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Two more jump in: Bruno Barreiro, Gloria Romero Roses join HD 113 race
Just when we thought the list of people running for a seat that doesn’t even have an election date yet was long enough, aquí vienen former Miami-Dade Commissioner Bruno Barreiro and onetime congressional candidate Gloria Romero Roses — business leader, community builder, assisted living maven — are now the newest contestants in the Florida House District 113 Hunger Games, er, race to fill Vicki Lopez’s suddenly-vacant seat now that she was appointed to the Miami-Dade District 5 seat by the county commission.
And we have two primary sweepstakes.
Remember when Ladra told you last week that the race had already gotten muy interesante with three candidates running: Antonio Javier “Tony” Diaz and Frank Lago, who will now battle with Barreiro in a Republican primary, and Democrat Justin Mendoza Routt, president of both the Historic Bayside Civic Association and the Miami-Dade Young Democrats, who is backed by the same machinery that put the former D5 Commissioner Eileen Higgins in office and is running her Miami mayoral campaign.
Romero Roses has now forced a Dem primary — and she’s bringing a 40-year résumé, an MBA, and a press release so polished it practically winks at you. Growing up in South Florida after coming from Bogotá and being raised by her single mom — a nurse who worked double shifts, so we checked all three political bio bingo squares right out the gate — Gloria says Miami is “at a crossroads.” And honestly, con la renta como está, who can argue?
Read related: Three wannabes are vying for House seat 113 — but there’s no election yet
She says working families and seniors are getting priced out while Tallahassee politicians are busy fighting over drag queens and pronouns. And she’s not entirely wrong. She’s running because Miami “deserves leadership that solves problems, not creates them.”
That’s una indirecta if Ladra ever heard one.
Her platform is a painfully familiar list of staples: Affordable housing, childcare, elder care, insurance… basically the full Miami survival kit.
Romero Roses says she wants to expand access to capital for housing, speed up project delivery, and roll out “smart growth,” which is the development buzzword of the day. She also calls childcare “economic infrastructure,” which Ladra actually agrees with — considering it costs almost as much as college tuition.
Then there’s her deeply personal Alzheimer’s story: nine years of caring for her mom, which led her to operate an assisted living facility and advocate in Tallahassee and D.C. Miami-Dade has the highest Alzheimer’s rate in the country, she notes, and she says she wants to create something called an “Elder’s Trust.” Ladra is not entirely sure what that means yet, but it sounds like something abuelo would approve of.
Insurance? Of course. Everybody running for anything in Florida in 2026 is required to mention insurance reform at least twice in every speech. Gloria says she’s seen how skyrocketing premiums are hurting families and small businesses and promises “data-driven, practical reforms.” Where have we heard that before?
She wraps it all up with a line about leadership you can trust, stability, affordability and a pep-rally “¡Pa’lante!” — which is a great slogan unless someone else in the race already bought the domain name.
Florida House District 113 encompassesKey Biscayne, the Roads, Brickell, Coconut Grove, Little Havana, and more. It’s an interesting mix of voter demographics.
In 2012, the Democrats pit Romero Roses against then Congressman King David “Nine Lives” Rivera. Ladra called her Annette Taddeo 2.0. Barreiro, meanwhile, had resigned his county commission seat in 2017 to run for congress and also lost. He also flirted with running against Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo. And last month, he submitted an application for the commission appointment, but was passed up.
Still, make no mistake: Barreiros’s jump into the GOP primary among two relatively unknowns is going to change the landscape. And Gloria’s entry shakes things up for Democrats who are hoping to flip the seat.
HD 113 was already a political game of musical chairs, with viable candidates jockeying for a district that still doesn’t have an election date. That officially makes it the hottest seat no one can sit in yet.
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.
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Miami Beach Commission hopeful hit with bar inquiry days before runoff
Miami Beach Commission runoff candidate Monique Pardo Pope — yes, the same Monique whose family history Ladra still can’t believe is real — is now the subject of an official Florida Bar inquiry after documentarian and professional Miami trouble-stirrer Billy Corben accused her of lying about his legal record. And, folks, the Bar doesn’t just open files for fun. Only one in four complaints even get this far.
But apparently Pardo Pope’s mouth — or her typing fingers — have gone far enough that the Bar wants to take a closer look.
According to the letter Corben got this week, the Bar is looking into his complaint that the candidate intentionally lied about him after he revealed those now-infamous family details: that she is the daughter of serial killer Manuel Pope, a former Sweetwater cop who idolized Adolf Hitler, murdered nine people in the ‘80s, tattooed the family dog with a swastika, and was executed by the state via lethal injection.
Corben also resurfaced her old social media posts calling her dad her “hero.” She has since deleted them — but the internet is forever.
When the Miami New Times asked her about all that back in September, Pardo Pope fired back by claiming Corben had “lost a defamation case” because he “made a career of slinging mud.”
Except that never happened.
Read related: Miami Beach commission candidate is daughter of cop-turned-serial-killer
Corben — who, love him or hate him, has the Emmys and Murrows to back up his career — pointed out that the only defamation case he’s ever been involved in ended with his side winning a six-figure fee award under Florida’s anti-SLAPP statute. That’s the opposite of losing.
So he sent her a cease-and-desist letter. Because of course he did.
And two months later, she still hasn’t retracted her statement. Which is how we end up with a Bar complaint landing on her doorstep six days before her runoff election. Feliz Navidad.
Corben’s complaint quotes the Florida Bar’s own rules, including the parts that say lawyers should not engage in “dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation” and shouldn’t go around disparaging people with false claims.
Corben calls her words “unambiguously dishonest” and adds a law nerd burn — pointing out that a lawyer with more than a decade of practice should know better than to lie about the outcome of a case from her own judicial circuit.
Ouch.
Read related: Miami Beach commission runoff: Two women, one seat — and the city’s future
Now, Pardo Pope has until Dec. 10 — the day after Miami Beach voters choose whether to send her to the commission dais — to respond. Then Corben gets 10 days to rebut. Ladra suggests stocking up on popcorn.
Meanwhile, voters in Miami Beach’s Group 1 race to replace termed-out former Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez, who lost a bid for mayor, have a choice between Pardo Pope, a Republican with deep pockets (a third of which are her own pockets), and Democrat Monica Matteo-Salinas, who actually finished ahead of her in the general with 23.2% of the vote to Pardo Pope’s 20.1%. Pardo Pope only squeaked into the runoff by less than a point over Brian Ehrlich.
In a week, voters will know if who they chose will be representing them while also juggling a Florida Bar investigation.
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.
