From the Where Are They Now? file: Former Miami-Dade Commissioner and onetime mayor of Homestead Lynda Bell is running for state office — in North Florida.
Bell, who is town manager of Sneads (pop. 1,796), filed earlier this month to run in the special election for House District 7, vacated by State Rep. Halsey Beshears after he was tapped by Gov. Ron DeSantis to lead the state Department of Business and Professional Regulation.
She faces three other Republican candidates — Virginia Fuller, Jason Shoaf and Mike Watkins — and then faces one Democrat, but it’s deep red country so whoever wins the primary is likely a shoe-in.
The special election primary is April 9 and the special general election for the seat is on June 18.
Read related: Levine-Cava gets to work while Lynda Bell finishes term
Bell, who lost her seat to Commissioner Daniella Levine-Cava in 2014, ran for House District 118 in 2016 but came in third behind Anthony Rodriguez (No.2) and David Rivera, who lost to Robert Asencio, who, in a turn of events, lost last November to Anthony Rodriguez. In August of 2018, she took the $16,500-a-year job in the Jackson County town. She lives in Tallahassee, which is within the district’s boundaries.
Somewhere in between, she stayed politically relevant, getting an appointment from former Gov. Rick Scott to the Florida Communities Trust that governs the Florida Department of Environmental Protection — she is still listed on the board, according to the agency website — and becoming the president of the non-profit Florida Right to Life.
Read related: Mark Bell’s Homestead loss ripples over to wife Lynda Bell
Lynda Bell and her husband Mark Bell — who also lost a 2013 bid for mayor — sold their historic Redland Hotel in January 2016 for $950,000. Nifty little profit because records indicate they bought the property for $250,000 in 2012. The next year, the county commissioner secured a $25,000 community redevelopment grant for “her husband’s hotel” for facade improvements.
The Bells must have invested that money into other properties, because they own six rental properties, according to her financial disclosure: Five in Tallahassee and one duplex in Homestead.
Does that mean that they could come back?

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Well, that didn’t take long, did it?
On the eve of the inauguration last week, Florida State Rep. Mike Hill (R-Pensacola) filed a bill Monday that would roll back the gun restrictions passed by last year’s state legislature in the wake of the student shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland.
“The law that was passed last year was a direct infringement upon our Second Amendment, so I was duty bound by my oath to file this legislation to protect and defend our Second Amendment rights,” Hill said, referring to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act, which, among other things, banned bump stocks, raised the minimum age to buy a firearm from 18 to 21 years old, extended the waiting period to buy a gun to three days and created the “red-flag” provision that allows law enforcement to temporarily confiscate guns from anyone who threatens to hurt themselves or anyone else.
Hill’s bill would repeal those restrictions, which he said would do “absolutely nothing to stop what it intended to and that was mass shootings at our schools.”
The legislation, and a companion bill to be filed by Sen. Dennis Baxley (R-Ocala), first have to go through committee before getting to the House and Senate floors.
So this means that we could see a repeat of last year’s emotional testimony and fierce advocacy on both sides of the issue as the NRA again focuses on Florida.
Already, newly-elected Democratic State Rep. Cindy Polo — a Miami Lakes mom who decided to run after the shooting — vowed to fight the bill every step of the way.
“After one of the most devastating mass shootings in our state’s history, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle came together to pass a new set of gun safety laws. This legislation was not perfect, but it was a start,” Polo said in a statement.
“We must continue to move forward with bipartisan consensus on these issues and not backwards. This NRA-sponsored legislation is not the way to honor all of those we lost almost a year ago.
“We have a responsibility to the Parkland families and to all communities in Florida. It’s time our loyalty be with the people and not the NRA. I encourage all of my colleagues to do the same.”
Ladra can’t help but wonder how the survivors and the family of the victims feel about this.
