Talk about being stuck between an evil rock and an evil hard place.
Voters in Miami-Dade commission district five have a short time to come to terms with the limited and poor choices they have to replace former Commissioner Bruno Barreiro, who abruptly resigned last month to run for Congress — with the intent to open the door wide for his wife to step into his shoes.
Barreiro didn’t have to make his resignation, required by the new amendment to Florida’s “resign to run” law, effective immediately. He could have made it so that it was effective later, like in August when there is already a primary planned, but that would have meant giving other potential candidates a fair shot. Doing it this way gives the missus, fresh off a loss in a city of Miami commission race, an advantage. Everybody knows Bruno resigned the way he did to help Zoraida Barreiro get a leg up, with an election machine already up and running from last year’s campaign. Notice, already, that she hits the ground with a bigger campaign account (more on that later).
Little did Bruno know, however, that former State Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla would be the evil dwarf wizard to ruin his plan for an easy peasy gimme seat.
And abra cadabra presto! It suddenly becomes a promisingly entertaining race between these two family dynasties, which have battled it out before, because, let’s face it, as awesome a candidate as Eileen Higgins may be — and the activist has an impressive first campaign report with $25,000 (more than ADLP) — she would need everybody and their mothers in Miami Beach, the Roads and Brickell to vote for her in order to make up for the high performance voters in Little Havana who are going to go with one of the Cuban Republicans, pero por supuesto.
Yeah, sure, okay, keep telling yourself this is a non-partisan race. It’s a non-partisan seat. This is Little Havana. Every race is partisan. You know somebody is going to get called a communist. My pesos convertibles are on la gringa Democrata.
So, yes, the two Hispanic Republicans with enviable name recognition have a huge lead against anybody else here. Unless Higgins can keep the ka-ching coming and gets big Dem machinery to reel in the aforementioned Brickell-South Beach sweep. It’s not an unreasonable request. Local Democrats, which outnumber Republicans in Miami-Dade but have lagged behind in municipal races, have made no secret about the fact that they have been recruiting for county and city seats, including the county mayoral race. Couldn’t they at least find a Hispanic Dem for this? Former Congressman Joe Garcia‘s name was floated but Ladra suspects he’s holding out for the 2020 mayoral matrix (more on that later).
Dean DLP has beaten a Barreiro before. In 2012, he won the Republican primary to go back to the Florida House against Gus Barreiro, Bruno’s estranged brother. But then he lost the general election to Jose Javier Rodriguez, who beat his bigger and better brother Miguel just last year to become a Senator. Then Alex lost a Senate primary out in Kendall against Jose Felix Diaz — 58% to 26%, beating Lorenzo Palomares by less than 10 points — who ultimately lost to Annette Taddeo in the general.
In between, he helped both brothers lose elections of their own, got on board a medical marijuana advocacy group and started to write legislation, flirted with running for Miami commission — or maybe he was just threatening us — and now he has landed in this commission race. God help us. While Ladra still thinks ADLP has a brilliant political mind, it is a brilliant and evil political mind, full of paranoid conspiracy theories and sinister plot twists. And his grudges are legendary. If he is elected, se van a pagar muchas cuentas. And the American Nightmare Mall, for which is brother is a lobbyist, will get whatever it wants.
Read related: Alex Diaz de la Portilla will tell us how we can smoke pot
But it could happen, ladies and gentlemen. This could be the comeback story of the decade. Even without the backing from the likes of Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo and Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez — ADLP is part of the mayor’s friends and extended family plan now — he was already a formidable candidate. The Dean loves to campaign and he’s good at it. Better than most people Ladra knows. Better ‘an anybody, maybe. It’s scary good. Did I mention he loves it?
God help us.
On the other hand, Zoraida Barreiro is said to be the smartest Barreiro — though that’s not saying a lot. She’s also a woman, but that can play against her in the misogynistic Cubano viejo crowd, believe it or not. The best thing she’s got going is the political machinery, still oily and warm from recent use and contacts with the bulk of Cuban American absentee voters through her home health care business. High performance Miami voters saw her at their homes just a few months ago — while ADLP was knocking on 17 doors, y cuidado con eso, in Westchester, of all places — and they’ll remember her. Him? Didn’t his brother just lose a Senate seat to some Harvard arrepentido amigo de Obama?
Zoraida has also been able to garner the most early financial support. Do donors, usually the government insiders, know something we don’t?
But, while I try not to judge a person by their spouse, she’s going to have to do more than base her campaign almost entirely on her marital status, which she did last time. That’s not healthy. And it’s for nothing, because it didn’t help her even get to second place in the District 4 city commission race, where she landed third behind someone named Alfie Leon. Exactly. Now she’s going up against a real name. And while Alex may not attack her directly — because se ve mal for a caballero, which he pretends to be, to attack a female and old Cuban voters don’t like that — you can bet he’ll beat up on Bruno. And the missus gets the muck by marriage.
The fourth candidate is a La Poderosa radio show host who hasn’t raised any money and is the third Republican behind the two big names anyway, so he’s not getting blue votes or red votes. Carlos Garin is wasting his time and getting himself a headache for no good reason. At least Higgins has a tiny sliver chance if the two families split the GOP votes and every single registered Democrat votes for her.
One can hope, can’t one? Lo ultimo que se pierde es la esperanza.

