Authorities need to investigate the latest campaign finance report filed Monday by Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo, and not because it’s several months late, for which the commissioner should be fined.
One expenditure on the campaign termination report — which closes out the account for the 2017 campaign — smells questionable and should raise eyebrows in law enforcement circles: A $59,820.47 payment for mailers to Tania Cruz on November 20.
Tania Cruz is not a campaign consultant who does mailers, even though she billed almost $100,000 total to Carollo’s campaign for just that. She is an attorney who also got $1,300 paid in the same Carollo report for legal fees, and, more importantly, the daughter-in-law of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez. She is married to the mayor’s lobbyist son, CJ Gimenez, who has become nearly a fixture in Carollo’s office. She was emailed by Carollo’s attorney against the strong mayor referendum two minutes after he received confirmation the case was filed.
Read related: Mayor Carlos Gimenez clan involved in Joe Carollo lawsuit vs strong mayor
She is also, however, the rumored girlfriend of Alex Diaz de la Portilla, (remember that Boston Police caught them smoking in a hotel room together?) who is said to be the real author behind some of Carollo’s more hateful mailers calling Tommy Regalado a communist and  Zoraida Barreiro a whore.
But those mailers would have been sent weeks earlier, like when Tania Cruz (photographed here talking to Carollo’s wife on the campaign trail) got $3,382 on October 13 or $5,640 on October 23 or $5,880.60 on October 25. At the very  least, they would have been covered by the $17,998 paid on November 6, which was when both Regalado and Barreiro were eliminated anyway.
That’s a total of $39,900 to Tania Cruz (aka Alex Diaz de la Portilla) for the first round.
But another $60K would have covered, more or less, 10 mailers, according to sources who are legitimate vendors and do this kind of thing for real. Ten mailers sent between November 6 and the runoff Nov. 20 against Alfie Leon? Seems unusual, at best, a complete fabrication at worst, that there were 10 negative mailers sent.
Read related: Gimenez family hit in Senate campaign… ADLP’s wag the dog?
“It seems calculated, like that was exactly what was left over at the end of the campaign,” said one legitimate campaign consultant who knows what he’s talking about.
“It’s a shell game. No way they sent 10 mailers at the end like that,” said another.
So what did that money really pay for? Or who did it really go to?
Mail is pretty easy to track down and prove. Even the United States Postal Service should have records. This should not be a difficult thing for the State Attorney’s Office to look into.
Or maybe it can be the 18th complaint against Joe Carollo at the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust?

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The big news isn’t that Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo fired his one-time campaign manager, right hand man and District 3 Liasion Steven Miro. The big news is why.
Sources tell Ladra that Miro made a complaint to the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office recently about Carollo using city funds and city personnel to campaign for Alex Diaz de la Portilla‘s county commission bid, which the former senator lost, coming in third, last month. This about those events at almost every elderly public housing facilities and comedores in the district — and maybe $3,000 or so worth of paella. 
Miro would not comment on the investigation into Carollo using city funds and people — practically everyone on his staff — to promote Diaz de la Portilla. Both men are in a photograph here from Carollo’s own Instagram account, posted May 19, at the Little Havana Nutrition and Activities Center, handing out paper platefuls of paella. Miro would only say that he had hired Matthew Sorelson as his attorney to sue for wrongful termination. “I was given no justification. I am not a slacker. I work,” he said.
Sorelson works with JC Planas and was one of the lawyers working for Alfie Leon, who challenged Carollo’s residency days after he lost last year’s commission runoff election, with only 47%. Leon lost his final appeal last month when a judge, in essence and loathe to overturn an election, basically said he acted too late. Sorelson confirmed to Ladra Wednesday night that he had been retained by Miro but would not comment further on the merits of the case.
Carollo did not return two calls and two text messages to he and his wife’s cellphones late Wednesday. But if it’s true, it would be a little ironic in the sense that Carollo said he was fired as city manager in Doral by Luigi Boria because he was cooperating in state attorney led investigations against the then mayor. He was a whistleblower. Now he is firing the guy who blew the whistle on him?
Ladra has three sources, including one very close to the investigation, who told her that Miro had made the complaint to the SAO in recent weeks. And it may be a good one: There are photos all over social media indicating that Carollo used city resources to campaign for Alex. “This week, I was able to visit our seniors and bring a paella lunch,” Carollo wrote on the Instagram Post. Facebook photos on his wife’s page from an event at another public housing facility are posted under “A big day! Supporting senator Alex Diaz de la Portilla in his career to the Miami-Dade County Commission District 5.”