Hill’s loyalties seem to be warped and he’s headed to a pretty big year, ensuring headlines. The other bills he’s introducing pre-session include one to ban the removal of confederate symbols — street names, statutes, whatever — which is already in committee and a controversial “fetal heartbeat” anti-abortion bill, which has been tried state by state to make Roe Vs. Wade moot.
And we haven’t even really gotten started.
 

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The Kendall Federation of Homeowners Associations has yet another candidate forum, the second of three this month, Wednesday night. This one features the head-to-head contests in three House districts.
In House District 105, Democrat Javier Estevez is going up against Doral Councilwoman Ana Maria Rodriguez for the seat vacated by State Rep. turned Ambassador Carlos Trujillo.
The incumbent is Republican and Rodriguez has had Dems vote for her in Doral and $278,000 in campaign contributions, which is about 45 times as much as Estevez raised. Even though she has spent all but about $20,000 to get into the general, Estevez better take advantage of this forum because she has access to more money.
Read related: KFHA candidate forum features Kendall Senate and two state races
In House District 116, Republican incumbent State Rep. Daniel Perez, who has had to win three elections in less than 18 months, will defend himself a fourth time against Democrat James Harden, who hasn’t even had a primary.
Harden is also at a huge disadvantage not only because of his name — Ladra doesn’t think the Eileen Higgins phenomenon is going to repeat in Westchester — and financially, with only $5,960 raised compared to $209,550 raised by Perez.
In House District 119, left open by termed out State Rep. Jeanette Nunez, there are two newbies: Democrat Heath Rassner and Republican Juan Fernandez-Barquin, who pulled an upset beating Analeen “Annie” Martinez, the commissioner’s kid.
Read related: Primary election brings few surprises, leaving general on hook
Still, that took nearly his whole $174,000 nut (including the $30K he loaned himself) and Fernandez-Barquin’s got about $20,000 left — which is still more than three times what Rassner has left. Rassner raised $13,000, but he spent almost $7,000 already as well.
It looks like the Democrats blew it again, putting no-name candidates with very little money or momentum in state races that could have been competitive and could have been carried in a blue wave but likely won’t be now.
Voters can make up their own minds at the KFHA forum that begins at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Civic Pavilion in the Kendall Village shopping center.

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There seems to be another funky, mysterious political action committee working in Miami Beach for the state elections — but this one is against Michael Grieco, not for him.
Grieco, the popular populist former city commissioner, was forced to resign and drop out of the mayor’s race last year after he got into trouble with another PAC. He is running for state House now and is arguably the front runner. Because South Florida, yeah, but also because the other two Democrats in the primary are no angels themselves.
Former fellow commissioner Deede Weithorn — who lied about having a master’s degree in engineering from MIT — has cozied up to the private prison industry, taking thousands from the evil GEO Group and claiming “personal relationships” made her do it. Meanwhile attorney Kubs Lalchandani represents sketchy plastic surgery factories that have killed and maimed people (ouch) and hasn’t voted in 15 elections (double ouch).
Nobody likes Deede and nobody knows or trusts Kubs so this is Grieco’s race to lose.
Everybody likes Mike. And, despite the PAC thing, they trust him. Go figure. Grieco already has all the major endorsements: The Miami-Dade Firefighters IAFF Local 1403, the Dade County Police Benevolent Association, AFSCME of South Florida — the trifecta of union nods — and also, most recently, the Florida Medical Association (FMA), a physicians’ PAC that raised more than $2.3 million during the 2016 election cycle.
You don’t need a poll to know Grieco’s got the edge here in a three-man race. And the stakes are high for the Aug. 28 primary because whoever wins that will almost certainly win the seat in November because of the demographics.
And that’s why the PAC attacks have started from a new campaign committee called Now Gen. The campaign is predictable: They tell you not to trust Grieco because of the PAC thing. Because that’s all they got. So let’s review what happened, shall we?