Read Full Story

So far and between the five of them, the candidates in the Senate 40 race last week spent close to $3 million to replace Frank Artiles, who was forced to resign in April after he was caught making racist remarks to black legislators in a public place.

Key words: So far.

The Republican primary paid the bulk of that and due to former State Rep. Jose Felix Diaz, who spent a whopping $2.1 million between his campaign and his political action committee, Rebuild Florida. That translates to about $274.78 per vote for the 7,678 GOP voters who made him their nominee for the September general. That is as of the latest reports through July 20. He will have spent more in the last five days and we will know how much when the next reports come in. It could easily be a total of $3 million all by himself the way Diaz was buying TV buys and mail, which would drive that ballot price up to $390 a vote.

And we can’t yet determine what was spent on his behalf through the Making a Better Tomorrow PAC because it has not reported any expenses for June (more on that later). So, his election could have. arguably, cost more than $400 a vote.

Read related story: Jose Felix Diaz and Annette Taddeo win SD40 with more money, mail

Diaz easily paid the most for his overwhelming 58-26 victory and some (read: Dem choice Annette Taddeo and her supporters) will say he bought this election.

Former Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla, who mostly self-funded his campaign with a $443,500 loan (for a total of $496,220), paid the next highest per vote, at $146.03 for each of his 3,398 votes. But he didn’t spend the money very wisely. Ladra didn’t hear much radio and saw one TV commercial on the weekend before the vote, after he had already lost via absentee ballots. I don’t think this house got one mailer from him. Guess most of his nut really went to buying the fake followers on Twitter.

Lorenzo Palomares, while still way behind with only $85,900 to spend (and $62,500 of that was his own loan to himself), still spent more than twice as much as the highest spending Democrat. Palomares, who might have done better had he kept the Starbuck name, spent $38 each for the 2,217 votes he got.

Read related story: Democrats start to hit Jose Felix Diaz — before the GOP primary is over

In the Democratic contest, Taddeo had more money, with $122,548 between her campaign account and her PAC, Fight Back Florida. It allowed her to spend $17.26 per vote because she had 7,101 people vote for her (only 580 people fewer than voted for Diaz with his $2.1 mil). Former State Rep. Ana Rivas Logan, who raised only $13,600, spent $4.51 for each of her 2,941 votes.

Of course, all these ballot prices — which could be record-breaking (does anyone know?) — will increase when the final reports are in next month. But this gives us a peek at the exorbitant amount of money Republicans spent to try to keep this seat, which they just flipped in November, red.

