Campaign video attacks candidate for Havana trip

Travel to Cuba is often a campaign issue in Miami-Dade races whether they are congressional or state or local. But that it would become fodder in a Republican 305 primary is something new.

And that the perceived front runner in the special House 116 race is using it to attack a relative nobody in video is somewhat interesting. Is the underdog doing better than anyone thought?

Daniel Anthony Perez is running for the GOP nomination in the special election for the seat vacated by former State Rep. Jose Felix “Pepi” Diaz, who is running for Senate to replace Frank Artiles, who resigned after he was caught making sexist and racist remarks to and about his colleagues.

Suarez also traveled to Cuba earlier this year with his fiancée for a photo shoot to memorialize their engagement, as disclosed by the Miami Herald earlier this week. While he says it was a family trip to see his fiancée’s elderly uncle to take him food and medicine, two photogaphers also took the trip and he and his fiancée posed in several different outfits and with props at several different locations for their engagement album. The photographers posted on their page, as the Herald reported, that the photoshoot took four days. 

That could certainly hurt him with high-performing Cuban-American elderly voters in a low-turnout July election. And that is why candidate Jose Mallea, who worked on Sen. Marco Rubio‘s campaign, is using the story that his people likely planted with the Miami Herald to attack Suarez in a Spanish web video that says we can’t trust him.

“Mirenlo! Es Daniel Perez! Dice que es Republicano,” says the voiceover that sounds like a wellknown former radio man at Univision radio.

“Look at him. It’s Daniel Perez. He says he is Republican, running for the legislature. But here we see him having a good time in Cuba taking his engagement photos. Because Daniel Perez is enjoying the ties created by Obama with the Castros permitting travel that feeds the dictatorship, while the ladies in white are beaten, while dissidents are oppressed, while the exile yearns. Daniel Perez. We cannot trust him.”

Ladra can already see the mailers that are coming next — right before the absentee ballots drop in about a month.

Now, let’s be clear here. Ladra is not against travel to Cuba, perse. I myself have been to the island numerous times, as a journalist and also to visit family. But the video is dishonest because we don’t need the ridiculously relaxed Obama policy as Cuban Americans. We were allowed to visit Cuba for family reunification before the closer more normalized relations began. Clearly, it is one thing to go and take family food and medicine they can’t get there and quite another to go with a couple of photographers and a wardrobe — why not a stylist? — for a four-day photo shoot using the backdrop of a crumbling city where native-born photographers and other artists do not have freedom of expression to create whatever they want. And then to post the pictures on a pubic website celebrating couples’ engagements — as if you were Jay Z and Beyonce? Shake my head. It’s not illegal or even so wrong — at least he’s Cuban — if maybe a little impulsive. It’s just kinda dumb for someone who wants to run for office locally as a Republican.

Still, travel to Cuba may not be the kiss of death it used to be. How many of the Cuban voters in Westchester know someone who has traveled to Cuba and taken medicine or other items to their family members? How many of them have family members or friends who have gone to Cuba to see relatives and taken selfies by La Catedral in Habana Vieja? Lots. Enough to perhaps make a difference in an election? We’ll see.

Perhaps it depends on how well Perez can cast Mallea as a carpetbagger who is riding his successor’s coattails. 

“Mr. Mallea has shown his true colors as a deceiving liar,” Perez told Ladra late Friday, hours after the video was posted. “I have never supported Obama’s travel policy.

“As the only Cuban American in this race, I take issue with Mr. Mallea’s exploitation of the suffering of the Cuban people for his political gain. What Mallea should be explaining to the voters of District 116 is his political opportunistic interest in a district that he has not lived or been registered to vote in,” Perez said, calling his oponent “a desperate man taking desperate measures.

“The residents of District 116 have been fortunate to have been represented by one of their own, someone who grew up in our district and understands what matters to us. I aim to continue that legacy, as I have lived in the heart of Westchester since I was 6 years old,” Perez said.

And why does the trip have anything to do with how he would advocate for us in Tallahassee? How does this matter in a race that is about jobs and education and heathcare and transportation funds and workforce housing and tolls?

Jose Mallea, left, and Daniel Perez, right.

