A controversial proposal floated only on social media to build a huge state-of-the-art stadium in the middle of Tropical Park is not supported by county officials or anybody at the University of Miami.
The whole fancy notion is just attorney John H. Ruiz having a wet dream.
What a freaking mess.
Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins allegedly announced late Wednesday — in a statement the Miami Herald said was provided by her campaign manager — that she is no longer running for Congress in District 27. The reason? She “heard” that Sen. Annette Taddeo is switching to that race and she’s getting out of the way.
Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins is the invited speaker this week for the Tuesday Morning Breakfast Club meeting in Miami Beach.
Higgins is going to want to discuss county projects in Miami Beach, including budget and legislative highlights. But Ladra is pretty certain the crowd will want to know about the monorail project proposed for the Beach corridor of the countywide rapid transit plan.
It’s not even over yet, and already more people have voted in the runoff for the special shotgun wedding election in Miami-Dade District 5 than in the first round when there were twice as many candidates.
Early voting ends Sunday and already, through Saturday, there had been 2,055 ballots cast at the four early voting locations. Voters cast 1,696 ballots during early voting before the May 22 election, where Eileen Higgins and Zoraida Barreido got the top two scores (35 and 33 percent, respectively) to proceed into the runoff Tuesday.
And even though Carlos Garin and former Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla got bumped off in the first round, there have already also been more absentee ballots cast this time: With 8,250 just through Friday compared to 7,715 for all four candidates last time.
That means more than 10,300 people have already voted. And does that mean that Higgins is closing the gap?
Common political thought has Zory — wife of former Commissioner Bruno Barreiro, who is running for Congress and timed his resignation to help usher his wife into office — taking Tuesday with 60% of the vote. Ladra thinks it’s going to be closer: maybe 54-46, which would still be an amazing finish for la gringa, a newby candidate nobody heard of before April.
Look, that’s not what Ladra wants, mind you. It’s just what is happening. Miami Herald reporter Doug Hanks tweeted that there were more Republican ballots cast than Democrats, by less than three percent. But the push that Barreiro and her supporters are making at the end is unprecedented among Republicans, who typically focus on absentee ballots.
Yes, Higgins is a good candidate and makes an attractive prospect, even before the Democrats put her on overdrive. She would bring a much needed voice and add checks and balances to the commission. And yes, I do believe those postcards from people outside the district urging Democrat voters to come out have made a difference and narrowed the gap.
But then: (1) This is a district where Hispanic voters have traditionally outperformed for Hispanic candidates; (2) A Barreiro, albeit Bruno, has represented the district for 20 years; (3) Most if not all of Carlos Garin’s votes and ADLP’s votes go Zory’s way.
And then there is (4) The Marco Rubio factor.
That mailer with Marco Rubio’s endorsement — the golden ticket of GOP nods — went not just to super voters, Ladra heard, but also to every single Republican registered in the district. It was really call to action, an effort to encourage Republicans who were going to sit it out, to come out Election Day. If there hasn’t been a robocall already, one is coming.
That means the numbers are just going to keep going up.
Are nonpartisan municipal races a thing of the past?
The Democrats made them do it.
That’s what Nelson Diaz, chairman of the Miami-Dade Republican Party, said about an email they blasted Wednesday for Zoraida Barreiro, who is running in the special shotgun wedding election for the county commission district 5 seat vacated by her husband Bruno Barreiro, so he could run for Congress.
“Of course we’re going to help Zoraida,” Diaz told Ladra last week. “And you can blame the Democrats. My preference is not to do that. It’s important to have independent, free elections at the local level. But if Democrats are going to get involved to push their radical, left wing agenda, then we will get involved.”
And so they did.
“We Need to Stop the Democrats,” the email reads.
“The Democrats are trying to force a radical, left-wing liberal that just recently moved to Miami from out of state. She is so out of touch with our community, she has stated her support for the elimination of the Homestead exemption. If she wins, they will have enough Democrats to take down the tax deduction and it will increase our taxes,” it says, urging votes for Barreiro.
“We cannot allow the Democrat to win!”
Read related: Dems push full court press for Eileen Higgins in special District 5 county race
Sure sounds like a desperate cry — and Ladra is pretty sure Higgins would not advocate lifting the Homestead exemption, which isn’t the county commission’s purview anyway, but, hey, it’s a good tactic in the working class parts of the district: “Oh! My! God! She’s going to raise taxes!” It’s almost as good as “She’s a communist!”
Diaz said Higgins said as much in a Spanish-language TV interview. But la gringa — whose Spanish is okay but could be better — was only saying what many electeds at the county and cities are saying: That this additional exemption voters are likely to pass in November is going to drain government coffers and cause serious cuts. Government officials and sitting electeds everywhere are worried about that and planning.
“It must have been misinterpreted in my terrible Spanish,” Higgins said, adding that the county mayor has done a good job. “We have to plan for it. When we sit around meetings and say we want more buses we have to remember that when we vote in November.”
Democrats have been actively and publicly helping Eileen Higgins in this race since the very beginning. She was the only Democrat running against three Republicans, including former State Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla. The party paid political consultant Christian Ulvert, who took precious time from a gubernatorial candidate. And Higgins had local electeds, state reps and even another gubernatorial candidate endorse and promote her online.
She won the first round with 35%, two points over Barreiro, forcing a runoff. Democrats like to think they did that. After all, it’s not their first rodeo.