You can be sure that the general will see at least as much, if not much more spent. Diaz is a prolific fundraiser and while Taddeo is not, the Democrats want to keep that seat and will turn to national donors in order to do it. She’ll spend more than $122,000 in the next two months. She has to close the gap ($17.26 vs. $275) if she wants to compete in this next round.

The political consultants and graphic houses that are working on this campaign should send Artiles a #thanksFrank gift basket.

Some voters in Senate District 40 got a mail piece this week that attacks former State Rep. Jose Felix “Pepi” Diaz for being a lobbyist. But it wasn’t any of his opponents in the GOP primary who put the piece out. It was the Democrats.

The mailer is paid for by the Florida Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee and says that “Dirty Diaz” is a “superhero for special interests, a villain to Miami families.” The front has a cartoon character in a suit or buglar eye mask — legislator by day, lobbyist by night — and while its not a Bitstrip, the character looks a little like Pepi Diaz alright. Down to the facial hair and the smirk.

“Don’t expect Dirty Diaz to represnt us in the Senate. His lobbying clients pay much more,” it says, adding that he voted to raise property taxes and increase property insurance costs.

But this may not be just bad news for Pepi Diaz. This mailer could be bad news for former Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla and constitutional attorney Lorenzo Palomares, who is likely to win the bronze, because it could mean the Dems think Diaz is going to win the primary. DLP might tell you that they’re hedging their bets, since he has already been hit with so much negativity.

But why waste the money if there’s a chance DLP wins? Why not wait until after the primary? Why not put everything together and have it ready to pull the trigger on Wednesday next week?

Unless… hmm, could it be they are trying to help DLP because he’s an easier target in the general? Ladra thinks that Diaz is a much tougher challenge in the general, principally because of the amount of money he has and has shown to be able to raise, but also because DLP is less moderate than Pepi Diaz, who — especially with his mother and wife being public school teachers — will be more easily able to get NPAs and peel some Democrat votes in the general than the Dean, especially when he’s been channeling The Donald.

So could this be Senate Democrats actually being smart?

Sure, the mailer was sent to an NPA. But it was sent to an NPA with a super voter Republican in the house. You don’t think they know that?

¡Que arroz con mango!

The Senate 40 race has become a total telenovela in the final weeks, with a five-year old, out-of-state misdemeanor arrest record surfacing at the last minute, implicating something selatious and improper between former Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla and the daughter-in-law of the county mayor, who were taken into custody together in a Boston non-smoking hotel room where they were chainsmoking, despite repeated warnings, on a late rainy night.

Shortly after the 2012 incident was first reported in the Herald last week, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez withdrew his support for The Dean’s opponent, former State Rep. Jose Felix “Pepi” Diaz. Gimenez will not be the guest star, after all, at a fundraiser planned next week at the Biltmore Hotel (which Ladra assumes will be cancelled), citing the negativity of the Diaz campaign.

“He believes that the tone of that particular race has been unnecessarily negative and will not be endorsing any candidate in that primary,” said Gimenez spokesman Michael Hernandez, because, apparently, the mayor’s political life and endorsments is part of Mike’s job now, too.

Also, btw, the race has been unneccessarily negative for weeks and it wasn’t until his family’s dirty laundry started to come out that G found the campaign offensive.

But what if the information didn’t come from Pepi Diaz? What if it came from ADLP himself? Wait for it… wait for it. I know! Brilliant, right? The guy’s a genius!

If Pepi Diaz — or any of the Tallahasee ghosts who are supporting him (more on that later) — wanted to expose this embarassing episode (forget the girl, the behavior is atrocious enough), they would have spilled the Boston beans before the absentee ballots went out on June 27 . Not weeks after people have already voted.

And ADLP isn’t hurt by this. He is not the married one. In the eyes of most Cuban-American Westhchester super voters, he has done nothing wrong. Heck, some of them will want to high-five him. It may pain Ladra to say it, but this doesn’t resonate. Sure, ella es una sucia, azqueroza. But she is not running for office. And him? He’s a charming, womanizing, fast-talker who has women throw themselves at him all the time. El no tiene la culpa. He’s not to blame, they’ll say.