There are also a number of complaints against Carollo being investigated simultaneously by the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust — which should maybe just open a Carollo division. Miro, we’ve been told, is included in at least one of those complaints.
Read related: We get Joe Carollo in Miami — and all the drama, interest it comes with
But of course he is. In fact, people for the most part think of him as Carollo’s go-to guy for all the dark stuff. Miro practically ran Carollo’s campaign. Blogger Al Crespo called Miro the commissioner’s “enforcer,” and here they are, seemingly buds, on the night of Carollo’s victory a little more than six months ago.
“Since Carollo has been Commissioner, Miro was the guy who it was claimed would show up at your door if you pissed Joe off, like he was alleged to have done a couple months ago when he showed up with cops and tried to get the owners of that illegal sandwich shop on SW 8th Street arrested,” Crespo wrote when he announced the firing in his blog this week.
One can’t help but wonder if that’s one of the ethics complaints.
So what made Miro, who has been carrying Carollo’s mud for years, suddenly turn around and turn him in to the SAO?
Well, dicen las malas lenguas that it was because he supported Zoraida Barreiro, like Carollo was reportedly going to do until he pulled the old switcheroo again at the last minute. Barreiro — who made it into the runoff June 19 against Eileen Higgins — had endorsed Carollo against Leon after she came in third in the Miami race. And Crazy Joe was expected to return the favor. Only he apparently changed his mind. At least he did it this time before Barreiro called a press conference about his endorsement.
But it might also be because it is one thing to take some uniforms with you to flex some muscle with a sandwich guy that has no permits but refuses to close shop, and it is quite another to steal public dollars for political favors. And the line has to be drawn somewhere.

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Yes, we already know that former State Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla is the biggest loser in the special shotgun wedding election in Miami-Dade District 5, getting shut out of the runoff by Zoraida Barreiro and Eileen Higgins — his third loss in a hisif.
Fifth, if you count his brothers’ defeats. 
And, yes, Higgins is the big winner, with an upset that surprised even herself.
But, as usual, there are other winners and losers from the race. And they are:
WINNERS
Miami-Dade Democrats — Local Democrat leadership put a lot of effort and money into the non partisan race backing Higgins, the sole Democrat against three Republicans (Carlos Garin doesn’t count with only 5%). The party paid the pricy consultant’s bills. Even Tallahassee Mayor and gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum reached out, tweeting to voters during early voting that they should support Higgins. And it is the third special election win for them in six months, with Sen. Annette Taddeo beating former State Rep. Jose Felix “Pepi” Diaz and lobbyist Javier Fernandez beating the much better financed Andrew Vargas, a proxy for former State Rep. and U.S. Ambassador Carlos Trujillo. No doubt Juan Cuba is in a good mood these days.
Women — No matter what happens in the runoff June 19, there will be another woman on the commission, and that is a good thing because it will make the dais more balanced. While there can never me an even split among 13 board members, it was 8 men and 5 women when Bruno Barreiro, who resigned from this seat to run for Congress, was on the dais. No matter what, it is now 7-6.
Christian Ulvert — After helping Annette Taddeo this pretty much solidifies Ulvert as the go-to golden boy for special elections. But that is not all he’s done. He has also now beat a Diaz de la Portilla three times: First in 2012 with Jose Javier Rodriguez against ADLP in House District 112, then with J-Rod again against Miguel Diaz de la Portilla for the Senate in 2016. And now this. Eh, just another notch in his belt. Over the past decade or so, Ulvert has built an operation to help Democrats get elected. There was State Rep. Luis Garcia, J-Rod (three times), Miami-Dade Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava, former Miami Beach mayor and gubernatorial candidate Philip Levine. Watch: The Democrats are going to name a sandwich after him. And then he’ll be even more cocky.
Voters — After weeks of terrible negative attacks against the two dynasty candidates — even Higgins got a swing or two in there — voters will likely get a reprieve. Not from all the negative mail. Just from the really ugly kind. There might still be some reference to the Bruno love for the Marlins deal or overly dramatic concern over Higgins’ lack of history here. But it’s not going to be evil. En otras palabras, now that Alex is gone, nobody will be calling anyone a communist whore.