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Miami commission pushes climate fix by doubling development density
Resilience trust fund’ scheme still needs final vote
If you blinked at the last Miami City Commission meeting, you might have missed the moment the city basically admitted it has lost control of its own skyline. But don’t worry — it’s on video.
Commissioners advanced yet another density-doubling bonanza, this time wrapped in a shiny “climate resilience” bow, even as they all — except Commissioner Damian Pardo, who sponsored it — sounded increasingly like they’re sick and tired of watching developers run the place like it’s an open bar where taxpayers are picking up the tab.
The supposed trade-off? Developers get to build twice as dense in certain neighborhoods if they kick in some cash for things like pump stations, seawalls, rain gardens and — I kid you not — native tree plantings. Because if Miami is going to drown, at least we’ll have a gumbo limbo to hold onto.
Nevermind that these are things that should be required regardless.
Read related: Miami: Damian Pardo has a developers’ dream in density-for-dollars deal
Commission Chair Christine King, whose District 5 is ground zero for displacement, gentrification and speculative towers, delivered the line of the day: “You can plop down a 55-story building anywhere you want.”
She wasn’t exaggerating. Thanks to the county’s Rapid Transit Zone (RTZ) takeover and Tallahassee’s Live Local Act, the city is basically a landlord renting out its authority to the state. King is so fed up she floated suing the state, like the county is doing now, to claw back some local control.
Miami suing Tallahassee? Ahora sí que estamos en Disney World.
But the part that had Ladra choking on her cortadito was the core irony of this whole “resilience trust fund” scheme: You fix flooding by… wait for it… building more in flood zones?
Even the chair of the city’s own Climate Resilience Committee said the quiet part out loud: “I find it somewhat ironic that we’re incentivizing additional development capacity in an area that already is flooding significantly,” said Aaron DeMayo.
Edgewater, the Venetian Causeway, Watson Island — all areas that turn into Atlantis after a good summer storm — will now be ground zero for bonus density if developers simply pay a fee. Mira qué cute.
Pardo insists this is all very responsible planning and that “some developers really care about the character of the neighborhood.”
Ladra will give you all a moment to stop laughing.
King wasn’t buying it. “If this makes sense for his district, that’s fine, but I don’t want it in District 5,” she said. Translation: Build your resilience-for-rent towers in Edgewater — not on my side of town. That should tell us something.
Read related: Miami blinks on Watson Island deal — kicks can, saves face, still smells fishy
Then came the affordability farce. Planning Director David Snow — oh to be a fly on his wall — tried to pitch the ordinance just another one of the city’s many giveaway plans for developers who promise “public benefits.” There’s increased density for preservation, there’s increased density for affordable housing. “This is an opportunity to establish a new program for resiliency.”
Pardo stressed that the opportunity for increased density is already there, but that this “tool” would let the city get $35,000 “per door” to use exclusively in resiliency efforts.
Finally, when commissioners asked if any of this even mattered — since developers can ditch the whole program and just build taller under state and county rules — Pardo insisted they’d still choose the city’s more restrictive option because, well, they care.
In Miami? Where? Name one.
We’ll wait.
Meanwhile, the skyline keeps growing and the ground keeps sinking. And that’s the story here: Miami’s elected officials are starting to say out loud that they’ve been boxed out of their own zoning code. Yet at the same time — in the very same meeting — they’re still approving new incentives that grease the wheels for more height, more density and more displacement.
Because in Miami, even the pushback comes with a developer-friendly asterisk.
The “resilience trust fund” still needs a second commission vote later this month. But unless commissioners grow a backbone between now and then, get ready for more density, more flooding, and more City Hall double-talk about how it’s all going to save us in the end.
Ladra’s not holding her breath — except maybe when walking through Edgewater during high tide.
This kind of independent, government watchdog reporting is crucial to transparency and democracy. Help shine a light on the darker corners of our community with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Click here. Ladra thanks you for your support.
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Donald Trump’s Thanksgiving social screed serves hate instead of turkey
And Miami’s immigrant families are on the menu
Leave it to Donald Trump to turn Thanksgiving — a holiday about gratitude, family and not strangling your tío during political discussions — into a xenophobic midnight rant attacking immigrants. While everyone else was eating leftovers, the ex-president was online serving up a reheated plate of hate for his fans on Truth Social.
And this wasn’t just his usual grumbling about the “border crisis.” This is widely seen as one of the harshest anti-immigrant statements from the Trump presidency to date — combining immigration freezes, denaturalization threats, and proposals to revoke benefits for non-citizens. This was a full-blown manifesto, a laundry list of every ugly idea Stephen Miller has ever scribbled in a notebook, wrapped in a pilgrim graphic and posted on a national holiday.
¡Que viva la tradición!
Trump used his Thanksgiving post to demand a “permanent pause” on immigration from what he called “poor” or “Third World” countries, which is MAGA code for almost every nation that doesn’t look like the inside of a Swiss bank. Never mind that most of Florida — and especially Miami — is built, run, cleaned, fed and literally kept alive by immigrants from those very same places.
Ladra isn’t sure what’s more offensive: the racism or the cluelessness.
Read related: Miami icons step up where politicians won’t to denounce ICE raids, tactics
But wait, it gets better. Or worse.
Trump also said we should “remove anyone who isn’t a net asset” to the country. A net asset? What is this, Goldman Sachs? Your grandmother who cleaned hotel rooms for 20 years? Not an asset. Your cousin working two jobs and still sending money back home? Not an asset. Your neighbor who escaped dictatorship and just wants to work in peace? Not an asset.
According to Trump, they’re disposable. He wants reverse migration — which is just a fancy way of saying mass deportation, but without better PR.
He also promised to take away benefits from immigrants, and then went even further by saying he’d denaturalize people who “threaten domestic tranquility.” Domestic tranquility? The man whose name ends many Thanksgivings with a family screaming match now wants to be the arbiter of tranquility?
Please.
Also, who chooses who those “threats” are? Does that mean protesters? Marjorie Taylor Green? All of Portand?
Meanwhile, Trump blamed immigrants for literally everything: crime, failing schools, hospitals being crowded, traffic, inflation, moral decline, “social dysfunction,” the cable outage, your bad haircut, everything. If your flan didn’t set this year, he’ll blame a Honduran toddler.
This wasn’t a message to the country. It was red meat thrown to the most extreme corners of his base, the ones who fantasize about purging neighborhoods like they’re cleaning out a garage.
And it’s especially dangerous here in South Florida, a place full of people who came from politically unstable, economically distressed countries — you know, the kind Trump wants to ban entirely. Venezuelans, Haitians, Cubans, Nicaraguans, Colombians, Hondurans, Dominicans, Peruvians. The list is long — and the hypocrisy even longer. Half the people cheering him on would fail the very asset test he wants to impose.