Ahora, el sinverquenza que saco los trapos? Yep, this actually hurts Pepi, who is seen as the desperate villain who besmirched a woman’s name to get elected and, to boot, won’t have the extra dollars that he expected to have for the end game from a Gimenez anointment. Notice that the news of the arrests came only a couple days after the announcement that the mayor — who should have stayed out of the primary out of loyalty to ADLP for his 2011 win — would headline the Biltmore event for Pepi.

This must have irked The Dean. After all he’s done for that cardboard box! It’s not completely unreasonable to think that he put this arrest info out himself to get the cancellation and also a little bit of free publicity as the smeared former Senator trying to defend “the mother of two young girls,” as he said in the Herald story. Another thing: Tania Cruz, the daughter-in-law in question (and this is the good one), gave a long and impassioned statement as well — which there is no way she would have done without ADLP’s consent. In fact, Ladra suspects he wrote her comments.

Then, boom! Gimenez canceled on Diaz.

Then, boom, boom! His lobbyist son and the presumed tarrudo, CJ Gimenez, also lashed out at Pepi Diaz on Facebook Thursday.

“For those of you that did not receive the latest email from the Jose Felix Diaz campaign due to limited circulation, my father, Mayor Carlos Gimenez is no longer involved with the Rep. Jose Felix Diaz event at the Biltmore on July 18th citing the negative tone of the campaign,” wrote CJ, who celebrated an anniversary with his wife only weeks ago.

“My position (me, CJ Gimenez, not the Mayor) is that I am utterly disgusted with the actions of the Jose Felix Diaz campaign and their pathetic personal attacks against me and my family. So I ask you, do not reward Jose Felix Diaz with your support. Please share this post with your friends and family! I thank you!”

Ladra was told that his other sister-in-law (the bad one) also posted something on Facebook about it.

But what if they’re being played by one of the best in the business? Yes, it would be somewhat Machiavellian to have orchestrated this wag the dog scenario right in front of our eyes.

But look who we’re talking about here.

Brilliant!

And the hits just keep on coming against former Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla in the Republican primary for Senate District 40, a special summer election brought to you by the arrogant, drunken, racist rants of former Sen. Frank Artiles, who was forced to resign.

That the attacks are coming from or on behalf of Artiles’ best friend and Tallahassee roommate make this offended morality campaign somewhat ironic. But you have to admit, Alex, as the OG Repulican bad boy, makes an easy mark.

Former State Rep. Jose Felix Diaz has waged an almost entirely negative campaign against Dean DLP. It has overshadowed the earlier question of who is more Republican (which one of Pepi Diaz’s operatives took issue with on my Facebook page, without disclosing she was a paid operative). He sent two bland pieces early on — a bio intro with a family portrait and a “jobs, jobs, jobs” piece that seemed like a cut and paste from insert Republican candidate here — and two more last week, when absentee ballots came out. They are unmemorable except for the one that makes it seem like he is for raising the minimum wage. “Bigger salaries for our community,” the headline says in Spanish. The fine print explains that it is about allegedly creating jobs by cutting regulations to businesses.

Other than that, Pepi’s campaign has been all about Alex. Even the two TV commercials that Ladra has seen have been mostly about not voting for Diaz de la Portilla. Don’t get me wrong, DLP is not without faults. There are reasons not to vote for him. But are there any reasons to vote for Pepi other than voting against Alex? You can’t tell from his campaign.

Diaz will swear he has nothing to do with the multiple attack mailers and, now, a new, anti-DLP website paid for by Making A Better Tomorrow, a Venice, Fla-based political action committee. But he knew it was coming. And he uses the same language and images in his TV commercials.