Grieco said friends and supporters had formed a PAC that got a $25,000 donation from overseas documented in a different person’s name. That’s called a third party contribution and is highly illegal, although the State Attorney’s Office has sure turned the other cheek multiple times, even once when Ladra brought her proof that the Miami Voice PAC had done exactly the same thing.
Anyway, when Grieco denied any connection and said something like “look into my soul,” — hey, he’s a former prosecutor so the dramatic flair is still there — a reporter with the Miami Herald took it as a personal challenge to prove him otherwise. It got the attention of Miami-Dade State Attorney Kathy Fernandez Rundle, who already had a beef with the former prosecutor, and handwriting experts and the accounts of said friends — who were providing testimony in a hostile environment, afraid for their own reputations, likely — and we have a case? Eh. Maybe.
But maybe not. Because there are so many ways that what he said and did could be misunderstood — or, worse, misinterpreted. Ladra simply is going to do what the rest of the engaged voters in that district are choosing to do and give Grieco the benefit of the doubt. It is hard to imagine he ever intended to do anything so tawdry for a mere $25K when he didn’t need it to win that race.
Read related: Miami Beach: Levine and Wolfson on defense for shady PAC
And how come you don’t see the SAO or any PAC for that matter go after gubernatorial candidate Philip Levine, whose own PAC — the appropriately named Relentless for Progress (aka Request for Proposals) was shut down after it was disclosed (first by this very blog) that Levine and his No. 1 Henchman, former Commissioner Jonah Wolfson solicited $1.5 million in campaign contributions from vendors and contractors at the city. Oh, Ladra knows why! Because Levine and Lalchandani share the same campaign consultant: Christian Ulvert.
So Grieco’s shady PAC was bad but Levine’s shady PAC is forgiven and forgotten and Ulvert can have his own PAC attack Grieco for Kubs, who poses like this for his twitter photo? Sounds like a triple standard.
And, while Miami Beach folks hate outside influence in their hometown politics, the argument against Grieco is falling on deaf ears because he has a core base of supporters who have never left him.
One reason is that Grieco never left them. Sure, he withdrew from the mayoral campaign, but he did not withdraw from their lives or from public service. He has continued to serve his constituency as a Facebook commissioner if not an elected one, warning of flooded streets or traffic jams and keeping citizens informed about important issues and controversial commission items.
Another reason is that Grieco led the charge against Levine’s idea to invite the Communist and totalitarian government of Cuba to open a consulate in Miami Beach. Y’all remember that, right? Levine and Ulvert both took disgusting tourist jaunts to Havana and were so enthralled with the people they were allowed audience with, and the regime thugs they met with, that they thought it would be a good idea to have a Cuban consulate office right here in our face. Although the idea was shot down with a 4-3 vote by the commission to not allow a consulate until there were free elections and a respect for human rights, Grieco was the one who got that ball rolling. Then Levine accused Grieco of being a political opportunist because Grieco was not Cuban (even though he was speaking for his constituents).
“If that was true, I’d need to be gay to support my LGBT brothers and sisters. It would also be saying that only Jews can stand up for our Jewish community, or I would have to be female to fight for our women,” Grieco told the Miami Herald. “I find this logic offensive.”
There’s that dramatic flair. That’s at least as good a quote as the soul one.
In a way, these PAC attacks are still coming from Levine, via his consultant Ulvert, who is chair of the Now Gen PAC. Makes one wonder if Lalchandi — who has a $1.2 million house in Boulder, Colorado, so no wonder nobody knows who he is — is really a plantidate. How hard did Ulvert have to bend his ear?
This time, Grieco doesn’t seem to have his own PAC to worry about.
Of course, he doesn’t really need one either.

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Among the House races in South Florida this November, one of the most important, despite the little media attention, is the race to replace State Rep. Manny Diaz, Jr. in House District 103.
