Two days after he crushed it in the GOP primary for the Senate Distrit 40 seat, former State Rep. Jose Felix Diaz is getting a head start on the general campaign with a mailer that calls him a “tax cutter” and a committment of $100K from fellow Republicans.

The mailer arrived Thursday addressed to Ladra’s “family,” which include a Republican, a Democrat and an NPA who plan to vote Sept. 26. It didn’t come to the Republican. It didn’t go to the Independent. It came to the family. We imagine it was sent to both Republicans and NPAs, which could decide this election.

The district is about a third Dem, a third GOP and a third NPA. That means that the NPAs are going to be heavily courted in the general. They even have their own candidate in the race, sociology professor Christian “He-Man” Schlaerth.

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

Independents already recieved mail, during the primary, against Diaz from the Florida Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, which sent at least three mailers casting Diaz as a lobbyist looking out for special interests. No wonder the Diaz campaign came back trying to define him early on as a “tax cutter.”

Or, actually, the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, which paid for this mailer, which is pretty much a tit for tat, hurry-up-and-let’s-define-our-guy-before-they-do piece: “Vote for the tax cutter Jose Felix Diaz September 26th.”

It’s a tremendous reach.

It gives Diaz credit for creating the tax holidays for school supplies and storm supplies, although that was part of a package that he voted on as a member of the House. It also says he voted to put the additional $25,000 homestead exemption to voters next November, a move that many say was calculated by the Republican leadership to drum up turnout in a mid-year election. A move that cities and counties are dreading will leave them with less funds to pay for things like police and paramedics and buses and road maintenance.

One has to believe that the FRSCC — the fundraising arm for Senate Republican leaders, controlled by future Senate presidents Bill Galvano and Wilton Simpson — will be more creative and more forthright with more time. The turnout for this election is going to be the super voter. Also called the “high quality” voter. That means the educated voter. They aren’t going to buy this lazy crap.

And hasn’t anyone told them not to put open scissors on a positive piece with their candidate’s name on it? Campaign 101.

Read related story: Winners and losers in special election for SD 40 and HD116

The campaign committee just announced a $100,000 donation from the Republican State Leadership Committee, an organization of Republican state officials intent on keeping this seat red, and they would do well to use the money more wisely on messages that will connect with the super voters instead of this dribble.

The Senate District 40 seat had been Democrat for decades before Frank Artiles beat former Sen. Dwight Bullard in an ugly race last year that was marked by negative ads that cast Bullard as a terrorist sympathizer. Artiles was forced to resign in April after he was caught making racist remarks to black legislators at a Tallahassee eatery one night.

Diaz, who was heavily endorsed by his BFF and former Tallahasee roommate Artiles (they are photographed at the beginning of session here), won the GOP primary on Tuesday and will face Democrat Annette Taddeo in September.

And if this mailer is any indication, it’s gonna be a busy couple of months.

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.

Former State Rep. Jose Felix “Pepi” Diaz turned a 30-plus point deficit in early polls into a 32-point lead Tuesday when he won the special election for Senate District 40, beating former Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla by a whopping 58 to 26 percent.

Someone tell Ladra again how negative campaigns don’t work. Or how money doesn’t matter.

Dean DLP, who must be in Europe already, came into the #thanksFrank race — scheduled after Frank Artiles was forced to resign on the heels of some public racist and sexist comments — with high name recognition that gave him a lead in his internal poll and a state GOP poll, too. But not all name reccognition is equal. Some of it is negative. Some of the positive name ID is soft, meaning it can be easily peeled away with a negative campaign of more than $2 million — what Ladra suspects is a record for a primary (more on that later) — that hit Diaz de la Portilla with near daily mailers on not just on his voting and campaign record but his messy personal life.

In other words, people figured out it wasn’t big brother Miguel. The elder and more diplomatic DLP represented the area as a county commissioner and is much more popular than the meaner middle brother any day of the week. He didn’t even beat third place finisher Lorenzo Palomares, who got 17%, by double digits.

Even though Alex DLP loaned himself close to $443,500 — $393,500 in the last month and nobody knows where he gets that kind of money — it was too little, too late. Ditto for his short, last-minute, Spanish-language TV commercial casting Diaz as a lobbyist pushing the soccer stadium that was seen in this household exactly once. By then, Alex already had lost in the absentee ballots, even with expert AB fraudster and former Miami Commissioner Humberto Hernandez working on his team, according to the latest campaign report (more on that later).

