Ladra has mixed feelings about the results of the Miami commission runoff.
On the one hand, there is dread for the people of Miami who now have Commissioner Crazy Joe Carollo to deal with. But on the other hand, Political Cortadito has four more years of fun ahead, as well as perhaps more national appeal even. The political blogger is thrilled. The government watchdog and justice seeker is somewhat disappointed, to say the least.
Why? Some people believe that Carollo is the uncorruptable whistleblower type that Miami needs. But Ladra has seen him evolve in the last few years, supporting people like Doral Mayor Luigi Boria and Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and all the inside deals both of those politicos entail. You can bet that this gives the Gimenez friends and family — who helped Carollo in this campaign and were front and center at the victory party — a new express lane in their governmental welfare pursuits.
Read related story: Joe Carollo implies alliance with brother, Bruno Barreireo, in mailer
Don’t be surprised if you see one of the county mayor’s children get a job in the city. My money is on Barby Rodriguez-G, the daughter-in-law with the water and sewer job, the one who isn’t hooking up with a former senator in Boston hotel rooms (that we know of anyway).
Carollo won pretty easily. He had 56% of the vote with just the absentee ballots counted shortly after 7 p.m. Tuesday. Because of low turnout, it was a 280-vote gap that Alfie Leon, the former policy advisor for Commissioner Frank Carollo, could make up…but didn’t. By the time early voting was counted, that gap grew to 336 votes. Election Day couldn’t save Alfie.
While he closed the gap with 117 more votes on Election Day than Crazy Joe, it wasn’t enough. With 16 of 17 precincts reporting at 8 p.m., Carollo still won with 52% to his 48%.  The last precinct would have to be the biggest and in Leon’s own neighborhood for him to come back from this. And it’s certainly not a mandate for Carollo. But still comfy enough that he’ll be insoportable from the get-go.
Who am I kidding? Ya esta insoportable.
On his way to become the protagonist and maybe run for mayor against Mayor Francis Suarez in 2021 — because you know that’s the end game, right? — we can rely on Carollo to make news on the regular. We probably don’t even have to wait for commission meetings. The Miami Herald should give David Smiley a raise and an intern.

Read Full Story

Former Miami Mayor Joe Carollo, in a runoff Tuesday for his brother’s city commission seat, dropped a mailer Friday that indicates he is being endorsed by both his brother, Commissioner Frank Carollo, and Zoraida Barreiro, another commission candidate — and wife of Miami-Dade Commissioner Bruno Barreiro — who came in third in the Nov. 7 election.
But it doesn’t look like a real endorsement and actually stinks of fake news.
The mailer doesn’t explicitly say that that his brother and the Barreiros support Carollo. Instead, it uses photographs of the families and really vague language that certainly leave that impression.
“The Barreiro and Carollo families are united to keep working together in our community,” reads the front, with pictures of the Barreiro family and Frank Carollo’s family flanking a photo of Joe Carollo and his wife.
The other side of the mailer, paid for by the Miami Firefighters political action committee, says “Years of service to the community cannot be forgotten. While others just finished moving to our area promising villas and castles, the Barreiro and Carollo families have a long tradition of working for our community.”
Read related story: It’s Alfie Leon and ‘everybody and their mothers’ vs Joe Carollo in runoff
Carollo was forced into a runoff with Alfie Leon, his brother’s former policy aide, after he failed to get more than 30% of the vote. He already got the endorsement of the two last place finishers, Alex Dominguez and Jose Suarez. But they didn’t even get 10% combined. A nod from Zoraida Barreiro, who got 20%, (and, by extension, Commissioner Bruno) could certainly give him an edge over Leon. And he needs it because everybody else is working against Crazy Joe.
Calls and texts to Commissioner Bruno Barreiro were not immediately returned. But he had told Ladra earlier this week that he and his wife would not be endorsing or supporting Carollo.
Freddy Delgado, president of the Miami firefighters union, did not immediately return a call and text from Ladra. He might be dodging all journalists because of the four firefighters that got fired for harassing a black colleague.
It is entirely possible that the picture of the Barreiros and their two children, as well as the photo of Frank Carollo’s family, was used without their explicit permission. The mailer’s language is vague and general enough and it doesn’t say they are endorsing him, although it does say they are “united,” but, since it is in Spanish, that could mean that they are both involved in helping the community — not that they do it together.
Certainly one would think that if Carollo had the official Barreiro seal of approval, the campaign and/or the firefighters PAC would put that out front and center and use more specific words, like “endorse” and “support.”
So this looks like an intention to fool the voting public.
Unless both Carollo’s brother and the Barreiros are — wink, wink, nod, nod — helping him without explicitly saying they are helping him by just looking the other way. After all, if they were not supporting him, one would also think that Commissioner Barreiro — who is running for Congress and could have made a deal — would not wait to say so.