The bigger question is why does Mallea, who has more money and the endorsements of Diaz, Rubio and former Gov. Jeb Bush, need to go on the attack against this first-time candidate with zero name recognition? Why is the perceived front runner in the race giving Perez the time of day with a slick video that uses dramatic clips of activists being beaten and photos of Obama and Raul Castro and a lot of red?

Could it be that Mallea has seen the signs? No, literally, the Perez yard signs that are already popping up here and there on residential blocks from 87th Avenue to the Turnpike?

Ladra has a theory that Mallea has polled — we are certain he has a soft money PAC account somewhere, what with all his connections and endorsments — and found that he is not doing as well as he thought. Or that Perez, a good-looking, well-spoken, 29-year-old with roots in the district, is doing better than he expected.

Legislator admits she doesn’t sleep in District 114

State Rep. Daisy Baez announced Friday that she was dropping out of the Democratic primary to replace former Sen. Frank Artiles in District 40. But, maybe Baez should resign from the legislature altogether.

That’s not only because she still lives in outside the district — admitting to Ladra on Saturday that she sleeps in District 112 — but also because she quite possibly lied on her voter’s registration form, which would be a third degree felony.

Baez cited her mother’s failing health as the reason why she was withdrawing from the special election to replace Artiles, who resigned after getting caught insulting other legislators in a racially- and sexist-tinged rant.

“My life today is a direct reflection of my mother’s decision to immigrate to this country and work multiple jobs to ensure that I could live the American Dream,” Baez said in a statement sent just after 1 p.m.

“Just after announcing my intention to run for the Florida Senate, my mother’s health deteriorated and it became clear to me that spending time with her now is of utmost importance. As her daughter, caring for her is my number one priority. Therefore, I will not pursue a campaign for the Florida Senate,” she said. “Instead, I will spend the upcoming weeks with my family and continue to use my voice in the Florida House to speak out clearly and forcefully to fight for better jobs, to protect our environment, to ensure we all have access to affordable health care, and to support our public schools.”

That would be the right thing to do. But the news also comes three days after a Miami Herald story exposed the fact that she likely does not live in the district she represents, which explains why Baez was bold enough to think she could run for a Senate District where she doesn’t live. Now we know she’s done it before. And it looks like it took time to sink in. Because that same day the story came out, last Tuesday night, Baez was at a South Dade Democrats Club meeting showing no signs of backing down.

On Friday, it seems, she finally realized that she can’t overcome this development in a race against two veteran politicians with higher name recognition who — bonus — actually live in the district (Annette Taddeo and Ana Rivas Logan).

Read related story: Three women to battle for Senate 40’s Democrat spot

Which brings us back to why she should resign. Because the voters of House District 114 do not have any representation right now, have not had any representation during this past session. And they deserve some.

Baez apparently let people believe that she had moved from her house on Malaga Avenue (photographed) in District 112, to an apartment on Anderson Road, which is in District 114, right before the election. But the Herald found discrepancies in that. Other people live in the apartment at Anderson and neighbors said that Baez does not live there. Her dogs and campaign staff were at the house on Malaga, which she said was being renovated so she can put it on the market.

It’s more likely that she never moved out of the house where her dogs apparently live. When Ladra spoke to her Saturday afternoon, Baez admitted that she was sleeping at her house, the Malaga house outside the district.

“Right now, I’m sleeping at that house, yes. But I think I don’t want to talk about the situation any more,” she said. “I’m trying to correct the situation. I made an offer on a property today.”

What a coincidence. Today.

Baez said she had always intended to move into the district and said she has documents to show she began the process for a loan in January. But she has not had time between the legislative session and her 92-year-old mother’s health to purchase a new home. “I pretty much left for Tallahasee immediately after I was elected. I’m a normal human being with a million different things to deal with.”

The problem with that is that one of the things she apparently dealt with was trying to fool the public into thinking she lived in the district. When asked multiple times if she ever lived in the Anderson Road apartment, Baez refused to answer but intimated that she had not.

“For the intent of the law, I changed the address,” which sounds to Ladra like she changed it on paper but not in real life. So I asked her again? “When was the last time you slept there?”

“I understand what you are getting at and I’m not going to answer. At this point, I’m focused on getting this corrected and taking care of my mother,” she said.

“Okaaaaaay. Did you ever sleep there even one single night?”

“I understand what you are saying. We are trying to correct that. We feel that we complied with the law at the time,” Baez said. “I’m working fast and furious to correct it. It was not my intention to be outside the law.”

