Almost one week before the end of the Coral Gables city elections for mayor and two commissioners April 8, and each of the races is looking more like a tight, nail-biting contest that could go either way. The smart money is on runoffs for all three.
Even if fat chance mayoral candidate Michael Abbott, who is suing the city and claims the police violated his rights, only gets 5% of the vote — the people who don’t like incumbent Mayor Vince Lago or just want a change and think that Commissioner Kirk Menendez is not serious enough, so there’s an alternative — there could be a runoff. Some observers who spoke to Ladra say that Menendez — who performed well at the Gables Good Government forum, but was not smart enough to record it — isn’t campaigning hard enough. That he’s counting on the anti-Lago vote to get him over the top. That might not be enough.
He’s killing it at public appearances, by all accounts, but needs to get his message out to more voters.
Meanwhile, “muscle headed” Lago — that’s a term a voter actually used — is “angry all the time,” and boring people with his same ol’, same ol’ schtick about the salaries and the city managers and moving the election to November, blah, blah, blah. These are the three things on which he has failed to lead, frankly. Even his petition drive failed miserably, with thousands of invalid signatures (more on that later). This is his agenda, not the people’s. But no matter what the question is, Lago pivots to one of these things because they are campaign red meat and because it distracts from his arrogant, demeaning behavior, conflicts of interest and public temper tantrums.
Menendez has been direct and far more factual about the salaries, which were raised for the first time in decades to $65,000. Lago didn’t get to hear when Menendez explained it at the GGG event because the mayor left right after he spoke. Maybe Lago’s campaign manager, Jesse Manzano — hanging out in the back of the room “like a stalker” — told him about it afterwards.
Everyone who spoke with Ladra agrees that Lago must have taken a Xanax, or he was given one or two by his handlers, because of how calm and even-headed he was, given several opportunities to fly off his sensitive handle. “It was surreal, unsettling knowing how amped up he’s been,” a voter said.
It’s incredibly sad that nobody recorded it for so many reasons.
Also, none of the 118 people on the Zoom meet-and-greet last week hosted by the Coral Gables Neighbors Association with their chosen candidates asked about the salaries or the changes of city managers. Not one. Because who cares?

The CGNA has endorsed, along with Menendez: Tom Wells, who is running in the commission race to fill Kirk’s seat, and architect Felix Pardo, who is running against Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson, a Lago loyalist who has lost her anti-development base and must count on the Lago vote to win her first re-election. Good luck with that.
In Anderson’s Group 2 race, Laureano Cancio is also running, so he’s the reason there could be a runoff, but he won’t be in it. Not because he’s not a good guy with good ideas. He is. He just doesn’t have the community presence of the other two.
Pardo and Menendez also have the the endorsement from the fire union and the police union. While Wells is getting help from the Coral Gables Democratic Club against Richard Lara, the Republican mayor’s handpicked Seguro Que Yes vote, and FreeBee transit lobbyist Claudia Miro — officially vice president of business development –who once worked with former Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff. Miro has already lost one commission race, to Anderson in 2021.
Interestingly, her campaign manager is Tania Cruz Gimenez, who also ran in that same 2021 race and last year helped newly-elected Miami-Dade Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz win that historic race. Wells is being helped by the Coral Gables Democratic Club. Members had volunteered to canvass for Wells in North Gables Sunday afternoon.
Ladra suspects that Miro, who has the Miami Herald endorsement, is going to be in the runoff, the question is with who.
So, it’s very possible that the April 8 election is just practice for the real thing, which would then be April 22. But the first round of early voting is from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday, this weekend.
The post Each Coral Gables race in the April 8 election could end up in a runoff appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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Bringing political campaigns to an all new low — or is it a new high? — a Coral Gables supporter or supporters of Mayor Vince Lago posted a photo on social media earlier this month that morphed the face of Commissioner Kirk Menendez, who is running against the incumbent for mayor, with an image of Jesus Christ.
The message beneath the post by Aesop Gables, a known surrogate for Lago: “Whoever has the Kirk, has life; whoever does not have the Kirk does not have life.” It cites the book of George. Merrick?
Was this mocking Menendez’s strong faith and longtime active involvement in the church? How does this help the Lago campaign? Is the incumbent mayor appealing to people who hate Christ?
Whatever the message was, it has backfired some. Las viejitas in Coral Gables (read: senior voters) are clutching their pearls. The shocked reaction forced the Lago campaign — not Lago, but the campaign — to issue a statement denying association to the image. But it seemed really like a self-promotional plug. Not an apology or even a disassociation.