Why is it important? Because Diaz, the GOP mafia’s pick to run for the Senate seat vacated by Rene Garcia, is one of would be State Rep. Jose Oliva‘s yes men and speaker vote. That seat needs to stay firmly an Oliva vote if he is to have the mighty power next session. How loyal does that person have to be? So much so that Oliva handpicked his very own employee, Miami Lakes Councilman Frank Mingo, an Oliva Cigars supply chain manager, to run for the seat.
He is literally a lackey.
Democrat Cindy Polo, a mom on a mission, could have a real chance against Mingo in the year of the woman on a supposed blue wave. So of course they threw a challenger against her in the primary. This way they can attack her and force her to burn her money in an August contest.
Enter Richard Tapia, the possible plantidate who came out of nowhere. Well, actually, he came out of Kendall, allegedly moving into a Hialeah apartment in the district one day before qualifying on June 20.  Hmmmm. It certainly could look like he moved in just for the race. Or maybe “moved in” is better.
At least he didn’t just become a Democrat. He did that two years ago.
Tapia was a Republican two years ago when he announced a run for a Miami-Dade School Board seat in the Little Havana district. Actually, he’s bounced back and forth a few times but he’s been a Republican more than he’s been a Democrat by at least 12 years.
He seems to have a hard time making up his mind. Tapia was even registered as everything for some time in 2016. He last switched from Republican to Democrat in December of 2016, four months after he dropped out of the school board race. But he went from Democrat to Republican in February that same year and from No Party Affiliation to Democrat in January, only 12 days before that. Talk about indecision. Tapia had switched to NPA from Republican in 2014. But he had been Republican since 2002, when he switched from Democrat in August of that year.
Whew. Yeah, I’m dizzy, too.
Tapia’s bio on Bloomberg says he has provided political strategies to the insurance industry as well as to “candidates seeking public office, achieving the elections of various state representatives, a U.S. Congressman, and a U.S. Senator.” Ladra wonders who those are. Bet they’re Republican. Someone should ask him, because he wouldn’t talk to me. And is that the kind of public servant Miami Lakes wants?
He was also Miami-Dade Commissioner Esteban Bovo‘s appointment to the planning advisory board. Bovo, a died-in-the-wool Republican, is pretty tight with Oliva and would not likely appoint someone who would go against Oliva’s handpicked Diaz successor.
What seems far more likely is that Tapia is a plant, put there solely to smear Cindy and make her spend her money so she is at a disadvantage when it comes to the general. And if Tapia actually wins the primary, which is unlikely but possible, he will not try very hard to win the general. In fact, he may drop out. It wouldn’t be his first time.
This is the same guy who withdrew from the School Board race in 2016 after getting nudged by lobbyist and mayoral son CJ Gimenez, who met with him in a restaurant to talk him out of it. That’s because CJ’s aunt and the mayor’s sister in law, Maria Teresa Rojas, was running for the same seat. How much you wanna bet that Tapia was talked into this race?
Read related: Beware of Carlos Gimenez Jr. at Gables school board forum
Tapia wouldn’t talk about it. Reached over the weekend, he referred all questions to his campaign manager, Absentee Ballot Queen Sasha Tirador, who is known to work principally for Republican candidates. In fact, Ladra cannot remember a single Democrat candidate Sasha has worked with.
Of course, Tirador could just be into it to go against her old partner, David Custin, who works for Mingo and all of Oliva’s flying monkeys. It’s not like she hasn’t been driven by a grudge before.
It didn’t help Tapia’s case that he hung up on Ladra and answered a texted question about his P&Z appointment with “have a great day.” Tapia doesn’t even have to drop out if he wins the primary. He could throw it. He could just suspend his campaign or do something really stupid on purpose to hand Mingo the election. Or he could let it be known that he doesn’t really live in Hialeah.
Meanwhile, Polo seems like the real deal, another mom who got woke by the Parkland school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Senior High in February. She filed her first paperwork for the seat in March.
“I’m not running because it was part of a career plan,” she told Ladra. “It was a necessity.”
