Agriculture Commissioner and gubernatorial candidate Nikki Fried, the only statewide elected Democrat, has seized on to what some predict will be a wedge issue in this competitive election: Affordable housing and skyrocketing rental rates.

Fried is promoting her first real policy plan called “Lower Costs, Higher Standards,” with a statewide tour of six cities that stopped in the capital on Wednesday and goes to Pensacola on Thursday.

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Florida Congressman Charlie Crist (D-St. Petersburgh), a turncoat who served as a Republican governor from 2007 to 2011, and Florida Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Nikki Fried — the only statewide elected Democrat in the current administration — are leading the race for campaign contributions in the Democratic primary for governor, leaving Sen. Annette Taddeo in the dust.

Granted, Taddeo jumped into the contest in October, later than the other two (although she may have been asking for money already). But her presence hasn’t seemed to slow them down.

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Just two weeks after, finally, announcing she would run for Florida Governor next year, State Sen. Annette Taddeo has already amassed more than $650,000 in contributions between her campaign account and her political action committee.

This isn’t reflected yet on the Florida Division of Elections page, but her political consultant, Christian Ulvert, said it would be in the October report that is to be filed Wednesday.

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Now, this is a victory.
Sen. Annette Taddeo showed on Tuesday that she is truly a viable candidate who can win more than just special elections against racist apologists when she solidly defeated a challenge by Republican superwoman Marili Cancio, who was handpicked by the GOP for this specific race and moved from Key Biscayne to a condo in the Dadeland area.
Taddeo won 53 to 47 percent, a six point lead that Ladra is certain would have been double digits if voters had known her campaign was run by the racist himself, former Sen. Frank Artiles, who called some fellow legislators niggers in a loud rant at a bar.  Still, it is double what she won her seat with last year and that will resonate going into 2020. Yeah, okay, Ladra will concede while the campaign definitely benefited from Cancio’s Trump ties during a blue wave year, Taddeo’s final numbers were also boosted by the Andrew Gillum excitement in his native Richmond Heights and the NPA trend to go blue this year because of Trump and Parkland.
But, let me remind you, it’s a midterm election after all!
On Monday, Taddeo was the unelectable perennial candidate who finally got lucky one time running against former State Rep. Jose Felix “Pepi” Diaz, who did not do enough to distance himself from Artiles and lost despite outspending Taddeo 3 to 1. On Wednesday, Taddeo was an entrenched incumbent until she is termed out.
Because who are they going to throw at her now?
Read related: Jose Felix Diaz outspends Annette Taddeo 3 to 1 plus — but loses anyway
It can’t be Cancio, who should have stayed in Key Biscayne and run for Congress with better chance against Donna Shalala. After all, she did get 47% showing in the Senate district she just moved to in a campaign she started less than six months ago. Nothing to sneeze at.
But if she runs again, Cancio should run in her district — she has to move out of her Dadeland condo anyway; no room for the dogs — where nobody can call her a carpetbagger GOP invader. And she should not scrub her Twitter of her Trump love and extreme right conservative views. That is who she is. She needs to own it.
She also needs to stay away from the lies. The commercials and mailers calling Taddeo an NRA flunkie did not pass muster. Democrats in District 40 are not stupid, Marili. They are not going to buy the argument that she sided with the NRA by voting against the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Student Safety Bill. And that backfired because we felt like you thought we were stupid.
“You can say a lot of things about me but to say I’m with the NRA is really a stretch,” the senator said Wednesday.
Read related: GOP’s Marili Cancio vs Sen. Annette Taddeo in ‘year of the woman’
Taddeo joined most Democrats when she voted against the legislation only because of the poison pill — put in there by Republican State Rep. Jose Oliva — that puts guns on school campuses. Only 10 joined the Republicans who wrote and ushered the legislation in.
Does Taddeo feel like she still has a target on her back? Like Artiles is gonna run someone else against her two years from now. Bring it on, she said.
“I’ve never been one to start worrying very early,” Taddeo said. “I’m just going to continue doing my job. I think I’ve shown people that I’m a true public servant. I’ve gained fans.”
Cancio would not say no Wednesday to another race. But she also won’t say yes right now. Her life is full enough with her law firm, her volunteer work, her house on the West coast she hasn’t visited in a while, her son’s wedding in January and her grandchild, who is due in three to four weeks. “I feel so blessed,” she said.
Maybe she’ll also get back on the guest panel in Channel 10’s This Week In South Florida, where she used to be the regular GOP mouthpiece before she announced her run. We know she misses that.
Cancio thanked everyone who helped her in a class act statement posted on Facebook Wednesday but which, she said, was written three weeks earlier.
“It really doesn’t matter what the end result is tonight because as some say it is the journey and not the destination. I am a better person after meeting and talking to so many people in our community. I love our community and this race has been the honor of a lifetime.”
Ladra hopes it was also a lesson: Don’t lie. Be yourself. And try again.