He could stop it if he wanted to. Don’t be fooled, dear reader, by the aw shucks Gomer Pyle smile. Remember, Mr. Amicable Pepi Diaz is the same guy who allowed a campaign against former State Rep. Ana Rivas Logan to question her Cuban roots and cast her as an unfit mother simply because she wouldn’t move out of the district they were drawn into together. And it’s not like Diaz has to hit him. The mainstream media is doing its part, most recently with a surprise report days ago about a 2012 arrest in Boston for smoking in a hotel room, despite repeated warnings not to, with Tania Cruz, the wife of CJ Gimenez, son of Miami-Dade mayor Carlos Gimenez (more on that later). Although some might believe the tip came from the Diaz camp.

But with DLP’s name ID and poll numbers so high, Pepi Diaz can’t take any chances. The mailers against DLP have been almost daily since the absentee ballots went out last week. They pretty much have the same theme, casting The Dean as a man with “serious character flaws,” like gambling, credit card debt, alcohol abuse and bouts of explosive violence. They include “living beyond his means” but everyone I know does that.

“Hi. I’m Alex Diaz de la Portilla and the rules don’t apply to me,” it says on the front of one. The back lists not one, not two but five attacks against DLP, including a Commission of Elections fine that was later reduced (they don’t say that) and the allegations by an ex-wife that he had violent impulses, especially under the influence of alcohol.

One of the mailers has a photo of Diaz de la Portilla holding what we are supposed to believe is a rum runner or something — but it is a mamey smoothie given to him by a voter in a pic he posted on Facebook. The most egrigious use of a batido de mamey ever.

It’s funny, but ridiculous, that Pepi Diaz is making an issue of alcohol given his BFF’s resignation was likely due to a drunken rant. It’s also slightly hipocritical to use an ugly divorce and the allegations of an ex wife who is also, by the way, a state lobbyist, particularly when your BFF racist ex-legislator buddy had hired a Playboy bunny and a Hooters girl as “consultants” on his campaign. Diaz is going to be the morality police now? No me digas! Where was he when his best friend and Tallahassee roommate was traveling with paid escorts?

But its not enough to mail the attacks. The Diaz team wants to have them online, in a website launched solely to attack the candidate, a campaign tactic that is being used more and more. There are 22 files of DLP “dirt” in a filing cabinet and visitors “click a tab to view the evidence,” at www.factsaboutadlp.com, which might be the work of the political strategist who attacked me and Ladra’s motives on Facebook the other day without disclosing that she worked for one of the candidates (she claims to be a digital consultant on Diaz’s campaign reports, whatever that is). And she should own up to it. Because it’s pretty good as far as hit pieces go.

Not that good, though. It didn’t include the 2012 arrest.

DLP seems unfazed. He did not respond to several text message this week but has told Ladra before that the voters in the district know him and that these tactics will backfire. “It’s started to backfire already,” he said last time we spoke, offering no details.

Maybe so. But Ladra feels that Pepi has no other choice, given ADLP’s high name recognition, than to go negative. In this short election cycle, the best Diaz can do is attack DLP and turn positive name rec into negative name ID — even if it would give whoever wins the Democratic primary an edge against him in a decidedly competitive general. Annette Taddeo and Ana Rivas Logan are two lucky women who must be very happy about all of this.

We’ll know if it worked in less than two weeks. But Ladra bets we see another hit piece before that. The way this campaign is going, we wouldn’t be surprised if the next mailer depicts the Dean and the mayor’s son’s wife as belligerent drunks getting arrested in a smoky hotel room.

Sure, sure, there are six candidates in the Florida Senate District 40 seat vacated by Frank Artiles, who resigned abruptly in April after he was caugh making racist and sexist comments to and about colleagues. But really, most if not all of the attention is going to be on the four familiar faces in two mano a mano matches.

Ladra loves that a fellow NPA is running in the general, which may be the start of a trend (more on that later), and we really dig the nickname he got from his rugby mates. Who wouldn’t want to be represented by a Senator He-Man? And we will find out more about him in due time. Let’s concentrate on the primaries for now because this is a crazy short election cycle and there’s ony five days before absentee ballots drop.