But MAGA amnesia is a hell of a drug. And we have heard nothing from his South Florida addicts, Congress members Carlos Gimenez, Maria Elvira Salazar — who is too busy selling books to meet with her constituency — and Mario Diaz-Balart, as well as the more local DJTheads, Miami-Dade Commissioner Rob Gonzalez and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez.
Maybe they’re still mad about his meeting with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Read related: Miami politicos silent on Donald Trump and Zohran Mamdani friendly meet-up
What’s most disgusting is that Trump used a tragic shooting near the White House — a National Guard member killed — to justify his immigrant purge. He’s trying to deflect from the fact that he put Sarah Beckstrom in harm’s way in the first place. And for no good reason other than his own propaganda. His own staff told him this was a bad idea, to sic the National Guard on people. And he also wants to deflect from the fact that he wanted to blame the Biden administration, even though the Afghan national who is charged with the shooting had his asylum approved this year by the Trump administration.
And he can never let a crisis go to waste, especially when you can pin it on a whole population. Never mind nuance, evidence, or the fact that immigrants commit crimes at far lower rates than U.S.-born citizens. Facts don’t get likes on Truth Social.
Trump also pledged to “terminate all of the millions of Biden illegal admissions,” — including those he claimed were approved via autopen signatures (gotta get that in) — and promised to remove anyone “who is not a net asset to the United States,” end federal benefits for non-citizens, and deport foreign nationals deemed “a public charge, security risk, or non-compatible with Western Civilization.”
Again, Ladra supposes he gets to decide what’s compatible with Western Civilization. The guy who thinks windmills cause cancer?
This is the problem with Trump’s Thanksgiving immigration threat wrapped in cranberry sauce: It doesn’t mean anything.It’s a totally subjective standard, which is exactly why he loves it. “Non-compatible with Western Civilization” can mean whatever he wants it to mean in the moment.
And knowing the Trump White House? That could mean people who:
Read books and newspapers
Speak more than one language
Think injecting bleach is a bad idea
Don’t clap on command
Can pronounce acetaminophen
Want to see the Epstein files released
Because let’s be honest: if we actually let Trump decide who’s “compatible with Western Civilization,” the bar is going to be lower than Melania’s expression on any given day.
Trump also targeted specific demographics and public figures. He used an ableist slur to attack the governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, in connection with immigration and crime, and he attacked a Somali-American congresswoman, Ilhan Omar, along with broader refugee and migrant communities.
He concluded his post by wishing “Happy Thanksgiving to all — except those that hate, steal, murder, and destroy everything that America stands for.”
Look in the mirror, dude.
This is the same old Trump playbook: demonize the vulnerable, divide the country, and distract from the flaming dumpster fire that follows him everywhere he goes. Epstein who?
Read related: MDC Trustees to vote again on Trump library land; still smells like a done deal
Ladra hopes Miami knows better. Our streets, restaurants, construction sites, hospitals, offices — our entire culture — are built by the very people he’s targeting. The ones he calls “burdens” are the ones actually holding the city up.
So while Trump was rage-posting at 1 a.m. about “failed nations,” the rest of us were giving thanks for our families, our freedom, and yes, our immigrant communities— the ones that cook the turkey, clean the kitchen, fix the AC, care for our elders, and teach our kids.
Maybe Trump should try some of that gratitude next year. But we won’t hold our breath. Because when a man spends Thanksgiving attacking immigrants with false and hateful rhetoric, you know his real problem isn’t the border.
It’s his own humanity.
The post Donald Trump’s Thanksgiving social screed serves hate instead of turkey appeared first on Political Cortadito.
Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar signs books, dodges questions, and sells “Dignity”
Only in Miami does a sitting member of Congress host a book signing about dignity while refusing to take a single question from the very people whose dignity she’s been chipping away at in Washington.
That’s exactly what happened the other night in Coral Gables, where Republican Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar held a cozy, closed-door event to promote her new $29.99 book, Dignity Not Citizenship. A short presentation, a few pleasantries, some staged applause — and boom, that was it. No Q&A. No accountability. No conversation with the community she claims to represent.
Ladra has seen more transparency at an HOA meeting.
But it makes sense. Answering questions would mean explaining the truth behind her so-called Dignity Act, the immigration bill she’s been parading around Washington like it’s a gift to immigrants. Spoiler alert: It’s not. It’s a caste system — a legislative maze that keeps millions of immigrants forever in limbo, permanently denied citizenship, locked into a “half-person” legal status. A Dignity Track, a Redemption Track, a Just-Be-Grateful-You’re-Here Track. Pick your caste. None come with equality.
It’s an ugly structure with a pretty name, the kind of political Photoshop that tries to hide discrimination under soft lighting and a Spanish-speaking spokesperson. And the Latino community knows a scam when it sees one. We’ve lived through enough of them.
Read related: Maria Elvira Salazar’s ‘Dignity Act’ is about zero dignity and all a big act
That’s why the closed-door policy at the book-signing was such open hypocrisy. If you thought anybody could walk in to the Coral Gables museum — a public venue that gets money from a number of sources, including the city of Coral Gables — and ask her about it, think again. Activists Thomas Kennedy and Billy Corben were stopped at the entrance and not allowed inside. Kennedy had pre-registered and had taken Corben as his plus one.
Maybe the congresswoman didn’t want to be fact-checked in real time. Maybe she knew Corben was going to call the 150-page book “a thirst trap for the president,” to whom she dedicated it. Maybe she knew Corben was going to expose the fact that her plan is nothing original, just a revamped version of the same ol’ plans presented by Marco Rubio the Gang of Eight and even Barack Obama.
Gasp.
Or maybe she knows that the people who know her best — the ones who’ve watched her vote with the Trump-Miller anti-immigrant wing every single time — are the least likely to buy her book.
You know who did buy the book? Coral Gables Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson, who looks a little starstruck in the social media photos.
In her short little speech, Salazar blamed the White House for the mess at the border, as if she hasn’t voted to block bipartisan immigration reform, slash asylum protections, and keep Dreamers dangling like political piñatas.
Ladra would laugh if it weren’t so damaging to the thousands of families living in fear because Donald Trump ended TPS for Venezuelans and others — while María Elvira stayed silent.
Dignity, huh?
While the congresswoman was busy selling autographed copies of her book — which is really just a bespeckled narrative of her dead legislation — two Democrats running against each other to unseat her were outside talking to actual constituents.