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If you live in Senate District 40, where incumbent Sen. Annette Taddeo is facing a challenge from Republican superwoman Marili Cancio, then you also probably live in either House District 115 or House District 118.
This Wednesday, you have a chance to see the candidates in both your senate and house race at the first of three candidate forums brought to us by the Kendall Federation of Homeowner Associations, which has been hosting some well-attended candidate forums since at least 2011.
Beginning at 7 p.m., residents can hear from Democrat Jeffrey Solomon and Republican Vance Aloupis in the 115 race and State Rep. Robert Asencio and his Republican challenger Anthony Rodriguez in 118, as well as Taddeo and Cancio.
Read related: Vance Aloupis fails to mention GOP as required, courting NPAs in general
A week later, they will host Democrat Javier Estevez and Republican Doral Councilwoman Ana Maria Rodriguez, who are running to replace former State Rep. turned Ambassador Carlos Trujillo in District 105, Democrat James Harden and Republican State Rep. Daniel Perez from District 116 and Democrat Heath Rassner, who is running to replace termed-out State Rep. Jeanette Nuñez, who was tapped as LG for Ron Desantis, in District 119.
Juan Fernandez Barquin, the Republican in 119 who beat Analeen “Annie” Martinez, Commissioner Joe Martinez‘s better funded daughter, said he might be out of town, said KFHA President Mike Rosenberg.
KFHA wants to host the congressional candidates from District 26 and 27 on the 25th, but apparently only the incumbent, U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo, has confirmed.
Read related: Carlos Curbelo is bad for public education; teachers back Debbie
“We’re still trying to confirm Debbie Mucarsel-Powell and Maria Elvira Salazar, but we’re having a difficult time reaching them,” an email blast said.
Rosenberg told Ladra that Donna Shalala, the Dem running against Salazar to replace Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in #CD27, is willing and ready to come out any time, but that he has tried multiple times to reach Salazar to no avail.
“Sometimes I have to be beyond the ‘normal’ persistent in reaching out to candidates,” Rosenberg wrote in an email to Salazar he shared with Ladra. “For some reason there are candidates that don’t want to debate their opponents. I truly don’t understand that, but our forums are not debates, but rather questions. We want to know who you are and what kind of leader you would make. We simply want to ask you questions.
“I will continue to reach out to you as I believe our audience is very engaged and eager to learn.  As President of the Kendall Federation, I must try and make sure all the candidates appear. So, forgive my persistence, but I have always believed, if we can’t get you to meet with our community before an election, we’ll never be able to get you afterwards.”
Rosenberg, who said he hasn’t given up on Mucarsel-Powell either, is right about that.
The KFHA meetings are always in the Kendall Village pavilion at that shopping center, 8625 SW 124th Ave.

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Even though Florida Sen. Annette Taddeo has raised more than twice as much campaign fodder for her re-election as her challenger, Republican superwoman Marili Cancio has more cash in hand, according to the latest campaign reports.
That’s because Taddeo has outspent Cancio, who has only been campaigning since June, by almost ten times.
Cancio has reportedly raised $319,457 between her campaign account and her PAC, Friends of Marili Cancio, according to latest campaign reports filed that tallied through Sept. 14 and Sept. 21, respectively. That’s less than half of the to the $760,408 raised by the sitting senator between her campaign account and her PAC, Fight Back Florida, only counting the funds since she won the seat in a special election in September, 2017.
But Taddeo has spent close to $530,000 since October 2017 and Cancio has only spent about $60K. That means Cancio has a small edge in cash on hand, by the tune of about $20K. Not enough to really make a difference. And she has struggled in the most recent reports, so maybe the donations were early and have been spent.
Read related: GOP’s Marili Cancio vs Dem Sen. Annette Taddeo in ‘year of the woman’
Of course, money is not everything. Taddeo won her seat in last year’s special election against former State Rep. Jose Felix “Pepi” Diaz, who had more than three times as much campaign funding as she did.
And also, this doesn’t count outside party money. Like the kind that paid for mailers that arrived in the district last week, courtesy the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee (pro Cancio) and the Florida Democrats Legislative Campaign Committee (anti Cancio). A source involved in the race told Ladra that Taddeo had sent two positive pieces earlier, but this negative attack on Cancio’s support of the Marshall Program that puts guns in schools is the first received by Ladra.
“She’s worried. My campaign is too clean,” Cancio told Ladra in a text message over the weekend.
“You are not going to get mail from me because yo are now a registered D,” she added, with a smiley face emoji. “Focused on NPAs — can’t afford the entire universe.”
It’s true that in her own mail piece, she is appealing to NPAs and trying to come off as moderate. “I am a state senate candidate because I want to bring new ideas and perspectives to the challenges we face in our community, overcoming partisan politics,” the piece from the Senate Campaign Committee says, but in Spanish.
It landed last week in Ladra’s home, but addressed to both of Ladra’s parents, “Hispanics over 60,” an often sought voting bloc. One is Republican but one is registered Democrat, so Cancio’s universe is bigger than she says.
Read related: Jose Felix Diaz outspends Annette Taddeo 3 to 1 plus — but loses anyway
The intro/bio piece, which has waaaaay too much copy on it, has the word “Republican” only in one place — the tiny type disclaimer. It focuses on her community work — stints on the board of Directors at Miami Dade College (it doesn’t say she was appointed by Republican Gov. Rick Scott), the Miami-Dade County Community Relations Board, the Miami-Dade County Hispanic Affairs Board, the Florida Association of Universities and as pro bono attorney for La Liga Contra El Cancer.
“She has always put the interests of our community above partisan politics,” it says.
But who is Marili kidding? This is the Republican Superwoman, a nickname Ladra gave her because of her hard work for the party. She was proud of it before she needed NPA voters to help her win this seat. She constantly defended Trump on Twitter, which is the reason why she has deactivated her old account for a new campaign one — to hide all that partisan Trumpism.
But make no mistake about it, Marili Cancio is as puro GOP as they get. Cancio, who was recruited by the Republican Party, has been involved in local GOP causes, the Women’s Federated Republican club and has been a surrogate for national and state candidates on Spanish TV and radio for years, often providing the Republican voice on This Week in South Florida, where she goes out of her way to defend and promote the GOP agenda.
Of course, the people who vote in District 40 may not know that. Because they don’t know Cancio at all and they are getting very toned down version of her. It’s time Taddeo use some of her funds to let people know who Cancio really is.

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