Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Captain Omar Blanco, a 20-veteran of the department and former union president, has officially announced that he is running for Florida House of Representatives in District 115, where Rep. Alina Garcia is vacating to run for Miami-Dade Elections Supervisor.

It was known that Blanco, who ran for Congress four years ago, would run for the open seat. He filed his state candidate statement and treasurer appointment with the Florida Division of Elections last month almost right after Garcia’s announcement. But Monday, the campaign made the official announcement.

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The first thing voters need to know about State Rep. Alina Garcia, who will not seek re-election after only two years in the Florida House and will run for the first ever elected Miami-Dade elections supervisor instead — is that she won’t say that the 2020 elections were fair across the U.S.

“I can’t speak for the rest of the nation, but I can tell you Miami-Dade is one of the best run elections departments in the nation,” Garcia told Ladra Tuesday. “Ever since we had the issue with the Gore/Bush election, the hanging chads, we’ve been making laws to ensure elections are fair and just.”

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Pinecrest Councilwoman Anna Hochkammer — who once aspired to the Florida Senate — is considering a run for State House in District 115, according to a poll that voters got on their cellphones Friday evening.

The first questions of the short poll, after identifiers like race and ethnicity, were to gauge the favorability and unfavorability of several politicians — including both Republican candidates in the 115 race already, GOP campaign veterans and first time candidates Alina Garcia and Alexis Catalayud, who are relatively unknown.

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One week, State Rep. Vance Aloupis (R-115) — who broke with his Republican colleagues to vote against the hateful “Don’t Say Gay” bill — announces he’s decided not to run for re-election so he could spend more time with his family.

Days later, first time state candidate and longtime Republican political operative Alina García jumped into that race from the state Senate District 38 race, where she had raised almost $200,000 through the end of February, according to her most recent campaign report.

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She’s worked for different electeds at all levels — federal, state, county and city. So now, veteran GOP operative Alina Garcia — most recently the “senior political advisor” for Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo — wants to be elected herself. To the Florida Senate.

Garcia is waiting for the redistricting to shake out and will run in either District 37 or District 40 — which is vacated by Sen. Annette Taddeo‘s run for governor — wherever incumbent Sen. Ileana Garcia doesn’t run. She is going to wait for the other Garcia’s cue, but she already opened a political action committee called Florida Always First. In November.

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