Read Full Story

There’s not a lot of surprise in the Miami election that ended Tuesday. Everybody knew we would have Mayor Francis “The Future”  Suarez in charge with some ridiculous support against two nobodies (86%) and that there would be a runoff in the race for District 3 to replace him between former Mayor Joe Carollo and someone else.
That someone else may turn out to be surprise dark horse Alfie Leon, the former policy advisor for termed out Commissioner Frank Carollo. He may be the one who will now face his former boss’s estranged brother in round 2 on Nov. 21.
Zoraida Barreiro, who flew sorta under the radar in an ugly race that focused on Carollo and Tommy Regalado, the namesake son of the current Mayor Tomas Regalado, came crazy close to going head to head with Crazy Joe. But in the end, Leon edged her out with 17 votes between them at nearly 20% each.
Provisional ballots counted in the next couple of days may change that. Barreiro may ask for a recount. It’s that close.
Read related story: Denise Galvez (Turros) fights for her full name — except when she’s DUI
But in the other race, we finally have Commissioner Manolo Reyes, who has waited almost 30 years to hear those words.
Reyes solidly Ralph Rosado, who was hoping for a runoff, and won outright with 57% percent of the vote to Rosado’s 36%. Latinas for Trump co-founder Denise Galvez (Turros) can now officially be called Denise “Single Digits” Galvez, with less than 8%, but you just know she is going to blame Ladra for exposing her old theft and DUI arrests.
Commissioner Reyes, let’s say it often, is a sweet win. He’s like everybody’s abuelo and won votes with his common sense and longtime activism in the city. People know him. They have to. He has walked the district six times already.
“This is fantastic. It’s a dream come true,” Reyes told Ladra as he walked into his victory party at Renaissance Banquet Hall on 32nd Avenue, where he was quickly surrounded by friends and supporters with hugs. “At last, I have the opportunity to serve my people.”
He said he was especially happy that voters so soundly rejected the negative campaigning by his main opponent. “It’s about time these campaigns stop and candidates respect the intelligence of the people,” Reyes said.
Rosado went so negative that he had hit piece palm cards at the polls — something Ladra has never seen before. They didn’t say to vote for Rosado. They didn’t have his punch number. They just said to reject Reyes based on a mailer that a non-profit sent on Reyes’ behalf with a bad photo of Ralph Rosado.
Read related story: Finally! Manolo Reyes looks real good in Miami commission race
That’s a hoot. Because Rosado is the one whose campaign went negative months ago, first with TV ads and mailers calling Reyes a career beaurocrat — though he has worked in both the public and private sector — and then suggesing that he was falling asleep at a debate with a photo of the candidate with his eyes closed.
Rosado’s campaign got so personal that Reyes got help from outgoing Mayor Regalado, who went on the radio with ads and recorded a robocall urging voters in his old commission district to support Reyes. He accused Rosado of waging “attacks and lies.”
But that was not the race with the most attacks and lies. No, that would belong to the District 3 race and the crown belongs to Carollo’s campaign, or the part of it designed by former Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla. The attacks calling the Regalados communists and putting a caricature of Tommy Regalado in diapers, the allegations they took Chavista money — all of that may have backfired because Carollo was positioned to take more than 35%, according to all the polls.
Read related story: Crazy Joe Carollo adds twist to crazy Miami race
Instead, he got 30% and is now headed into a runoff against Alfie Leon, commissioner Frank Carollo‘s former policy advisor, who came in number two with just over 20% (unless Barreiro turns it around in provisionals).
But Tommy may have been hurt by some of the negative campaigning — there was a lot of it. One reason why it would have been better to have Barreiro in the second round is it would have been harder for Carollo (read: ADLP) to attack a woman. That could double backfire. But Ladra expects to hear pestes about Leon now.
Popular political theory says all the support behind Tommy and Barreiro and the other candidates for the other candidates, will now go Leon’s way. Will it be enough to keep Crazy Joe out of office?
That’s the question everyone is going to be asking themselves on Wednesday.

Read Full Story