Environmental entrepreneur Richard Lamondin, the son of immigrants, delivered blistering remarks calling out Salazar’s two-faced routine. Robin Peguero, a former federal prosecutor and fellow Democrat in the FL-27 race, also showed up to speak with voters and join protesters demanding accountability.
Read related: Richard Lamondin challenges Maria Elvira Salazar with ‘town hall’ in CD27
Along side them, community members held signs, chanted, and reminded anyone passing by that while María Elvira won’t hold a town hall, she will make time to sell books about compassion and fairness she hasn’t bothered to practice.
“Dignity isn’t a slogan and it’s not something you sell,” Lamondin said. “It’s how you treat people — especially when their lives, families, and futures are on the line. And on that test, she has completely failed this community,” he said about Salazar.
“You cannot preach dignity on a book tour while staying silent as Donald Trump ends Temporary Protected Status for thousands of families, including telling Venezuelans it is safe to go home while, in the same breath, calling Maduro a brutal narco-terrorist and deploying the US Navy,” Lamondin said. “Those two things cannot be true at the same time. You can’t have it both ways.
“You cannot talk about dignity while families with no criminal record live in daily fear of deportation,” he said. “The majority of people in ICE detention have no criminal record. These aren’t dangerous criminals. These are parents, workers, and caregivers being hunted like animals by our own government.
“That’s not dignity. That’s cruelty.”
Lamondin reminded the crowd that most people in ICE detention have no criminal record and that Salazar’s alignment with Trump’s anti-immigrant policies is what keeps families in fear, not any book tour and he laid out his own vision: certainty for Dreamers and TPS holders, modernizing visa processing, strengthening the border without cruelty, and a fair pathway to legal status rooted in actual dignity — not the trademarked kind.
Peguero was more blunt on his attack of the Congresswoman and her lack of accountability.
“We have not seen our congresswoman in a very long time, and, in fact, the first thing that she does when she actually comes out of hiding is to sell books to put money in her own pocket,” Peguero told a group of supporters or protesters or both.
“She got to collect her fat congressional paycheck, her gold-plated congressional health care while our government was shut down for 45 days because she refused to extend the ACA subsidies,” he said. “This district has the number one, uh, ACA enrollees in the country. People are going to see their healthcare double and triple their premiums.
“You want people to have actual dignity, not just a slogan you throw on a book that you sell for 20 bucks, again to enrich yourself,” Peguero said, giving the tome a $10 discount already. “What she wants is to continue to exploit our friends and our neighbors, who have been here for 30 years, who have paid their taxes, who have contributed to our economy, who have no criminal history and to say you can never become an American citizen.”
He’s not wrong. The congresswoman hasn’t done a real town hall in ages. She won’t stand in front of her constituents and explain her voting record, her silence on TPS, or her support for policies that divide immigrant families. But she’ll happily sit at a table and sign $30 hardcovers about how much she supposedly cares.
Ladra has seen grifters with more subtlety.
Read related: María Elvira Salazar strikes again, takes credit for money she voted against
The whole thing reveals what the community already knows: Salazar is more interested in the performance of dignity than the practice of it. Just like the dishonest self-promoting posts on the community allocations she voted against. The photo ops, the applause lines, the branding — all of it louder than the reality that she continues to vote with the extremists pushing the harshest immigration agenda in modern history.
Because the truth is simple: The Latino community is not half a person. We are not a caste. We are not political props. We are full citizens — with full rights — and we deserve representation that treats us that way.
And no book signing is going to paper over that.
Help keep the community informed through independent government watchdog reporting like what you read in Political Cortadito with a contribution. Just Click here. . No amount is too small — or too big. Ladra thanks you for your support.
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Miami Beach commission runoff: Two women, one seat — and the city’s future
If you thought the 2025 Miami Beach election season was all settled after Nov. 4, think again. Because there’s still one seat up in the air — one commissioner’s seat, one citywide vote, and two women each claiming they’ll save the soul of the Beach.
Monica Matteo‑Salinas , a longtime city staffer who worked for two commissioners, and Monique Pardo Pope , a MAGA-loving attorney and daughter of a convicted and state executed serial killer, came out on top of a crowded six-person field for the Group I seat vacated by termed-out commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez, who lost a challenge (barely) to Mayor Steven Meiner. And now they’re headed to a runoff on Dec. 9.
Matteo-Salinas, 46, came out with a small edge, 23% of the vote compared to 20% for Pardo Pope. She is the “residents first” candidate, pitching affordability (a community food pantry for those in need), transportation — advertising can help subsidize an expanded trolley system — and “restrained development,” which is another way to say development. She served as an aide to both Commissioners Rosen Gonzalez and Alex Fernandez, who won his re-election handily, and also served as the chair of the nonprofit Miami Beach Community Development Corporation, a group focused on affordable-housing issues.
Read related: Miami Beach commission races give us two incumbents, one dramatic runoff
The single mom of two boys at Miami Beach High — involved in the PTA since they were at South Pointe Elementary — is leaning into the backlash against overdevelopment and displacement and tapping into that growing frustration that Miami Beach is morphing into a glossy playground for outsiders while longtime residents, from service workers to families, get squeezed out. Her focus on affordability, food-security, keeping noise and size of new towers in check resonates hard.
Matteo-Salinas has the endorsement of Fernandez and Commissioner Laura Dominguez, who also won re-election Nov. 4, as well as Mami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, the Miami Beach Fraternal Order of Police and SOBESAFE, an organization of volunteers that focus on issues of crime and code enforcement, whose board cited her “combination of relevant, insider experience on how to get things done with a resident’s desire to get them done better.”
Pardo Pope, 44, finished only three points behind, close enough to make every subsequent attack ad, whisper campaign, and voter-turnout push matter. She is a family-law attorney, with a beachside office, and used to work in finance. She leads the nonprofit Woman’s Cancer Association of the University of Miami and emphasizes public safety in her campaign. She has positioned herself as the “law and order” candidate, vowing to combat homeless camping, protect infrastructure, and partner with developers — but on her terms. For voters nervous about property crime, transient populations, and overtaxed city services, that’s a clear message.
But, still, Matteo Salinas did get the FOP nod. “She knows that keeping Miami Beach safe takes trust and teamwork between officers, residents, and City Hall,” said FOP President Bobby Hernandez. “Monica brings the kind of practical leadership and integrity our city needs.”
Pardo Pope says she is also for “smart growth,” but is endorsed by Commissioner David Suarez, who has proposed a huge density increase along almost al of Washington Avenue that would allow more than 2,000 new units to be built. Is that smart development?