Perennial candidate Annette Taddeo, who is leading the polls and may finally win an election — even if its just a primary — and Ana Rivas Logan, a former Miami-Dade School Board member and state rep who has been elected in parts of the district before an is arguably a better candidate for the general, are competing head to head for the Democrat Party nomination. Thanks to the self-propelled dishonorable discharge from the race by State Rep. Daisy Baez — who apparently doesn’t even live in the district she represents now. Steve Smith, whose name was already a liability before he was disqualified (or withdrew) because he was a Republican six months ago, never had a chance.

On the Republican side, former State Rep. Jose Felix “Pepi” Diaz, the alleged GOP favorite, a legislator lobbyist and a real mama’s boy, will be up against a new and improved former Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla, dean of the 305 political bad boys. These two are already stealing the show. Even though Lorenzo Palomares (what happened to Starbuck?) has remained relatively relevant as Trump’s Hispanic Miami spokesman and a Spanish-language TV commentator on national politics after he lost in a congressional primary that overlaps with the district, it’s going to be hard to keep up with these two, who will have all the money and all the attention.

Because these short election cycles are ruled by one thing and one thing only: name recognition. Did we mention that absentee ballots drop next week? Candidates have precious little time to get an actual message out. As school ends. And summer begins. Naturally, the familiar faces will have a bigger advantage then ever in this race.

On the red side: Name ID vs campaign cash, old vs new

Of course, name recognition can be bought. And that is surely what Diaz is going to try to do. He’s got $825,653 squirreled away in his Rebuild Florida political action committee. That includes $84,000 collected over 10 days in May and that includes $25,000 from the insurance industry and $5,000 from AirBnB, which is facing statewide and local regulations. That was even before he raised another $278,400 in his first month as a candidate. So Pepi Diaz — who’s gotten a little help with some press conferences about condo reform — has a million bucks to build his name ID and has already started with mailers introducing him as a family man and proven legislator. Meanwhile, DLP reported loaning himself $50,000 — which I guess is easy for a guy who doesn’t pay his mortgage (see Herald story about foreclosure on his home). But did he really?  Or did he just say he loaned himself something — candidates don’t actually have to provide bank deposit slips — because he only raised $22,000 from donors? So, he may actually have less than a tenth of what his opponent has. Unless he has a PAC we don’t know about.

Diaz certainly has at least two PACs. He told Ladra he won’t use his PAC to hit DLP, but on Thursday our mailbox got this comparison piece — paid for by his own Rebuild Florida — with side by side photos that shows Alex like an angry, grainy, sepia-toned mafia kingpin and Pepi like some fresh, pink-faced Harvard kid with an American flag. The piece states that DLP raised business taxes by 300% and reduced state funds to local governments. Earlier this month, Pepi Diaz or buddies — maybe Artiles, who has been promoting him like crazy on Facebook — hit DLP with some PAC called Making a Better Tomorrow, which called Alex a career politician and closet liberal raising taxes and killing jobs. But Diaz did admit that he farmed certain stuff out to David “Disgustin’” Custin. And Ladra guesses that Custin has been busy lately with this summer bonus.

That’s three mail pieces in this house from Pepi Diaz vs. none from DLP.

Read related story: Senate 40 GOP race gets ugly fast with attack on Alex DLP

Pepi can also count on the PACs of State Rep. Jose Oliva and his fellow flying monkeys, who are secretly supporting him. Very secretly, of course. Because they don’t want to piss Dean DLP off — por si las moscas and he wins. They are not taking him for granted. As well they shouldn’t. Voters in this district have been represented by the DLPs for decades — Alex as a State Rep., big brother Miguel Diaz de la Portilla as a county commissioner and baby bro Renier Diaz de la Portilla as a Miami-Dade School Board member. They are used to seeing that name and checking it off on the ballot starting with Miguel’s commission win in 1993.