While it’s the first time the local GOP steps into a traditionally non-partisan municipal race, Diaz said, the local Dems have been involved in them since at least Daniella Levine-Cava ran for Miami-Dade Commission. Her race in 2014 against incumbent Lynda Bell, who happened to be a staunch right-to-life Republican, became the first local non partisan election the Miami-Dade Democratic Party got really involved in. Since then, they’ve helped Homestead Mayor Jeff Porter, Miami Beach Commissioner Micky Steinberg and Miami Commissioner Ken Russell.
Read related story: Eileen Higgins would upset the apple cart, add checks and balances
“We’ve always had the approach that if you’re running for office, who you affiliate yourself with, what party, speaks to the types of decisions you’ll be making at the dais,” said Miami-Dade Democratic Party Chairman Juan Cuba. “Even though it’s local, we’re dealing with zoning and services. And you also deal at the local level with national issues — minimum wage, affordable housing, police oversight.”
Sanctuary cities. Gender-neutral bathrooms.
“We do want to make sure we are electing people who align with our values, especially at the local level where we need more people who will fight for working families,” Cuba said.
The Miami-Dade Commission already has a Democrat majority. And that doesn’t necessarily translate to a “progressive agenda” when it comes to the votes. The mega mall development, for example, was passed with Levine-Cava as the sole dissenting vote. In fact, that happens to her a lot. And the ordinance to hold immigrant detainees for ICE — to remove Miami from the list of sanctuary cities and please Donald Trump — was sponsored by Sally Heyman, a Democrat and former state rep.
On the flip side, Mayor Carlos Gimenez endorsed Hillary Clinton — though one could argue that was a publicity stunt since his son works for Trump — and Commissioner Jose “Pepe” Diaz, another Republican, is very friendly to labor, which is usually a Democrat characteristic. Barreiro has long been considered a moderate Republican because he pioneered LGBT issues. But he represents Miami Beach, so maybe he sorta had to.
Read related: Lynda Bell vs. Levine-Cava debate becomes heated spar
Levine-Cava, the first Democrat elected to the commission with the party’s help, says she doesn’t see the commission as a partisan body. “It’s more about local issues and quality of life. Transit is not a Democrat or a Republican issue,” she told Ladra.
Well, maybe not. But let’s bring up the idea of raising taxes for it or having special taxing districts and you will see partisan division.
Some people fear that this marks the end of nonpartisan races in Miami-Dade and they could be right. Florida law requires judicial candidates to stay non-partisan, but how much you wanna bet that we know who is a Republican and who is a Dem. Candidates in the big cities like Miami Beach and Homestead are already using the invisible “D” and “R”behind their names for campaigning. Small cities are likely next in an increasingly divided and polarized political society.
There’s a reason why both Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and Commission Chairman Esteban Bovo — who hopes to be the next county mayor — have endorsed Zoraida Barreiro in the District 5 commission race: They want to stay in control.
They like things the way they are.
Barreiro would be a known entity, a Republican on an increasingly partisan board who would likely vote along the same “party” lines as her husband, former Commissioner Bruno Barreiro, whose abrupt resignation to run for Congress set the stage for this shotgun wedding election to benefit his beloved. Who said romance is dead?
Zory Barreiro is of the dynasty, by marriage not blood, but still a newby to the dais and would likely take to King Carlos and Bobo Bovo like a baby to a, um, a blanket. They would be her mentors. And she would definitely be a vote in their pocket, whether she knows it or not.
Read related: Eileen Higgins makes history leading special county race against the odds
Eileen Higgins, on the other hand, could upset the apple cart. Higgins is la gringa activist, a really newby who, despite living here only a few years, actually won the first round, topping both Barreiro and former Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla with 35% of the vote (Barreiro got 33% but is still considered the front runner). Higgins would likely follow the likes of Daniella Levine Cava and Barbara Jordan, other Democrats on the dais.
And with Higgins, the Dems would have a majority on a body that has been evenly split. Let’s count ’em: Jordan, Jean Monestime, Audrey Edmonson, Sally Heyman, Levine Cava, Dennis Moss. That’s six. Commissioner Xavier Suarez is an NPA like yours truly. Bruno and the other five that are left — Rebeca Sosa, Javier Souto, Joe Martinez, Jose “Pepe” Diaz and Bovo are all Republican. The even split stays if Barreiro wins the runoff. But if Higgins wins? It could really change the dynamics on that dais.
Translation: Gimenez might lose control.
A perfect example is the living wage ordinance that passed purely on partisan lines and that the mayor later vetoed. A potential commission override would need a super majority so one more person than the 7 who passed it. If that vote were to happen with Barreiro on the dais, she would vote no. If Higgins was up there, that’s a yes vote right there.
Of course, this dynamic may not translate to every issue. After all, Daniella finds herself voting solita all the time — against the mega mall, against expanding the Kendall charter school, against the FP&L Turkey Point water reuse deal, against the CDMP case converting industrial zoned land to residential in West Kendall, against loosening the Sunshine Laws.
And how many votes have been 7-6 that might have gone the other way with someone like Higgins on the board?
Levine Cava, who is often the dissenting vote on items and the lone, if soft, voice of reason, has endorsed Higgins, naturally.
Read related: Dems push full court press for Eileen Higgins in District 5 county race
“I think she sees eye to eye with me on environmental issues, on labor issues on transit issues.”
And on sanctuary cities. Gun control. Gender neutral bathrooms.
Higgins might change the conversation on these social issues and her presence might just give some of the other Democrats (yes, Ladra is talking to you Sally) the courage to be themselves.