Perennial candidate Annette Taddeo, who finally won her first race Tuesday — and how! Trouncing former State. Rep. Ana Rivas Logan with 71% of the vote — isn’t making the same mistake. Or her supporters aren’t, anyway. The Florida Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee has already been hitting Diaz with mailers to independent NPA voters casting him as a lobbyist who represents special interests in Tallahassee. It is smart to define him early as a lobbyist. Now Diaz has to spend time, and money, fighting that.

And he will. While Diaz seems to have spent his whole $2 million nut already, he knows where to get more. And the GOP will also spend its dollars to keep this seat from going blue again after winning it this past November. Taddeo, who almost physically cried to Michael Putney about the mailers that attacked how she invested her daughter’s trust fund (cue to roll your eyes) is going to have to get thicker skin. Because that is child’s play compared to what is coming. For someone as experienced in running as she is, Taddeo’s never been in a race like this.

Preparate, mujer! Her psychologisst husband may have to squeeze in a session or two for her.

She also has to raise more money than she ever has. She was able to win the primary with $120,000, between her campaign account and her Fight Back Florida political action committee combined. That was more than Rivas Logan, who maybe will have spent $15,000 of her own campaign money by the time the final reports are in. Rivas Logan did get the help from the Floridians for Accountability PAC that spent about $200,000 in the last two months, which we can guess was mostly on this race and mostly on negative attacks against Rivas Logan.

Maybe negative attacks only work when they are million dollar negative attacks.

Taddeo and Democrats are going to have to step their fundraising up if they expect to compete in the general. While the district is pretty evenly split, and was represented by Democrat former Sen. Dwight Bullard and his family for years before Artiles beat him — in, yep, a negative campaign last year — the numbers from the primary show that more Republicans voted (13,293) than Democrats (10,042) in this special election, a trend that is likely to follow into the general. Taddeo is going to need to keep her cool, raise more cash and attract more than the just the super angry Democrats to win on Sept. 26.

That’s a tall order.

Read related story: Both Democrats in SD40 race are compared to Donald Trump

And don’t expect any help from Rivas Logan, who lost with an abysmal 29% (which is still better than DLP) in a race that nobody cared much about except for the really angry Dems who remember Rivas Logan as a Republican, even before Taddeo’s PAC started attacking her as a turncoat. Which was pretty funny considering Taddeo ran for Lt. Gov. only last year with Mr. King Turncoat Charlie Crist.

Taddeo did not return calls and texts to her cellphone. But a statement she issued sounds like she is far too encouraged by the blowout in the primary, which she should not take as a sign that this will be easy.

“Our campaign is ready to take our people powered message to every voter in our district so we can bring change to Tallahassee. It’s time our community rejects the special interests and their lobbyist, Jose Felix Diaz and elect a champion who will fight for our public schools, take on traffic gridlock and enhance our healthcare system. With tonight’s decisive victory, we can, and will, send a loud message in September that the politics of division coming from President Trump and Washington, D.C. will not be tolerated in South Florida. Together, we will make history by electing the first Hispanic Democratic woman to the Florida Senate and a champion for our families.”

Rivas Logan could have been that, too. But she couldn”t even motivate the 5,002 people who voted for her in last August’s primary — where she came in second without campaigning — to vote in this race, maybe it’s best that she hang up her spurs.

“Right now, I’m going on vacation,” Rivas Logan told Ladra Tuesday night, shortly after calling and texting Taddeo (and getting no response). “I wish her well,” she said, adding that she was retiring this fall as a school teacher and retiring from politics altogether. She won’t even go on TV anymore, she said.

“It was my last race. I had nothing to lose. I’m going to retire and travel.”

She also said she was a bit relieved she did not have to face Pepi Diaz again, after he attacked her in 2012 when they were drawn into the same House seat through redistricting.

“I do think the seat now will stay in Republican hands,” Rivas Logan added.

Doesn’t sound like an endorsement card to Ladra.

It was bound to happen. In fact, one might wonder what took Annette Taddeo so long to bring up Ana Rivas Logan‘s Republican stripes.

It happened this week, when Democrat voters received a mailer where Rivas Logan is pictured between President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who she only served in Tallahassee with for a year. “A history of voting Republican,” it says on one side. And that’s true. Because Rivas Logan only became a Democrat after she was beaten out of office by another candidate in the SD40 race, former State Rep. Jose Felix “Pepi” Diaz (who happens to be running in the GOP primary).