Polo, who used to do communications for the MDX Authority, helped found the Northwest Dade Democratic Club almost two years ago and hoped to find someone else to step up. After Parkland, she saw Mingo’s name all by itself and decided that the someone was staring at her in the mirror. She was encourage by many, including former Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas, who gave $500 to her campaign in May, according to state campaign finance reports.
Tapia, she said, called her and asked her to move her race to District 105. Polo said nana nina.
“He might not know what Hialeah girls are made of.”
Polo — who is involved in the area residents’ anti-blasting movement — wants to represent a community she says has been ignored for too long. “No one’s ever knocked on our doors, no one’s ever talked to us. I’ve lived here all my life so I know,” she said. “I want to give a voice to the area.”
See? Not a plant.
 

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Qualifying came and went quietly last month and we ended up with quite a few challenges in the Florida House and some interesting contests in four of the five open seats.

State Rep. Jose Oliva is the only Republican incumbent in South Florida without a challenger. Reps. Kionne McGhee, Barbara Watson, Richard Stark, Sharon Pritchett, Shevron Dion Jones, Joe Geller and Evan Jenne were also automatically re-elected without opposition, but they are Democrats in areas that are already dark blue.
There are a couple of head-to-heads. Rep. Holly Raschein (R-Key Largo) will face Steve Friedman and Rep. Robert Asencio (D-West Kendall) has a rematch, of sorts, with Anthony Rodriguez, who lost the Republican primary two years ago to former State Rep. David Rivera (who never qualified  for State House 119 this year as he had threatened to, either). In another rematch in House 112, Rep. Nicholas Duran (D-Shenandoah) will face Republican Rosy Palomino again.  And, next door, newly elected Rep. Javier Fernandez (D-Coral Gables) will face a guy with a similar name, Republican Javier Enriquez. Someone named Ahmed Rizwan is challenging Rep. Bryan Avila (R-Hialeah), but nobody is watching that.
Read related: Unforgivable: Jose Oliva goes unchallenged in blue wave year
And all those contests are in November, anyway, more than four months away.
In August, we have some big, fat primary ballots due to termed out reps that leave open seat opportunities that nobody wants to pass up.
In 115, where Ladra lives, we have two Democrats and four Republicans vying for former State Rep. Michael Bileca‘s seat. Jeffrey Solomon (photographed, left) will probably and should win against someone named James Schulman. This is Doc Solomon’s third or fourth run at the seat — he’s not afraid of running against an incumbent — so he is like the incumbent this time and everybody knows his name. Among the Republicans, it will either be GOP favorite Vance Aloupis or Jose Fernandez, the only two who have dropped any mail so far. Carlos Gobel and Rhonda Rebman Lopez, who dropped the Rebman from her name to sound more Hispanic and has loaned herself almost $100,000 (more on that later), are still silent but could make moves in the next couple of weeks. This seat is totally flipable. One of the five most vulnerable House seats in Miami-Dade.
Not so much so in 119, where Jeanette Nuñez exits right, and we have another four Republicans, but only one Democrat and one NPA. So, in August, we will see the battle between Juan Fernandez-Barquin, Enrique Lopez, Analeen “Annie” Martinez — daughter of Miami-Dade Commissioner Joe Martinez, (photographed with her, right) which could be why she has quite a bit of a fundraising lead (more on that later) — and Bibiana “Bibi” Potestad. The winner there, like Ladra just said, will likely take it in November because Democrat Heath Rassner seems like he doesn’t know what he’s doing, having first filed in HD 5 in the panhandle and having lost already once in the 116 race to former State Rep. Jose Felix Diaz. NPA Daniel Sotelo, however, has raised $24,455 so far and could be a factor — especially if Martinez wins and Sotelo makes the whole general campaign about dynasties. We know that works.
