 5 election, former Congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel-Powell‘s campaign has launched not one, not two, but three new TV ads against Sen. Rick Scott and his “toxic agenda” in what some call one of the closest watched and most competitive races in the country.
It’s part of a huge, 8-figure media buy in the Sunshine State.
Miami commission meeting becomes Miguel Gabela vs. Manolo Reyes bout
The city commission meeting Thursday turned into a shouting match between commissioners Miguel “Mike” Gabela and Manolo Reyes basically because of the contentious fight on the self-serving lifetime pensions for electeds that Gabela has championed twice before changing his mind, also twice.
Gabela said he stood by the principle of his idea, which was to make it fair across the board. When the pension was suspended in 2009 at the height of the city’s financial woes, it cut off future commissioners but current commissioners at the time were grandfathered in. “It should be either all or none,” Gabela said, even though those electeds were vested in an existing pension program and had defined benefits that could not be removed without risking legal action.
Veto in Miami makes Mayor Francis Suarez a hero? He’s just doing his job
The accolades are ridiculous.
Over and over again — at the city commission meeting Thursday, on Spanish radio, on the internet, in the street — people keep thanking Miami Mayor Francis Suarez for his veto of the self-serving lifetime pensions for electeds that commissioners had voted earlier this month to give themselves.
Former Miami Lakes Mayor Michael Pizzi meddles in mayoral election
Some voters in Miami Lakes got a long, rambling text message about the village mayoral election — but not from one of the candidates. It was from former Mayor Michael “Muscles” Pizzi , who recently got a $1.7 million settlement from the city for his defense costs in a federal bribery trial.
Vice Mayor Antonio “Tony” Fernandez, who is running to replace termed-out Mayor Manny Cid, voted against the settlement. And Pizzi is trying to make that seem like a bad decision.
Alonso “Alfie” Leon could run again for Miami D3 commission seat next year
As Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo is termed out of office and mulls a ridiculous run for mayor — everyone knows he can’t win citywide — it is looking like his old opponent, Alfonso “Alfie” Leon, may run for the open seat again next November.
“I am planning on running again. Will be making an announcement soon,” Leon texted Ladra after she called and texted him to confirm his intent to run. The personal injury attorney was in court Friday and said he would call Political Cortadito next week. But we couldn’t wait to share the news.
After big win, Miami-Dade’s Daniella Levine Cava pushes constitutional slate
But voters can always split this baby