Pardo Pope is also sort of a MAGA groupie who posts social media photos with Republican legislators, including Sen. Rick Scott, who signed her father’s death warrant when he was Florida governor and her papi was on death row.
Oh, yeah, in case you didn’t know: Pardo Pope is the daughter of a Hitler-loving serial killer sentenced to death by lethal injection.
Manuel Pardo was a Sweetwater cop-turned-vigilante who fatally shot nine people in three months back in 1986. He idolized Hitler, kept Nazi trinkets in his Hialeah apartment, tattooed his Doberman with a swastika, and told the court the only thing he regretted was that he didn’t kill 99 people instead of nine drug dealers for money and cocaine. Some say Manuel Pardo may have been the inspiration for the series Dexter, about a Florida medical examiner who becomes a vigilante serial killer.
Read related: Miami Beach commission candidate is daughter of cop-turned-serial-killer
Pardo Pope and her supporters say that shouldn’t matter. She can’t be accountable for her father’s crime. She was a child.
But she calls him her “hero” in her social media posts and it’s hard to ignore the Hitler-loving murderer details in a town with a large Jewish population. She is also tied to the Christian Family Coalition — an organization that hates women, gays and good books. Because, hey, let’s just offend everybody.
It’s also hard to ignore the partisanship in this race.
The Miami Beach commission races — like the county and the city of Miami races — are technically nonpartisan, but the MAGA presence in Republican Pardo Pope’s social media and messaging has been pretty obvious and that has turned this into a mini partisan war. Pardo Pope is a member of the Republican National Lawyers Association and has served as a Miami-Dade Republican Executive Committeewoman. Matteo-Salinas is a registered Democrat.
While the ballot doesn’t list party labels, the battle lines are political in every sense: home-town charm vs. “law & order,” progressive-leaning residents vs. conservative property owners and renters. This runoff may serve as a micro-test of where Miami Beach stands after a year of statewide conservative governance.
What’s at stake is important. Unless there’s a surprise rally, the three incumbents — plus the future winner in this race — will shape the next four years. That one seat could tilt big decisions on development, police enforcement, homelessness, and beach-front zoning. Real estate interests and developer money are sniffing around, and the outcome might decide who controls the fate of neighborhoods already stretched thin by tourism and luxury condos.
Both women have raised about the same amount of funds for their campaigns, according to the most recent finance reports filed with the city. Matteo-Salinas has collected $83,642, with many small donations from Miami Beach residents, but also including $25,000 of her own money. Pardo Pope has raised $94,064, including maximum $1,000 checks from former Commissioners Ricky Arriola and Jonah Wolfson and $38,000 loaned to herself. Pardo Pope has also provided $15,180 in in-kind contributions to her own campaign. So, that’s a $53,000 investment in getting elected.
Early voting starts next next Friday — conveniently overlapping with Art Basel weekend, when tens of thousands descend on Miami Beach. As the city swells with international art fans and tourists, locals who care about who represents them will need to fight crowds to get to the polls — or vote by mail.
Miami Beach voters — especially those who are not million-dollar investors — better not sit this out.
Because once the choice is made on Dec. 9, they won’t get another shot for four years.
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 Miami Beach commission runoff: Two women, one seat — and the city’s future appeared first on Political Cortadito.
Flagler Street fiasco: Downtown Miami ‘makeover’ is more like a make-under
Delayed project has merchants begging for help
Ladra doesn’t know who needs to hear this at City Hall, but East Flagler Street is not supposed to be a ghost town.
Black Friday is going to be blacker than usual on Miami’s oldest commercial corridor, where mom-and-pop shops — the same ones the politicians love to trot out during campaign season — are dying slow, painful deaths behind barricades that haven’t moved in nearly a year.
That’s right. Eleven months without a single pebble lifted, according to shop owners who have been watching the empty construction zone like it’s one of those Miami reality shows where nothing actually happens.
And after 4.5 years of this disaster? The only sparkling new thing on Flagler is the creative vocabulary of excuses.
Danny Moshe, co-owner of Miami Discount Center — a store he has run with his wife Jacqueline for more than 40 years — is so desperate he cried out to the highest office on a local news program. “President Trump, please help us,” he said to CBS News Miami last week. They’ve survived recessions, rent hikes, hurricanes, crime waves — but apparently they can’t survive a city project that’s supposed to help them.
“It’s two years almost and nothing is moving,” Danny told CBS. “Nobody is coming.”
Jacqueline adds: “We have to work seven days a week just to pay a little bit of the bills.”
Read related: Downtown, Brickell residents still question Miami DDA benefits, future
When longtime Downtown merchants are literally calling on the former president for help because they can’t get answers from the City of Miami or the Downtown Development Authority, that’s not just a red flag — that’s a five-alarm fire.
The grand five-phase plan was supposed to transform Flagler into a “curbless, festival-style” pedestrian paradise with brick pavers and fancy drainage. Very European. Very Instagrammable.
Very not happening.
Phase 1 opened in July. Mazel tov. Now, we’re in Phase Nope.
Everything west of NE 2nd Avenue? Crickets. Barricades. Dust. Ghost town. The construction company that was doing the work, Lanzo Construction, vanished like a Brickell renter who didn’t get their deposit back. The city won’t say why. Maybe something about FPL finding some “problems” with the plans?
Meanwhile, the small street retail businesses are the ones footing the bill. “Excuses,” says one owner. “Abandonment,” says another.
Daniel Cohen, owner of Sneak Peek Luxury — a high end sneaker shop — says he’s down 65% in sales. The only reason his store hasn’t closed is because his landlord gave him a break.
“Not one pebble or shovel was lifted for the better part of 11 months,” Cohen said. “They just keep finding problems.”
Read related: Miami city commission set to give away historic Olympia Theater — for $10
This summer, the Miami Downtown Development Authority, which has spearheaded the project, celebrated the reopening of — wait for it — two whole blocks of Flager Street after more than four years of construction hell. The makeover, launched in 2019, is touted as a full five-block transformation project to activate and bring life back to the street.
The DDA said in a statement that it has tried to mitigate the situation.
“The Miami DDA has been fully engaged in supporting Flagler businesses throughout construction and we remain committed to helping them navigate this period while the city manages the project,” said DDA Executive Director Christina Crespi in a statement. “We’ve provided more than $700,000 in grants to small businesses and provided direct support through our free permit clinic. We’re also working hard to bring customers back to the corridor. Our recent holiday lighting celebration is proof of that. The even drew more than 2,000 visitors and generated a 323% increase in foot traffic compared to last year.”