That’s probably why Alex did so well in both of the polls we know about where he has a comfy double digit lead on Diaz, who told Ladra he did not poll before qualifying but would poll soon. Of course, he’s got to work on his name id first so he can pump those numbers up for donors. But trust me, both he and the GOP establishment are looking at those numbers. Diaz de la Portilla got 51 percent positive name recognition compared to Diaz’s 26 percent. And in a two-way race, DLP beats Pepi 43-15. Ladra has been told by three Republican sources that DLP leads quite comfortably with double digits in a GOP poll as well. But they don’t seem to want to talk about it too much. It’s all very hush hush.

It’s also probably the real reason why DLP skipped the debate Monday hosted by the Women’s Republican Club Federated. He told the organizers he had a conflicting prior engagement but Ladra thinks that he had nothing to gain and everything to lose from going to a debate when he is so up in the polls. Why bother?

His focus has been on direct and personal voter contact. Ladra doesn’t know if we’ve ever seen him work so hard. He’s walking almost every day. I don’t think Alex has walked in more than 15 years. We have proof from all the photos he’s posting of voters offering him cafecitos and batidos de mamey. Because he’s also on social media — al fin. Or at least he’s got someone doing it for him. He even hit me up on Instagram. Instagram! And he is posting photos of himself with voters regularly. This, while Pepi “Selfie King” Diaz has not posted very many.

“I find it awkward to ask,” Diaz told Ladra, adding that he once asked a young voter who was more social media saavy, and the voter declined. He has taken more selfies with his canvassing team.

Of course, Diaz de la Portilla may be working so hard because he knows he has to win this one. If he doesn’t, this would be his second loss since leaving office in 2010, after he was beat by Jose Javier Rodriguez in a state House race in 2014. But it would be the fifth loss for the brand. Renier lost his 2012 state rep race and a 2014 judicial race against a party girl nobody and Miguel lost his senate re-election last year (against Rodriguez, who has become the family nemesis). They can’t afford another defeat. Is he feeling the pressure?

Alex DLP used Facebook to thank the Morejon family for the cafecito during canvassing

Quite the opposite, he told Ladra. “I’m the most relaxed I’ve ever been. The reception has been incredible,” he said. “It’s a blessing when you go house to house in neighborhoods you haven’t been to in 15 years and they recognize you.”

He knocked on the door of a 105-year-old voter who lives with her 81-year-old daughter in Westchester. Both women remembered voting for him in 1994 when he ran against incumbent Carlos Manrique for state House and beat him with a three to one margin. They made him tostones.

“I have no pressure whatsoever. People here know me and they know the difference between someone who is part of their community, someone who has the people’s back, and someone who is a Tallahasee creation,” Diaz de la Portilla said.

The walking may also be a wide pre-emptive strike because Diaz de la Portilla knows more nasty mail is coming. Once voters see mail pieces on DLP’s ethics complaint and his nasty divorce — which shouldn’t be campaign material but always raises her ugly head — the tostones and mamey shakes may disappear. Or they may not. These are the same people that elected Alex despite some driver’s license issues brought up by Manrique in ’94.

But Pepi Diaz can also get hit with mailers that depict him as Artiles’ BFF and roommate, who never condemned what he said and must have known something about the Hooters girl and the Playboy bunny on the former senator’s campaign payroll. Here they are in a selfie from the Trump inaugural. Diaz is also a lobbyist whose clients include Bell Helicopters and Miami Beckham United, which could be seeking state taxpayer subsidies for its planned Overtown soccer stadium.

Again, the difference is that DLP has much less to spend on getting this information out. Which brings us back to why he is walking so much. It’s free.

Diaz said that he would soon be polling and even Ladra is confident that his numbers will be better (they won’t go down) than the existing polls show. I mean, they have to be. The Republican in this house has gotten three mailers and his signs are everywhere. But it’s a high climb. Will the numbers be better enough?