The year was 2012 when Rivas Logan and Diaz were thrown into the same district via redistricting. Neither one would move out. The party backed Diaz, who went on a negative attack questioning her Cuban roots and calling her an unfit mother. One piece linked Rivas Logan, a former Miami-Dade School Board member to then Superintendent Rudy Crew, who was unpopular and hated by Cubans, in particular, for allowing communist books in the curriculum. Rivas Logan switched parties shortly after, citing the anti-immigrant sentiment in the GOP but everybody knows she felt abandoned by the party, even stabbed in the back.

Read related story: Outing non-Cubans in Miami politics

In this primary, it’s all about the fact that she was even in that contest.

“Once Republican, always Republican,” the mailer says. Well, wait a minute. Wouldn’t that also apply to former Gov. Charlie Crist, who ran as a Democrat with Taddeo as his running mate?

The mailer points out that Rivas Logan is still getting “Republican money” because 90% of her money is from the Lewin family of Davie, who own 411-Pain and other healthcare interests and are registered red. Of course, 90% equals $10,000 of the $12,925 she’s collected (and it’s actually more if you consider that she loaned herself $2,500), so big deal?

The piece is paid for by Fight Back Florida, Taddeo’s PAC, which is chaired by Raul Martinez Jr., who used to be former Congressman Joe Garcia‘s chief of staff and who Taddeo ran against in the congressional primary last year. The PAC has reported raising $37,500 since May, including a $10,000 contribution last month from Diario Las Americas Multimedia.

But the piece seems late, landing more than two weeks after absentee ballots went out, and short, coming on the heels of not one but at least three anti Taddeo pieces put out by Floridians for Accountability, an election communications organization that has been inactive since 2008 and didn’t report any activity last month. One of the pieces also tries to compare Taddeo to Trump repeating false allegations from 2014 that she was under IRS investigation for not paying her employees. That simply isn’t true and the complaint that was filed was done so for political purposes. Two other hit pieces targeted where Taddeo invests her money — which includes Big Oil, Big Tobacco and Big Pharma, none of which are Dem darlings.

Read related story: Dade’s newest Dem, Ana Rivas Logan, hails First Lady

Ladra still thinks Democrats will have to hold their nose and vote for Rivas Logan if they want to get that seat back. They should have never lost it to former Sen. Frank Artiles, who was forced to resign in April after he was caught making racist remarks to black legislators in public. But their best chance to get it back is Rivas Logan, who came in second in the primary to former Sen. Dwight Bullard without spending very much or campaigning really. Because the very Republican background that is a liability for Rivas Logan in this primary is what is going to make her a better candidate for the general against Diaz, for a rematch, or former Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla, who would enter the general limping from the full frontal attack campaign in his primary that has included allegations of violent outburstss and improriety with women. 

Or maybe all this drama in both primaries gives the NPA candidate, Christian “He-Man” Schlearth, an advantage.

Two key unions announced Tuesday that they endorsed Annette Taddeo in her bid to replace former Senator Frank Artiles, who was forced to resign in April after he was caught in a racial rant against a black legislator.

The leaders of SEIU Florida and AFSCME Florida both said they were pleased to back Taddeo, who has always had the union endorsements in every single election she has lost and is running for the Democrat nomination against former State Rep. Ana Rivas Logan.

“We have a great opportunity to elect Annette Taddeo who has a proven track record of being a passionate and determined voice for the residents of Senate District 40,” SEIU Florida President Monica Russo, said in a statement. “Annette brings both grace and grit to this crucial race. She is a fighter and a negotiator. Should she win, expect Annette Taddeo to go toe-to-toe with the power structure to fight for the rights of working folks.”

Key words: Should she win. Because what Taddeo really has is a proven track record of losing elections. The SEIU should know that. They endorsed her last year against former Congressman Joe Garcia in that Democratic primary. So did the local AFL-CIO and United Teachers of Dade.

Read related story: Awkward! Annette Taddeo, Joe Garcia face off with polite jabs

“Taddeo’s candidacy has excited members because of her strong understanding of the issues South Floridians face, her plans to tackle income inequality and focus state government on the needs of working people instead of corporate CEOs and her commitment to protecting workplace freedoms,” the statement Tuesday said.

There’s no doubt that this could have an impact in a special election where there is a tiny little turnout projected. Much less than the 20,390 who voted in the district in the August Democratic primary. Combined, the local AFSCME and SEIU chapters represent more than 6,000 workers in Senate District 40 — which could give her an edge, if they all vote for her. The endorsement likely comes with some phone banking and certainly with bodies on election day to hand out palm cards at voting locations.

But, again, Taddeo had all the union endorsements and their people in 2016, and Garcia still beat her 52 to 48 percent.

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.”