Cohen calls BS. That flashy holiday lighting celebration didn’t bother to promote the struggling local businesses who could desperately use a few hundred customers.
Because why help the actual merchants when you can take selfies with twinkle lights?
Also, by the way, $700,000 is about what the DDA spent last year on public relations and marketing — in salaries.
Read related: Effort to dissolve Miami DDA cites ‘bloated’ salaries, redundancy, UFC gift
Downtown Neighbors Association President James Torres, the lead force behind the effort to dissolve the DDA, said the project’s delays are yet another example of how the agency has failed the community.
“The DDA was instrumental in this project and it is now the road to nowhere, creating more blight in the downtown area,” Torres told Political Cortadito. “And many small businesses are closing and not making it.
“A Thanksgiving update on Flagler falling apart. Sad,” he said. “Honestly, the DDA gives downtowners nothing to be thankful about.”
Flagler Business Improvement Executive Director Terrell Fritz didn’t mince words in an email to businesses: “I assure you the BID has done nothing but facilitate, advocate, challenge, protest and be ignored for most of the 4.5 years of this fiasco.”
Ignored. For four and a half years.
What Flagler Street is supposed to look like once the project is done.
And city spokesman Kenia Fallat‘s response? Very polished. Very generic. Very… let’s say City Hall-ish: “We remain firmly committed to the continued revitalization…” yadda, yadda, yadda. Vibrancy. Character. Bonding company. Stakeholders. “World-class Miami.” We’ve heard it all before.
Meanwhile, real world Miami is watching their livelihoods evaporate behind plastic barricades and a construction plan that works about as well as the elevators at the MetroMover stations.
The real story: Small businesses are drowning while the city argues about whose fault it is.
This is the same city that can fast-track billion-dollar deals for developers in 30 seconds flat, but somehow can’t reopen a street that’s, what, six blocks long?
But sure — let’s blame the contractor, the bond company, FPL, COVID, the supply chain, the moon phase, Mercury retrograde…
Meanwhile, the Moshes are watching 40 years of sweat equity circle the drain.
“Open the street,” Moshe said. Simple. Straightforward. The kind of thing a functioning city government should be able to do.
And the city better hurry. Before there are no businesses left to “revitalize.”
This kind of independent, government watchdog reporting is crucial to transparency and democracy. Help shine a light on the darker corners of our community with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Click here. Ladra thanks you for your support.
The post Flagler Street fiasco: Downtown Miami ‘makeover’ is more like a make-under appeared first on Political Cortadito.
Did Miami-Dade’s Kionne McGhee ‘buy off’ a lawsuit with a county job?
Something stinks at Miami-Dade County, queridos, and it’s not the trash at the illegal dump sites Commissioner Kionne McGhee keeps complaining about. No — this is an entirely different kind of smell. A political one. A transactional one. A “wait, what did they just do?” kind of stench.
Let’s start at the beginning, because this story needs a flow chart.
The county’s Violence Prevention & Intervention Division — the outfit that runs domestic-violence shelters, injunctions, and victim services — had a division director vacancy gathering dust for years and years. They just kept shuffling people under interim leadership and hoping nobody noticed.
Then in July of 2023, something magical happened: Shareefah Robinson sued her employer, the non-profit Children of Inmates, for wrongful termination after she became a whistleblower on what she called fraudulent use of state funds by the president of the organization and “dear friend” of McGhee’s. Robinson also said they owed her back pay.
And just four days later, after years of nada, Miami-Dade County suddenly posts the long-vacant Violence Prevention and Intervention Division director job within the Community Action and Human Services Department. For a 14-day window.
Ladra has shoes that were on sale longer.
Read related: Miami-Dade committee punts hard on Kionee McGhee’s non-profit slush fund
Then things started moving inside CAHSD — which was divided last budget cycle into two departments — like someone flipped a panic switch. In October 2023, then Assistant Director Ivon Mesa — founder and chair of the Miami-Dade Human Trafficking Coalition — gets removed. Booted. Shipped off to the corrections department. Then, in January of 2024, guess who was suddenly introduced as the new division director? Lawsuit-filing Shareefah Robinson. Through the rest of the year, there’s a bunch of turnover, allegations against her, two complaints with the county’s Human Rights and Fair Employment Practices Division, cease and desist letters.
Meanwhile, Robinson’s lawsuit against Children of Inmates was quietly sitting in court, like a loaded gun.
And then, poof, it went away.
On or about November 6 or 7 of last year, while Robinson is safely in her new county director chair, her lawsuit is dismissed for failure to prosecute. Not settled. Not adjudicated. Just… oops, we no longer care. There had been no activity in ten months, the motion to dismiss states. If you do the math backwards, that means January — when she got her new job.
Very county employee with a new six-figure salary of her.
Robinson — who let her marriage and family therapy license from the Florida Department of Health expire in 2022 — is making $140,545 a year. Not only is that over the $137,125 cap on the job description, but it looks, from her resume, that Robinson may not be as qualified as other candidates, including internal candidates that had been working in victim services for years. She had been a clinic director at the Fort Lauderdale Comprehensive Treatment Center and the chief programming officer at Touching Miami With Love — another nonprofit that gets money from Miami-Dade County in partnership with organizations like The Miami Foundation and The Children’s Trust to fund initiatives for youth activities, parenting programs and adult training in Homestead, Florida City and Overtown.
Oh, and before that she was chief operating officer at Children of Inmates, where she was either fired for stealing time or for being a whistleblower, depending on who tells the story.
Read related: Kionne McGhee has own Miami-Dade budget town hall to focus on non-profits
Fast forward to the Sept. 18 county budget meeting, when McGhee — who has been dodging calls, texts, carrier pigeons, smoke signals and telepathy on this subject — casually announces: “I receive $175,000 from Children of Inmates.”
The same nonprofit Robinson sued. The same nonprofit whose lawsuit magically evaporated after Robinson was handed a division director job. The same nonprofit tied to the timeline of her suspicious fast-track into county leadership. The same nonprofit that got $250,000 from the county in the 2025-26 budget.
So let’s pull it all together: A woman sues a nonprofit for wrongful termination. She says the non-profit’s president, Shellie Solomon (McGhee’s girl) — who he recently honored at the Miami for Hope gala (what?) — is using the organization’s money to pay for her own parent’s care. The non-profit is tied to McGhee, who secured funds for it when he was a Florida state representative and has listed it as a revenue source in his financial disclosures for years. Four days after the lawsuit is filed — four days — a county job that’s been empty for years suddenly opens up, but only for two weeks. Leadership is rearranged. The woman suing the non-profit gets the job. And her lawsuit dies a quiet death.