LOSERS
“Crazy” Joe Carollo — The Miami Commissioner endorsed ADLP and even went with him to distribute pastelitos and swag at campaign events in elderly housing and comedores.  It could have been a tit tat thing, since ADLP helped Carollo win his commission seat last year. Or it could just be that the Dean has burned so many bridges and friends that he is forced to scrape the bottom of the barrel.
Carlos “Mr. Giveaway” Gimenez — The Miami-Dade mayor endorsed ADLP and his family — and principally his son CJ Gimenez, the mediocre but well-connected lobbyist — reportedly worked on the senator’s campaign. Now they can go back to hanging out in Joe Carollo’s office.
Did I forget someone? In either column? Please feel free to share in a comment below any winners and/or losers that escaped Ladra’s attention.
Until the next election — which happens to be in 27 days.

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In a last ditch effort to motivate Democrat voters in the Miami-Dade Commission District 5 race, a number of state and local Dems are doing a full press court for Eileen Higgins, the sole blue candidate among three Republicans in this non partisan race.
“My friend Eileen Higgins has the commitment, smarts and energy to be a wonderful public servant,” posted state Rep. Nicholas Duran. “#EarlyVoting runs through the weekend and #ElectionDay is May 22nd #GoVote @eyesonmyworld has my support.”
Miami Commissioner Ken Russell and congressional candidate Matt Haggman are among the many Dems that are trying to get blue voters engaged.
All the way from Tallahassee, Mayor Andrew Gillum took a break from his gubernatorial campaign to talk with Higgins and then encourage his followers to support her: “Had a great chat with @eyesonmyworld earlier today and we need to help get her across the finish line THIS coming Tuesday 5/22 in Miami-Dade,” Gillum tweeted Saturday, referring to Higgins’ and her twitter handle. “She’s the progressive leader we  need. Get involved & make a plan here,” he went on, posting the website and #BlueWave2018.
A day earlier, Miami-Dade Democrats tweeted “Of 200K+ residents, 1K have voted early in person and 6K have voted by mail. This special election will come down to turn out. Last chance, remind your friends in District 5 to vote Eileen Higgins @eyesonmyworld this weekend, before election day.”
Even though this is a non partisan race, Democrats have an opportunity here to advance someone new via the very motivated anti-Trump voters and, possibly, change the balance of power on the county commission. They are taking this very seriously. At both the Democratic primary debates for the Congressional District 27 race, Democrats have told the audience to vote for Higgins and to tell their friends to, too.
The recent tweets take that push to a new level. And maybe it pushed  more people out to vote on the last day of early voting Sunday, with 252 people casting ballots at the four libraries, only two fewer than on the first day. But, seeing as how it is also the last day, maybe the tweets did nada. It’s not direct voter contact. Higgins needs a robocall. Or two.
The total for early voting, which generally tends to lean Democrat, is 1,698. That compares to 7, 029 absentee ballots, which generally tend to lean Republican, that were returned as of Friday. Ladra expects at least another 500 between now and Tuesday.
Higgins is the sole Democrat running against two Republicans to replace former Commissioner Bruno Barreiro, who resigned abruptly last month to run for Congress. Well, three, but nobody counts radio host Carlos Gorin. Not when you have former Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla and Zoraida Barreiro, the commissioner’s wife, sucking all the air out of the room.
How come we don’t see Marco Rubio tweeting for his old House mate? Or Ileana tweeting for Zoraida? Feels like the Republican establishment is just not as gung-ho about their prospects in this race.

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If ever there was a race where absentee ballots was going to make the deciding factor, it is the special shotgun wedding election in Miami-Dade’s County District 5.
Four candidates are vying to replace Bruno Barreiro, who resigned last month so he could run for Congress: His wife, Zoraida Barreiro, former Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla, radio show host and former Telenovela star Carlos Gorin and Democrat activist and dark horse contender Eileen Higgins.
Election Day is on Tuesday, but it’s possible that the winner has already been decided.
As of Wednesday, there had been 6,703 ABs returned to the elections office, which is almost 30% of the 22,388 that went out. By the end of the day Friday, it will likely have surpassed the 7,088 that were returned during the last big contest in that district: 2012’s challenge to Barreiro by former State Rep. Luis Garcia. It’s only 385 ABs short. On Wednesday alone, 382 came in.
Read related: Miami-Dade special District 5 election is really a race for No. 2 on Tuesday
Sure, the Garcia vs Barreiro bout was a presidential primary and this is a shotgun wedding special election in a non presidential year that some people still don’t know is happening. But it’s the closest thing we could find to compare. There were two other nobodies running in that race, too, forcing the runoff after Barreiro failed to get 50%, even though he led ABs by about 1,500, a margin he was able to keep in the general, when it did make the difference in a 52-48 split.