“The Vince Lago campaign strongly condemns the use of religious imagery for political attacks,” his handlers posted on social media. “Mayor Vince Lago is a proud Catholic, as is his family. His faith is personal, not political. His daughters attend Catholic School, and like many in our community, he believes faith should unite, and not divide.
“Let’s keep this campaign about the issues that matter to our residents,” the post read, listing the issues that really don’t matter to many or maybe most residents, “… not cheap shots and religious attacks.”
All he had to do was make a phone call. Because the one who made the cheap religious attack was Aesop Gables, a blogger long known to be a strong Lago supporter and surrogate. It would be insane to think that Aesop posted that image of the Kirk Christ without Lago’s permission or, at the very least, knowledge.
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Before Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago hand-picked attorney Richard Lara to run for city commission, in an effort to try to get his majority back with a third guaranteed vote, Lara was not at all involved in city politics. He hasn’t served on any boards. He never spoke before the commission, until he announced his run for office last year in a tacky move.
He hasn’t even voted in a single Coral Gables election since 1999.
Lara is asking for Gables residents to vote for him in this April 8 election, paints himself as a lifelong resident who cares deeply about the city. Yet he hasn’t cast a ballot in the City Beautiful in more than two decades. That’s because he lived in Westchester for a 17-year stint between calling Coral Gables home.
According to public records obtained from the Miami-Dade Elections Department, Lara has voted almost exclusively in national and state elections. He voted absentee in November, but did not vote in the primary last year. Ladra can’t help but wonder if Lago knows that Lara didn’t vote in the 2023 election, where the mayor’s two other handpicked candidates lost to commissioners Melissa Castro and Ariel Fernandez. Lara voted in the general election in 2022, but not in the city elections in 2021.
Read related: Coral Gables candidate Richard Lara campaigns in public comments — again
That’s because he was not eligible, or not registered to vote in the Gables election until June of 2021. Lara, who has repeatedly said he has lived in Coral Gables all his life, lived in Westchester for a spell. Miami-Dade property records show he purchased a home on Cadagua in 1998 and sold it in 2003. That could explain why he voted in the city in 1999.
But Lara hasn’t voted once since then. Not even 2001. Or after he moved back in 2021, when, county records show, he and his wife Bertha — who were married in 1997, according to the county clerk’s records — purchased their home on Coral Way for $1.5 million. Before that, Lara was registered from 2003 to 2021 to vote at a house near 97th Avenue and 30th Street owned by Bertha Canales, which is his wife’s maiden name. So, her house or her mom’s.

 
Lara, taking a page from his master’s book, did not return calls, texts and emails from Political Cortadito.
Attorney Thomas “Tom” Wells, who is running in the open seat against Lara (and transit lobbyist and onetime commission candidate Claudia Miro, too), is making this an issue. It’s smart. It is yet more evidence that Lara is just a Johnny Come Lately, and at the behest of the mayor for no other reason than to be a pocket vote on the commission dais.
At a recent forum hosted by the Gables Good Government group, Lara — whose entire campaign mirrors the issues that are hammered by Mayor Lago — tried to backtrack on the lies about living in the Gables his whole life saying that he has “always considered” Coral Gables home even though he technically lived out of the city. “His response prompted laughter from the audience,” says a story in the Coral Gables Gazette that provides a snapshot of the event.
Read related: School-based PTA forum for Coral Gables candidates has no big surprises
Strangely enough, Wells — who is endorsed by the active resident group Coral Gables Neighbors Association — also pulled the data for Lara’s wife, who did vote in the Gables elections of 2001 and 2005, which seems to indicate that she and Richard Lara were not living in the same house. Or that she committed voter fraud. Either, or. Ladra would ask the newly elected Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Alina Garcia to look into it, but she was at Lago’s town hall Thursday, so she may be biased.