Aha! Outside the law. So, Baez must realize that she may have committed a third degree felony when she filled out a voter’s registration form on Nov. 2, a week before the election, changing her address to the Anderson Road apartment.

Read related story: Red goes blue, blue goes red in four flipped 305 seats

Ladra likes Baez. An Army vet and small business owner, she is on the right side of most issues, even if she is in the minority party and no position to do anything about it. Still, her voice is one that is needed on issues of immigration and housing and education and the environment. So that’s why this hurts. She had the best intentions, but the ends do not justify the means. She should do the right thing and quit. She lied to the people who voted for her. She does not represent them. Her blind ambition — the same ambition that caused her to jump to the Senate race after four months — caused her to run in a district that was not her own.

People have to stop doing that! It wasn’t right for Artiles — who was a state rep in 2011 when Ladra discovered him living in Palmetto Bay, outside his district — when he did it, nor for former State Rep. Eddy Gonzalez, and it isn’t right for Baez.

And Ladra knows the Dems aren’t going to want her to just give up the seat they just won, but they could lose it in two years anyway if someone uses this against her. And that voice she has is going to be somewhat hampered by the fact that it now comes from someone who tried to pull the wool over the voters eyes.

A number of Florida House seats in the 305 will be vacated by term-limited legislators next year — and already there are a bunch of wannabes getting in line to replace ’em.

David Rivera jumped into the race for District 105 last week, which would pit him against Doral Councilwoman Ana Maria Rodriguez, who filed her campaign paperwork in December for the seat vacated by State Rep. Carlos Trujillo.

But that’s not the only GOP primary already shaping up for 2018. There are three others.

Read related story: If at first you don’t succeed… David Rivera tries again

In District 119, where State Rep. Jeanette Nunez serves now, Republicans Enrique Lopez and Andrew Vargas have already opened up campaign accounts. Lopez has loaned himself $50,000 and raised another $33,240 in February alone. Vargas just filed last month so he has nothing to report. Ladra hears that Commissioner Joe Martinez‘s daughter may also consider a run there.

In District 116, where Rep. Jose Felix Diaz is getting a time-out, Republicans Jose Mallea and Daniel Anthony Perez have also made their intentions clear. Neither has raised any money yet.

Say buh-bye: In this picture, only Rep. Jose Oliva (top, left) is not termed out.

There are three Republicans already raising money for a campaign in District 115, where Rep. Michael Bileca will be termed out: Vance Aloupis, Carlos Gobel and Carmen Sotomayor. Only Sotomayor has reported raising any money, and its $100 at that, having filed in January. Both Alupis and Gobel filed last month and have not had to file any campaign reports yet.

Each of these are already Republican seats and it’s curious that no Democrats have yet shown their faces, especially in 105 and 115, both of which are seats where Obama did well.

Instead, we have Republicans dominating the early game, with two GOP challengers filing against two of the three newly-minted, freshman Democrats. Jose Pazos, who abandoned his campaign last year due to his father’s health, is going against Rep. Daisy Baez in 114 and Rosy Palomino, who lost last year against Nicholas Duran in 112 (53-47%), wants a rematch.

You just know someone is going to file against the other freshman Dem, State Rep. Robert Asencio in 118. Give it another month or two.

Miami-Dade is going to own Tallahassee this year.

Half of the leadership positions in the Florida House — the most powerful half — have gone to 305 legislators, giving the Miami-Dade delegation a louder voice in how priorities are sought and funded in the Sunshine State.

It starts at the top with State Reps. Jeanette Nuñez (R-West Kendall) as House Speaker pro tempore and Carlos Trujillo (R-Doral) as chair of the appropriations committee. Then we have State Rep. Jose Oliva (R-Miami Lakes), presumed the next Speaker of the House, serving as chair of the Rules & Policy Committee, and Reps. Jose Felix Diaz (R-Kendall) and Michael Bileca (R-Pinecrest) serving as chairmen of the Commerce and Education committees, respectively.

We haven’t had that many reps in leadership positions since… well, Ladra can’t remember when.