Read related: Republicans start lining up for 2018 state primaries, challenges
Democrats could gain one in District 103, which covers Miami Lakes and Hialeah Gardens and is vacated by Manny Diaz, Jr., a charter school no-show employee and quarry mining industry sellout who thinks he can win a senate race now (more on that later). Diaz and Oliva handpicked Miami Lakes Councilman and Oliva Cigars employee Frank Mingo to replace him. But there’s a primary with Cindy Polo, a stay at home mom inspired to run after the school shooting at Parkland against Richard Tapia, who dropped out of the Miami-Dade School Board race against the mayor’s sister-in-law after he met with CJ Gimenez, who discouraged him. Ladra can’t help but wonder if someone is encouraging him now. This is only flipable if Polo wins and yes it’s flipable (more on this race later).
The blue team could have scored again in Ambassador Carlos Trujillo‘s former district in Doral — but instead they fumbled another one. Doral Councilwoman Ana Maria Rodriguez (photographed left) is running as the sole Republican after King Nine Lives Rivera himself decided not to throw his hat in the ring this year — and it’s the first time since when that David is not on the ballot? Rodriguez, who has remained unscathed during the mud bath in Doral, is a worthy opponent even in one of the most flipable seats. Especially since the primary pits Ross Hancock, who has run in so many districts already that he hasn’t been able to build a base, against Javier Estevez, who has raised less than $1,700 since September of last year.  Dems in Doral have voted for Ana Maria before. They won’t mind doing so again. This seat likely stays red. And it could have gone blue with the right candidate. The Miami-Dade Democratic Party really blew it. Again.
On the flip side of that, House District 113 — which became open when David Richardson decided he had enough of butting heads in Tallahassee and he would try to ride his first gay elected thing to Washington — has three Democrats and only one Republican who is wasting his time, because whoever wins this race in August is the next state rep. That means it’s either one of two former Miami Beach Commissioners Deede Weithorn and Michael Grieco the comeback kid, who got off probation for campaign law violations in his 2017 mayoral bid just in time to run, or “Kubs” Lalchandani, an attorney for plastic surgery centers where botched procedures have led to patient deaths whose real name is Kabir Arjan. Like Ladra said, whoever wins that primary is going to win in November say the demographics, so Republican Jonathan Parker is irrelevant. This seat will stay blue forever.
Read related: New Mayor Dan Gelber endroses Deede Weithorn for State House
Interestingly enough, there are also a couple of incumbents facing challenges from their own party:
Newly-elected State Rep. Daniel Anthony Perez (R-Westchester) — who beat Jose Mallea and some Republican lady from Broward for the seat in a special election last summer, after Jose Felix Diaz resigned to run for senate (and lost) — will face tax attorney Frank Polo, a balsero from the 1994 crisis who spent 10 months at the refugee camps for Cuban rafters at Guantanamo. That’s a GOP leaning district so whoever wins that will likely easily beat Democrat James Alexander Harden. Another lost opportunity for the blue team, who should have had a player here.
On the blue side, State Rep. Roy Hardemon faces two Democrat challengers in the primary — Joseph Beauvil and Dotie Joseph. There’s an LPF in that race also but this is a solid Democrat district. Republicans need not apply, and they didn’t.
And in 109, we have two Democrats longtime and well-known Democrats battling it out: Former State Rep. James Bush III hasn’t been able to win even a seat on the United Teachers of Dade board, so what makes him think he can beat Cedric McMinn, a political climber who worked as district assistant to State Rep. Cynthia Stafford in this very district before he became chief of staff to Miami-Dade School Board Member Dr. Dorothy Bendross-Mindingall. This election is going to be run and decided by educators (and educational interests?) so it may be worth watching.
But that was a blue seat that will stay blue. At the end of the day, the Democrats really didn’t come through with that promised blue wave — at least not in the Florida House. They could have flipped four or five seats (if you count Raschein) and will be lucky if they get even two. Let’s call it what it is: a blue trickle.

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