But, no, no, I’m sure this is all just a coincidence. Miami-Dade County would never use jobs as bargaining chips. And commissioners would never have any influence over hiring in departments they oversee. And nonprofits would never pay commissioners who vote on budgets affecting them. Nunca. Jamás. Qué va.
Ay, please.
Read related: Miami-Dade might skim a little off the top of contracts — for the nonprofits
This entire thing smells like a politically arranged hush-hush settlement where the payout was a six-figure salary and great benefits. And Ladra is left with questions: Why was a critical job left open for years but rushed open days after a lawsuit was filed Why was it posted for only 14 days? Why did key leadership get removed or shuffled during the process? Why did the lawsuit die only after she was secured in her job?
And, most importantly, how did a county commissioner get involved to help his employer and his “good friend?”
McGhee hasn’t answered calls or texts for more than a week. His last text back was on Veteran’s Day. And he knows what it was about. In the last text on Wednesday, Ladra wrote that his silence would be taken as a no comment. “But you know why I am calling. If you can provide any information as to why Shareefah Robinson’s job was not a payoff to get her to drop her lawsuit vs Children of Inmantes, please call me. Thank you.”
He didn’t call me. Probably because he can’t unconnect the dots.
Robinson couldn’t be reached at her county office day after day. Ladra left messages. They were not returned.
But don’t worry. Ladra isn’t letting this go. Not when it’s domestic violence services — real life-and-death work — being used like political currency. The whole Violence Prevention and Intervention Division needs to be audited and public records need to be requested.
Stay tuned. Because the lawsuit might be dead, but its ghost is just coming to life.
This kind of independent, government watchdog reporting is crucial to transparency and democracy. Help shine a light on the darker corners of our community with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Click here. Ladra thanks you for your support.
The post Did Miami-Dade’s Kionne McGhee ‘buy off’ a lawsuit with a county job? appeared first on Political Cortadito.
MDC Trustees to vote again on Trump library land; still smells like a done deal
After two months of insisting that their September vote to hand over 2.6 acres of prime downtown real estate next to the Wolfson Campus for Donald J. Trump’s presidential library was perfectly fine, even though nobody knew about it, the Miami Dade College Board of Trustees suddenly decided Tuesday to take a “do-over” and hold a new vote.
A public one. With real notice this time. Where actual human residents can show up and say what they think.
They want a gold star for this. Ladra wants to roll her eyes all the way back to the Freedom Tower.
Read related: Lawsuit challenges MDC giveaway of downtown Miami lot for Trump library
Because make no mistake: They didn’t have a change of heart. They didn’t have a transparency epiphany. They got caught. They’re only re-noticing the vote because Miami historian and college professor Marvin Dunn sued to stop the giveaway and a judge granted the temporary injunction, basically telling them there is a “substantial likelihood” they violated the Sunshine Law when the voted Sept. 23 to convey the parking lot property — bounded by Northeast 5th Street, Northeast Second Avenue, Northeast 6th Street and Biscayne — to the Florida Board of Trustees for them to pass along to the Trump library foundation.
Dunn has already organized several protests and the court has already blocked the college from transferring any land while the lawsuit moves forward, and then set a trial for August of next year. The college was also denied a motion last month to expedite an appeal of the ruling that granted the injunction.
In other words, they kept losing in court. Which is exactly why MDC Board of Trustees Chair Michael Bileca, a former Republican state rep, shrugged and said, essentially: Whatever, let’s just revote and move on.
It wasn’t courage. It wasn’t conscience. It was CYA. And impatience to get the deal signed.
Dunn filed the lawsuit days after the vote, accusing the trustees of violating Florida’s Sunshine Law, because the notice was “unquestionably inadequate, and therefore unreasonable,” according to attorney Richard Brodsky.
Read related: Miami Dade College gifts Donald Trump land for his library — and a hotel
The college’s only public notice before the vote, posted a week before its Sept. 23 meeting, vaguely said the board would “discuss potential real estate transactions.” The agenda posted the day before didn’t even specify which property — let alone that the trustees were about to hand over 2.6 acres of prime downtown property worth more than $200 million that the school bought in 2004 for future growth and has been using as a parking lot in the meantime.
“This was not in any way, a typical or run-of-the-mill ‘real estate transaction,’” Dunn’s lawsuit states.
On Tuesday, Dunn celebrated the news. “We won,” he told The Miami Herald. “This is what we wanted them to do. Re-notice this and give the public a chance to appear and express our views, so we won. They caved.”
He’s already planning to pack the room at net’s week’s meeting, Dec. 2. He might not need to work too hard for that. The outrage has been organic. Ladra expects hundreds of people to show up. Better bring cafecito and comfortable shoes. And maybe some Xanax. Because here’s the kicker: Get ready for the board to vote the same way again — to give away the land. They basically said so already.
Not one trustee has hinted they’ll change their vote. Not. One. Ladra knows how Miami works. You don’t schedule a revote unless you already counted. In fact, Trustee Marcell Felipe — who always manages to sound annoyed that democracy takes time — complained the lawsuit was “a gigantic waste of taxpayer money” and said: “Let’s get it done, let’s put it to bed.”
Translation: We already know what we’re doing. This meeting is a formality. Show up, don’t show up — we’re still giving Trump the land.
Just look at who the trustees are: Bileca, Felipe, co-founder of the now defunct MegaTV and chairman of the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora, former State Reps. Jose Felix Diaz, Miami-Dade School Board Members Roberto Alonso and Mary Blanco — both originally appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis — Ismare Monreal, the chief operating officer at the city of Hialeah and a former legislative aide at the Florida House, and Juan Segovia, a homicide detective at the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office.
The real gigantic waste of taxpayer money, however, is the planned giveaway for the only presidential library in the nation planned with a hotel. Because of course it is. This land bought in 2004 for future growth and has been used as a parking lot in the meantime. Today’s value is estimated at more than $200 million.
Read related: Miami Mayor Francis Suarez gave Trump a key to city; gave us the finger
Trump’s foundation wants to raise $950 million — that’s almost a billion dollars for you English majors — to build this “legacy” project next to the Freedom Tower. MDC has not disclosed a single concession or benefit they negotiated for students or the college. Not one scholarship program. Not one academic partnership. Not one promise of anything.
They’re giving away 2.6 acres of prime downtown Miami real estate on Biscayne Boulevard and getting… what, exactly?
Silencio.
This new meeting might get loud. But it’s for optics only.
A little sunshine to make the lawsuit go away. A little public comment to make it look community-driven. A little performance of democracy before the unanimous trustees do what they came to do.