State Rep. and Speaker Pro Temp Jeanette Nuñez looks over the rest of the House leadership team from the 305 squad: (Clockwise from top left) Reps. Jose Oliva, Carlos Trujillo, Jose Felix Diaz and Michael Bileca

These are, arguably, the most important committees. And it could translate to a big year for Miami-Dade issues and projects. Tallahassee is a trickle up process. The agenda for those different policy areas are dictated by the chairmen of the committees. No education bill will move without Bileca’s approval. No bill on insurance, workman’s comp, gaming, energy, alcohol or tobacco will get to the floor without Pepi Diaz giving the green light. Oliva basically decides which bills make it to the floor, which Nuñez will now help run as Corcoran’s No. 2.

Appropriations is perhaps the most important because it has to do with the money. The pet projects all have to go through this committee — and Trujillo’s hands. He can rack up a ton of favors. 

“We are the leadership team,” Trujillo told Ladra. “Issues dealing with education, all policy, insurance and budget are controlled by Dade County. We have a seat at the table, influencing the decisions that are made.”

His priorities, he said, are going to be passing a balanced budget and increasing state reserves. “We will face a $1.8 billion dollar shortfall,” Trujillo told me about the upcoming session.

The number of local legislators in positions of leadership might be an indication that, after many years of infighting and bickering, the delegation has matured and there is a unified front that is gaining respect.

This could represent a legislative bounty for Miami-Dade residents in issues that are near and dear: changes in insurance rates, funding in education, funding for Jackson, funding for the Port of Miami.  

Nuñez, for example, has long waged war against MDX and their power to increase tolls. She may gain traction on this front this year because of the 305’s leadership role. Not necessarily because she will champion a bill. Committee chairs and Nuñez will be too busy to present their own bills this year. Its because she’s got more palanca now.

“People across the capitol and in the House know it’s important to the delegation,” Trujillo said.

What he didn’t say is that what’s important to the delegation just became important to them. Didn’t it? 

It should be a very good year for us.

Is it that State Rep. Manny Diaz, Jr., is afraid to debate a Democrat? Is he afraid to debate a girl?

More likely, Diaz — who has never had to debate for his post — is more afraid that he cannot defend his poor record or his no-show job at a non-credited, for-profit university and his defense of mining companies that have his constituents concerned about their drinking water and homes.

Ivette Gonzalez Petkovich went to the Sun Sentinel screening and the Univision Destino 2016 debate for state reps in September. Diaz skipped both. Gonzalez went to the Beta Beta Lambda candidate forum Monday. Diaz didn’t.

Could he still be embarrassed about losing that Miami-Dade School Board race in 2010 when he was a public school principal? Or his absentee ballot fraud-tainted win in 2012?

Maybe he was too busy as the chief operating officer of Doral “College,” a junior college on a charter high school campus near the Florida Turnpike using public school funds.

Nah. He isn’t on campus much. He wasn’t on campus Friday when Ladra called.

The most likely reason that Diaz won’t debate is because he doesn’t want to have to defend his track record of pay-to-play politics and conflicts of interest, because Diaz uses his position — not his no-show job, but his elected office — to benefit the charter school industry.

Happy Birthday 2015 to Doral College! Standing with Diaz, third from left, are State Rep. Erik Fresen, whose family owns Academica, Doral Councilwoman Ana Maria Rodriguez and State Senator Anitere Flores, president of Doral College from 2011 to 2015

Months after he was elected in 2012, Diaz was hired in 2013 by Academica to manage Doral College, which is on the campus of the company’s Doral Academy Preparatory charter school, where he makes almost $112,000 a year today (those are public funds). He then proceeded to repeatedly sponsor and support legislation that makes it easier for charters schools to open and operate. He serves as chairman of the House Education Committee’s Choice and Innovation Subcommittee but Diaz has told reporters he doesn’t see a conflict. “All these pieces of legislation are broad and affects everyone in the charter school industry,” he is quoted as saying.

But his paycheck is from Academica, the country’s largest charter school company, so it probably “affects” (read: benefits) them the most. And two years after he was hired, in summer of 2015, Doral College had received at least $600,000 of state charter school funds — even though it is still not accredited and the Miami-Dade School district has refused to accept dual enrollment.

Diaz has also used his position to help the limestone miners at the western edge of the county and he probably doesn’t want to hear from all the angry Palm Springs North residents who are sick of the limestone quarry blasting that is destroying their homes and causing them to be concerned about their drinking water.