In that first round in 2012, Barreiro got 3,784 absentee votes. Those are the ones that his wife — who only captured 676 ABs in the city District 3 election last year — is going after.
That same August in 2012, Alex DLP beat Zory’s brother-in-law, former State Rep. Gus Barreiro, in the Republican primary for State House 114 with 59% of the vote. In that first round, ADLP got 2,145 ABs.
You do the math.
Every campaign is going after those ABs hard. Barreiro told Ladra that voters have called her to report that people had already tried some shenanigans in Section 8 housing — hotbeds of absentee ballots, like fishing in a barrel.
Hopefully, the authorities are looking at these numbers, too, and have people in place to catch any fraud or intimidation.
 

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Nothing like a little fire under your, er, feet to get those contributions coming in, eh?
Candidates in the special election for Miami-Dade Commission District 5 have less time than probably anyone in the history of special commission races to raise funds. The election is May 22. So, basically, they’ve had little more than a month.
So far, heir apparent Zoraida Barreiro, wife of former Commissioner Bruno Barreiro, who resigned abruptly March 31, is leading the pack in contributions with $55,500, more than twice the next candidate, which is not former State Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla. No, Alex comes in third behind newby candidate, Eileen Higgins, a Democrat activist with an impressive first report of $25,080.
Yeah, okay, so she loaned herself $5,000 and another $3,000 came from relatives. The donations on her campaign finance report — all filed through April 20 — also include some notable contributions from notable Democrats like former Pinecrest Mayor Cindy Lerner, former Miami-Dade Commissioner Katy Sorenson and Robert Cava, husband of Miami-Dade Commisioner Daniella Levine Cava. Notable because each of those people could raise Eileen another $10,000 each if they wanted to and they really expect her to compete.
Read related: Special Miami-Dade commission race has us entre un rock y un hard place
Higgins also has $5,000 in six bundled contributions from companies owned by or tied to Uri Benhamron and Gary Ressler. Maybe she’s not such a newby, after all.
She has also spent $1,080 on t-shirts and buttons and $2,100 on an event for senior citizens. See? She knows what she’s doing.
Dean DLP is lagging behind with $16,500, more than half of which ($9,500) is loaned to himself. So he’s actually got just $7,000 (as of April 20) in all maximum gifts, from people who believe in him, which include a wine distributor in Broward and a software company in Chicago. He also already got a $1,000 donation from a political action committee called Floridians for Strong Leaders that Ladra couldn’t find in the state or county databases. But it leads us to the most likely scenario: Alex has a PAC already or a 501C3. He likes soft money more than hard money. And there’s money that should be there. Where is all the Disney money? Where is all the lobbyist Tallahassee money? Where is all the American Nightmare money (since his brother Miguel is the lobbyist on record for the megamall)?
But Ladra looked and couldn’t find any new PACs with his name on them filed at the county or state. The Dean has Floridians for Responsible Solutions, which did collect $20,000 in February, at a time when Alex was staying in a Tallahassee Econolodge — oh, how the mighty have fallen — so he was probably lobbying something or other. But nothing obvious for this race. Not yet, that is.
So Zoraida Barreiro may truly be leading in campaign finance pole position with her $55,500. None of that is loaned to herself so it’s all from donors. Kudos Mrs. B!
But a few chunks of it are bundled, like the $5,000 from companies owned by or tied to veteran developer Sergio Pino, $4,000 from Demetrio Perez companies, $3,000 from Beach Towing and their lobbyist and $2,000 each from developer Armando Guerra and the city of Miami firefighters union.
She also has $1,000 from Balsera Communications, which makes Ladra go hmmmmm. Because CJ Gimenez, the county mayor’s favorite son, works for Freddy Balsera, who has worked for Carlos Gimenez. Wouldn’t they naturally be supporting DLP? Or is the happy love triangle over?
Zory has also spent the most through April 20, with more than $11,000 out — including almost $7,000 for a mailer and $1,000 for a ticket to a Miami-Dade Gay and Lesbian Chamber event. ADLP, meanwhile, spent $5,423.15 so far, including about $4,000 for a mailer and $850 for printing. Can’t see him going after the LGBT vote.
But with a little more than three weeks left before this bizarre election is over, one thing is certain: Mo’ money is gonna fly.
It’s flying already.

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