Because his assertion that DLP’s support is wide and not deep is wrong. I know DLP fans. It’s like a cult. And Alex has the charisma of a cult leader while Pepi Diaz has the charisma of a mailman.

So it doesn’t matter how much blood money Pepi collects and how many signs he puts up, Alex still has the advantage.

On the blue side, one-time allies become rivals

Ladra does not expect the Democrat primary to be as ugly (or as interesting). Not just because the two candidates are ladies and not because they just aren’t as good at the negative stuff and not because there’s just really not much of it. Sure, Rivas Logan can be hit on the turncoat thing, cast as a onetime Republican with awards from conservative groups. But Taddeo can’t really do that while she boasts the endorsement and support of former Gov. Charlie “King Turncoat” Crist, who she ran in 2016 with as LG and who is among the multiple hosts at a fundraiser earlier this month. And yes, Taddeo can still be painted as a carpet bagger, especially since she is renting in the district.

But that’s not going to happen. Because the real reason this won’t get as ugly (or as interesting) as the GOP primary is that these two eran amiguitas the other day. Like five minutes ago. Nobody would believe a sudden death match.

“I plan on just making it a race about the issues and ideas,” Rivas Logan said. “I don’t have any animosity toward her. She can do her thing and I will do mine. She is not my enemy.”

Not that she isn’t a little peeved. Rivas Logan said she had already told Taddeo she was going to run for the seat in 2018. When Artiles was under fire to resign, she again said she would run — only maybe sooner. “She never mentioned to me that she was insterested in this seat,” Rivas Logan said, adding that she found out when she read it in the paper.

Taddeo may seem stronger. A Democratic poll shows she leads by 33 to 14 but that was with Baez in the race taking 10. She might only be leading 33 to 24, which closes the gap. And there is still 43 percent undecided.

She is decidedly raising more money, however. Taddeo has already collected, $45,559. More than a third of that came on June 8, the same day a big group of the county’s most prominent Dems hosted her at the Biltmore. The list includes Crist, who as well as former Miami Mayor Maurice Ferre, former Hialeah Mayor Raul Martinez, Miami-Dade Commissioners Jean Monestime and Daniella Levine-Cava, Miami Beach Commissioners Joy Malakoff and Micky Steinberg, South Miami Mayor Philip Stoddard, Pinecrest Councilman James McDonald, former Pinecrest Mayor Cindy Lerner. Then there are people like Joe Arriola and attorney Benedict Kuehne, who represents former Miami Lakes mayor Michael Pizzi, so we know his judgement is not the best ever, and Chris Korge, whose son ran for that seat last year and lost — to Rivas Logan, half asleep and with two cents on his dollar.

Rivas Logan is not the best fundraiser. She has only raised $10,425 — not a quarter of her opponent’s total. But she apparently can stretch a dollar further. Remember, she beat Andrew Korge in the threeway primary last year for the same seat — with $12,000 against close to a million. And that was without campaigning. Rivas Logan, who has represented small parts of the area first as a school board member and then as a state rep — even though, yes, she was Republican. But that can be a selling point in the general — suspended campaigning because she did not want to get dragged into a dirty fight against Andrew Korge, who was already on the attack (she has spectacularly thin skin for an elected). And she still beat him (Dwight Bullard beat her, however, and went on to lose the general to Artiles).

Taddeo also spent close to a million dollars against Joe Garcia in the 2016 congressional primary. And he beat her .

So Rivas Logan is pretty relaxed even though she has less cash. Neither of them have spent much. I see no signs for either in the district and the Dem in this household has not gotten one mailer.

“I don’t like asking people for money and that’s not my strength. My strength is my connection with voters in my district. I ran against a guy who had a million dollars. And I defeated him with $15,000,” Rivas Logan said. And even though it was a telephone conversation, Ladra could hear the smile on her face when she said she had no hard feelings against the Democrats supporting Taddeo.

“I hope that they support me in the general.”