The state rep voted in favor a bill last year that reduced the mitigation fees that limestone miners have to pay for environmental damages from 45 cents per ton to 5 cents per ton. That money would also go to building a water treatment plant should the limestone quarries contaminate our drinking water.

Between his campaign account and his PAC — ironically called Better Florida Education — Diaz has taken $14,000, so far, from mining interests, including White Rock Quarries photographed here (more on that later).

Many consultants will tell incumbent candidates not to debate unknown challengers when there is barely a chance they will get any traction. But Diaz sits in the most vulnerable state House seat in the 305. Partly because it also includes part of the 954, crossing the line over into Miramar. But mostly because it is more Democratic

In 2012, Manny Diaz Jr. won in the primary against former State Rep. and Miami-Dade School Board Member Renier Diaz de la Portilla. But House District 103 went to Barack Obama that November, with almost 55% of the vote vs. Mitt Romney. That means almost 5,000 voters picked the Democrat at the top of the ticket.

Ditto for 2014, when the sitting Republican governor only got 48.5% of the vote. Diaz did have a Democratic challenger that year — but only hardly. Benjamin De Yurre was thrown to the wolves by the local party after they recruited him for their No Free Rides campaign, planting candidates against every incumbent Republican in the House. But De Yurre only had $44,000 — only $10K of which he raised himself — against a Diaz warchest of almost $310,000.

Gonzalez Petkovich has raised $85,000 all by her lonesome as of Sept. 30th. She’s also had about $70,000 worth of strategic advice and research from the Florida Democratic Party so far.

Diaz, meanwhile, has raised $386,000 and has gotten almost $50,000 worth of support from the state party in polling, staff and research.

This is one of the most turnable seats in the House this November.

Aaaahhhh. Maybe that’s why Diaz won’t show up at debates.

The latest turn in the Zika politics trend is a trinket: A citronella repellent wristband that will be distributed at select polls Tuesday by State House 115 Democrat candidate Ross Hancock.

“Because who couldn’t foresee long ago that Miami-Dade voters would be exposed to mosquitoes,” Hancock asked.

Um, everybody else.

Even Mayor Carlos Gimenez, whose actions on the Zika crisis have been too little, too late (more on that later). In fact, what the mayor’s done as he faces a tough re-election is get photo ops with the governor and congress members as he pretends to tackle the issue with press statements every other day about the latest after-the-fact, come-to-the-rescue aerial spraying, as if he had a choice not to.

A lot of other candidates have turned the Zika crisis into campaign fodder. Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla sent a mailer with “Zika awareness tips” and urged voters to put it on their refrigerators. Scott Fuhrman, the Democrat most likely to face Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in November, sent a mailer with a photo of him and his pregnant wife — the virus is known to cause birth defects and the CDC has warned expecting mothers to stay away from Miami-Dade — in which he tells voters that his family lives close to Wynwood, where the first locally-transmitted cases were reported. The message: We are with you on the front lines! Democrats, like former Congressman Joe Garcia, have used the Zika crisis to bash their Republican counterparts, because they refused to increase spending to combat it. 

Alfred Santamaria, a no-chance mayoral candidate, was in Wynwood Tuesday passing out medical “neutralizer” treatments (read: snake oil) for Zika — only after he tipped off reporters and got the TV cameras rolling first. But Wednesday, he had to backpedal and say the balm he distributed to already freaked-out people did not neutralize the virus, simply alleviate the itching. Sounds like a true politician!

Santamaria may be in trouble since the “donation” to his campaign from a medical company — with the same address as the video production company that donated $90,000 in-kind to the campaign — could be a violation of state election laws because the medication has a value and it could be considered buying votes. Former State Rep turned attorney to the pols J.C. Planas said he would file a complaint against Santamaria. 

Read related story: In 115 primary, Ross Hancock is best bet against Bileca

Hancock said the yellow wristbands, which have a little mosquito on them as well as his name, fall well within the rules for campaign trinkets — like hats and pens and balloons — that don’t require a disclaimer as long as they cost a few dollars or less. He said they cost 74 cents a piece.

And this Zika campaign gimmick might be the first to actually benefit voters directly. What a concept!

And, even though the word Democrat is on the wristband, the benefits are bipartisan.

Said Hancock: “Zika doesn’t care if you are Democrat, Republican, or other.”