Maybe Wells did it because he wanted to tout his wife’s own voting record, which is perfect. Dianne Wells has voted in every city election back to 1999. That’s 15 times, while Tom Wells, the candidate, has voted 10 times. He could not tell Ladra why he did not vote those years he was a no-show. “Maybe I was traveling,” he told Ladra.
But the local vote is important, he says.
“It shows commitment and passion to the city. It just shows you care,” Wells told Political Cortadito.
Records indicate that Miro, a former planning and zoning board member who ran for commission in 2021 and lost in a crowded race (Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson won in a runoff), is close behind with only one less vote in the city recorded. She was endorsed by The Miami Herald this week and is basically seen as an independent candidate. Lara is on an intentional slate with Lago and Anderson. Wells is on a defacto slate with Commissioner Kirk Menendez, who is running for mayor, and architect Felix Pardo, who is running against Anderson.
The next day, Community Newspapers — which endorsed Lara’s master, Mayor Lago, earlier — endorsed Lara, without even questioning the other candidates. Tsk, tsk. Ladra expects an endorsement for Anderson next.
Most longtime political observers believe this race (more on it later) is heading into a runoff because none of the three candidates will pull 50% plus one of the April 8 vote. That would be proof that every vote counts.
Someone better tell Lara.
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In the race for Coral Gables mayor, the campaign financing is super lopsided. Incumbent Mayor Vince Lago has out-fundraised Commissioner Kirk Menendez, who has challenged him — more than 16 to 1.
After coming in with a negative total in his December report, Lago’s campaign finance reports show he has raised $263,825 just since January, with $108,750 coming in the first two weeks of February. These last couple of months and the first week of March have doubled his take since last year to $430,925.
A lot of his contributions are still coming in at the $1,000 maximum amount, and a whole lot of it is not from Coral Gables, with addresses in Doral, Virginia Gardens, Hialeah, Sunny Isles Beach, Miami proper and as far away as Minneapolis, Baltimore, and Kirkland, Washington.
A lot of it is also from real estate developers and construction industry folks who know a friendly pol when they see one.
There are also a few bundles, which is one person or group contributing more than the maximum $1,000 through relatives and multiple companies. This includes $15,000 from former Commissioner Frank Quesada and John H. Ruiz, the University of Miami booster whose LifeWallet company was placed under civil and criminal investigations last year amid fraud allegations and billions of dollars that disappeared. The company was also sued by Cano Health, which alleged it was a “Ponzi scheme.”

Also listed is at least $5,000 each from the Agave developers, developer Lissette Calderon, contractor Carlos Marquez, another $4,000 between Jesse Manzano, his campaign consultant, and Ralph Garcia-Toledo — the two have a development firm together. Don’t feel too bad for Manzano, though, because he’s been paid more than $24,000 just since January for consulting and research.
Read related: Kirk Menendez strikes back at Coral Gables Mayor ‘Lyin’ Vince Lago’
This does not include anything raised by his political action committee, Coral Gables First, which hasn’t reported any transaction since last year.
In comparison, Menendez — who does not have a political action committee — has raised nearly $26,000 in total, since January of last year. He raised $8,480 since the beginning of this year. Only 12 of the 67 individual contributions are the $1,000 maximum donation. The great majority are from the Gables. And there are no bundles.
Gables voters are not easily swayed by fancy advertisements and slick videos. Two years ago, Commissioners Melissa Castro and Ariel Fernandez beat better funded candidates who had Lago’s support, which shows the mayor’s impact among voters is waning.
Because a lot of the people who donated to Lago’s campaign, unlike those who donated to Kirk’s, can’t vote in the city election.
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Police and firefighter unions endorse Kirk Menendez
It’s no surprise that both the Coral Gables Police and the Coral Gables Firefighters unions have endorsed Commissioner Kirk Menendez in his bid to become the next mayor in the April 8 election. Incumbent Mayor Vince Lago might want you to think that’s no big deal. But it’s only because he has always belittled and demeaned the city’s first responders.
He actually calls them “special interest groups.”
Yeah, they’re special. And their interest is protecting the lives and safety of Gables residents.
“As election season heats up, you may see some candidates bragging about endorsements from special interest groups — especially the police and fire unions,” Lago’s campaign handlers wrote in an email to residents paid for by his Coral Gables First political action committee. “But here’s what they won’t tell you: these endorsements weren’t made through a fair or transparent process.”
Lago complains that he wasn’t even invited to an interview by the police or fire unions. Would he have gone? He didn’t get a questionnaire either. “Because he refuses to play politics with special interests. Instead of seeking union bosses’ approval, he’s seeking yours,” the email states.
Read related: “Boo hoo!” Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago melts down at police press event
“These endorsements don’t represent the hardworking men and women who protector city.They’re decided behind closed doors by a handful of union leaders — without input from the rank and file.”
Hmmm. That’s not entirely true. Lago was probably not invited or asked any questions because we all know how he stands on police and firefighters: He hates them. He has belittled them time and time again. He makes fun of them. He ridicules and chides then in public meetings.

Also, fyi, union “bosses” are elected by the union membership. They represent the rank and file just like Lago and the commissioners are voted into office to represent the residents. Ladra would be willing to bet real money that a great majority if not all the police officers in the city endorse Menendez. The street cops. The bicycle cops. The marine patrol. The paramedics that bring people back to life. The drivers of the fire trucks and rescue vehicles. Everyone.
He also complains that the unions are funding a “flood of attack ads and text messages.” But that’s like los pajaros tirandole a la escopeta. Lago is the one whose Gable First PAC has been funding negative attack texts and emails against not only Menendez, but also the two commissioners that beat his handpicked candidates last year and have created a new majority that doesn’t include him. There have been at least 14 emails so far since January. But he sent a dozen or so texts last year, even before the campaigning began.
The email from Lago’s PAC is so egregious that the police and fire unions felt the need to send out a joint statement “regarding campaign information” to set the record straight.
“Our firefighters and police officers work tirelessly to protect Coral Gables, offering highest in class service to its residents, but they can only do their jobs effectively when they have the proper resources, support and leadership in place. Unfortunately, years of neglect, underfunding, and staffing shortages have placed unnecessary strain on our public safety departments—jeopardizing the well-being of both first responders and residents,” the statement says, adding that Lago is the one misleading the public.
“While recent upgrades to fire stations and emergency services have been promoted by Mayor Lago as major feats of progress, the truth is these were not proactive investments. They were urgent repairs made necessary by long-standing neglect:

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The first forum for Coral Gables candidates, presented by the PTAs of eight city schools, was centered on education and the issues at the schools in the City Beautiful, like safety, teachers’ wages, affordable housing for teachers, student anxiety, book banning, increasing the number of families who send their kids to public schools and food waste in cafeterias. I kid you not.
Questions were asked by students at local schools and then the PTA members chose some submitted by participants in the Q&A section of the Zoom forum. Voters who missed it can view a recording here. The password is ?E^XpP^9, which is unnecessarily impossible to remember.
Not that it’s really worth the two hours. There were no real zingers or surprises. And it wasn’t terribly enlightening.
Candidates were questioned in three groups for the three different races, with the first session focused on the mayoral hopefuls — incumbent Mayor Vince Lago, Commissioner Kirk Menendez and Michael Abbott, an accountant with a beef against Coral Gables Police, who stands no chance of winning but could force a runoff.

All of the candidates think Coral Gables has some of the best schools. Abbott sounded like a robot reading from a boring script, and kept talking about his “technology hub” and establishing “Silicon South,” which is apparently a part of his platform. Lago and Menendez each touted their respective scholarship fundraising and different programs they’ve created.
Lago said he was the first elected in Miami-Dade to put police officers at schools after the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High. Menendez spearheaded spending $50,000 in the city budget for a conceptual design of a public park working with the Miami-Dade County School Board and mentioned the compact between the city of Miami Beach and the school board as something the Gables could explore.
Read related: Candidates are set for Coral Gables election April 8 as voters request ABs
The best part was when the candidates were basically asked to defend their decision to send their kids to private schools, not in so many words, but that was the point. Like, gotcha. Abbott said he has no kids but Lago and Menendez, who were obviously the targets of this question, said they made the decision to send their kids to faith-based schools because they are Catholic.
Lago — who suddenly has a lisp (maybe he had come from the dentist’s office?) — wanted to be someplace else.
There were no big surprises in the two commission forums, either. But some interesting takeaways:
Both Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson and Felix Pardo, a longtime city activist and architect, are products of the public school system. Pardo’s wife is a teacher and his son is a public school teacher in Chicago’s South Side. Both his grandchildren attend Chicago public schools. Oh, and Pardo has was recently celebrated for perfect attendance at The Rotary Club.

Anderson, as usual, sounded like she was mansplaining everything to people who just aren’t as smart as her. She also said she started bike lanes in Coral Gables 18 years ago.
Attorney Laureano Cancio, who announced his run before Pardo jumped in, is a Pedro Pan kid, having come from Cuba on the Catholic Church’s Peter Pan flights as an unaccompanied minor. He said his number one issue is education and he has said in the past that the city could establish its own education system or compact with the Miami-Dade County Public School Board to keep Gables students, who now go to schools outside the city, at hometown schools. That makes a community, he said.
At 74, he also runs about three miles almost every day.
The best question was from the participants on the Zoom call and it was about density. Pardo, who is on the planning and zoning board and was also one it 20 years ago as the chair, is absolutely making overdevelopment an issue in his race, and rightly so. Anderson was elected in part because she was supposed to be a firewall against the developers’ interest and, many say, it hasn’t turned out that way.
“I have been the sole voice for responsible development in the city,” Pardo said on the Zoom call. “What has gone on is absolutely atrocious. This city 100 years ago was never designed for the incredibly large projects that are just destroying the fabric of our city.”
Read related: Fundraising for Coral Gables election slows, incumbents count on max gifts
It’s not just traffic that’s affected every time a zoning or land use variance gets approved, he said. Water and sewer, parks schools, freighters, police are all “overburdened,” Pardo explained. “We are pinning ourselves into a corner.”
In the third race, voters have to choose between attorney Richard Lara, Lago’s handpicked pocket-vote candidate, micro transit lobbyist Claudia Miro, who talked about lobbying in Tallahassee for more school guards, and attorney and activist Thomas “Tom” Wells, all of whom are public school products.
Lara seemed to pander and use a bunch of buzzwords. Miro and Wells both seemed more prepared, knowledgable and specific.

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