But hey — at least the public gets to say what they think about this to their faces this time.
You can help bring your community more independent, watchdog government reporting of our local government and political campaigns with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Click here. Ladra thanks you for your support.
The post MDC Trustees to vote again on Trump library land; still smells like a done deal appeared first on Political Cortadito.
Miami politicos silent on Donald Trump and Zohran Mamdani friendly meet-up
What a difference a chat makes.
It turns out that the big, scary socialist bogeyman that Miami politicians loved to weaponize in the recent mayor’s race — New York’s free Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, the one they tried to tie around Eileen Higgins’ neck like some kind of communism-flavored cowbell — is now, apparently, Donald Trump’s new bestie.
Yes, that Donald Trump. Yes, that Mamdani. And yes, the political world is spinning so fast Ladra’s cafecito almost spilled.
And while South Florida’s self-proclaimed defenders of freedom from the Red Menace are usually the first to jump on a microphone to scream “¡SOCIALISMO!” at anything from bus shelters to bike lanes, the Mamdani–Trump meet-and-greet last week has somehow left them all shockingly, suspiciously, strategically quiet.
The silence is so loud you can hear the echo bouncing off the windows at Versailles.
Read related: Partisan divide is strong in Miami mayoral race, Gonzalez vs Higgins
National outlets went into overdrive after Mamdani emerged from the Oval Office, where he had a surprisingly cordial and friendly chat with Trump and a whole lot of photographers.
CBS News had the receipts. AP confirmed the tone. Time, Newsweek and the Washington Post chronicled the confusion — especially among MAGA hardliners who suddenly didn’t know whether to clap, cry, or Google “Is socialism still bad?”
One conservative pundit called the moment “baffling.” Another warned the base to “play the long game.” Others were still rebooting their internal hard drives.
Meanwhile, progressives didn’t know whether to applaud or check the fire alarm. Some activists praised Mamdani for showing up and demanding real housing policy. Others muttered “betrayal” and “publicity stunt” between sips of overpriced cold brew.
But the best reaction? Oh, mis amigos, that would be the Florida Republicans — so chatty, so dramatic, so eager to compare Eileen Higgins to Fidel Jr. during the campaign — who suddenly went full monastic vow of silence.
Where are Miami’s anti-socialist avengers now? Let’s check in on the usual suspects:
Miami and Miami-Dade commissioners who shrieked “Mamdani! Mamdani!” into every microphone like it was Beetlejuice? Crickets.
State legislators who used “socialism” in their campaigns more often than “traffic,” “affordability,” or “take responsibility for anything”? Nada.
The politicians who smeared Eileen Higgins with guilt-by-association because Mamdani maybe aligns with her on transit or housing? Mute. Off. Airplane mode.
Where are all the warnings? Where is the outrage? Where are the dramatic press releases about Trump being infiltrated by Marxist ideology with a dash of saffron?
Apparently, when Trump himself plays footsie with the socialist boogeyman, the anti-socialist brigade suddenly develops a very convenient case of laryngitis.
Maybe they’re drafting a resolution condemning socialism except when Trump does it. Maybe they’re waiting for talking points from Tallahassee. Maybe they’re all just stunned that Dear Leader didn’t run Mamdani out of the Oval Office with a Bible and a canister of tear gas.
Even former City Manager Emilio González, who has recently promoted his endorsement for Miami mayor from The Donald, made like the Mamdani-Trump bromance was no big deal. But maybe he won’t honk that horn so loud now.
Read related: A GOP hugger vs. a developers’ darling — Miami’s mayoral race just got defined
While the national press dissected every angle — the optics, the messaging, the very awkward grin Trump flashed while Mamdani spoke — Miami’s political class remained curled up in the fetal position, rocking gently and whispering “This doesn’t fit the script.” Political observers have gently pointed out that local electeds are doing political calculus, trying to figure out whether this meeting makes socialism cool now or whether they’re supposed to spin it as a masterstroke of negotiation.
Real-estate insiders are nervously watching, wondering if Trump’s sudden willingness to speak about housing affordability could actually intersect with Mamdani’s policy ideas. Developers don’t care about ideology — just whether zoning changes make them money.
But the most terrified people in South Florida right now? The anti-socialist cheerleaders who spent the last election season fundraising off fear and fables.
Now they’re caught between defending Trump (mandatory), and denouncing Mamdani (instinctual), and reconciling the fact that their hero and their villain just sat down for a chat (impossible).
As if the universe wanted to rub salt in their wounds, the very same day Mamdani and Trump met, Congress — with heavy Florida involvement — advanced a symbolic resolution condemning socialism and denouncing it in all its forms. It was sponsored by Miami Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar and, even though she’s been scaring constituents about socialism since her first election, Mamdani’s name did come up.
“The Mamdani socialist agenda is seeping into our country like poison,” said House Republican Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain. “Republicans won’t let it take root.”
Um, except at the White House?
Read related: GOP candidates repeat the ‘won’t lose my country’ mantra in campaign ads
The MAGA base was baffled. Progressives were amused. Miami politicos suddenly remembered they had “no comment at this time.”
Even the ones who weaponized Mamdani’s name like a campaign cudgel couldn’t bring themselves to utter a single syllable. The silence is almost sweet.
So, what does this mean? It’s not so hard. Trump will talk to anyone who makes him look statesmanlike. Mamdani will talk to anyone who will listen to his housing points. And Miami’s politicians will talk about socialism — except when doing so could look like they’re criticizing Trump.
It’s not that they don’t have opinions. It’s that they don’t have permission to say them yet. Once someone in Tallahassee or Mar-a-Lago decides the official line — “genius move,” “nothingburger,” “deepfake,” whatever — the talking will resume.
Until then? They’ll stay quiet and hope nobody remembers all those speeches, tweets, and mailers where they swore Mamdani was the biggest threat to democracy since salami on a medianoche.
The Cortadito conclusion: Trump met with the socialist our local politicos used to frighten Miami voters. Mamdani walked out standing his ground, unshaken, and pretty clearly amused. The national press went nuts. The MAGA base short-circuited. And South Florida’s loudest anti-socialist crusaders — the ones who slandered Eileen Higgins with guilty-by-retweet nonsense — have suddenly turned into mimes.
If Ladra didn’t know better, she’d think they were embarrassed.
But let’s be real. They’re not embarrassed. They’re just waiting to see how to spin it so they don’t have to admit the obvious: Their whole “Mamdani = Evil Socialist Threat” act was a cheap campaign scare tactic that just blew up spectacularly in their faces.
Until then, the silence will have to do.
And oh, qué rico it is.
