The Kendall Federation of Homeowners Association will host seven candidate forums between Monday and Tuesday for voters who live in the western part of Miami-Dade.

Last week, the group hosted forums for the county commission race in District 11 and the congressional Democratic primary race in District 26.

Monday’s series focuses on three state races:

• In Senate District 39, The KFHA has gotten confirmation from Senator Dwight Bullard and his challenger, golden trust fund kid Andrew Korge, unless he is arrested before that for the allegations that he tried to bribe Bullard out of the race (more on that later).
• In House District 115, they will have Democrats Ross Hancock and Jeffrey Solomon, who are vying in the primary to go up against State Rep. Michael Bileca in November.
• In House District 118, they have gotten confirmation from everybody except former Miami-Dade Commissioner Lynda Bell, who lost a really embarrassing race against Daniella Levine Cava in 2014. That includes former State Rep. and Congressman David Rivera. The other candidates are Carlos Pria, Anthony Rodriguez and Stephen Rojas Tallon. They are all after the seat vacated by State Rep. Frank Artiles, who will face the winner of the primary

Tuesday is for county races, but it appears that Commissioner Dennis Moss is not going to represent. At least he had not confirmed as of Sunday night, said KFHA President Michael Rosenberg. Moss’ challenger, Earl Beaver, is listed.

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

The way it works is that candidates give an introduction and then are there to answer a number of questions before the audience. It does not work like a debate, although the candidates can take turns answering the questions and it did turn out to be debate-like last week between congressional candidates Annette Taddeo and former U.S. Rep. Joe Garcia.

The other forums Tuesday are:

• School Board Member Lubby Navarro — a lobbyist who has never been elected because she was appointed by Gov. Rick Scott to replace lobbyist Carlos Curbelo when he became a congressman — and her challenger Aster Mohammed, who unfortunately doesn’t stand a snowball’s chance on South Beach.
• Speaking of snowballs, Miami-Dade mayoral candidate Farid Khavari, who has lost this contest twice, getting 0.4 percent in 2011 and 0.85 percent in 2012. He must be encouraged by the doubling of his support! He insisted on a chance to address the audience since Raquel Regalado got the opportunity last week. Mayor Carlos Gimenez snubbed the group and has declined several debate requests (more on that later).
• In the race for Kendall’s Community Council 12, sub-area 124, three candidates want to fill out what is probably the busiest of the zoned zoning boards.  Angela Vazquez, who is currently the incumbent and chair of the council, is being challenged by Christopher Leon and Frank de la Paz.

The event begins at 7 p.m. at the Kendall Village Center ‘Civic Pavilion, 8625 SW 124 Ave., right in front of the movie theater.

Let’s face it, the big draw here is going to be the Bullard vs. Korge fight, which Ladra suggests the KFHA present as the last forum, to keep the audience there. And the undercover agents.

Unless Lynda Bell decides to make an appearance. She could steal the show.

The exit of State Rep. Daphne Campbell into a Senate run has created an open seat and the largest clusterbunch of Democrats in any primary in the whole state of Florida.

There are seven candidates running to replace Campbell in House District 108. Count ’em. Seven! Sure, there are other races where there might be five or six wannabes. But all those include both parties and usually a write-in candidate. No other race has as many competing in the primary in the whole Sunshine State. The next biggest bout is the five-way Republican brawl in District 118, which we will get to later.

In District 108 — which encompasses North Miami, Biscayne Park, Miami Shores, El Portal and parts of the city of Miami from the 195 to the Golden Glades interchange — the seven hopefuls are: Roy Hardemon, uncle of Miami City Commissioner Keon Hardemon; former Campbell campaign staffer Fayola Delica, immigrant rights activist Francesca “Fran” Menes, former schoolteacher Moise Duge, former North Miami City Councilwoman Marie Erlande Steril, Indian-born businessman Henry Patel and Taj Collie-Echoles, who ran against Campbell in the 2014 primary and lost with only 17% of the vote.

Those kind of numbers could be a victory for Collie-Echoles this time around. With seven candidates vying for votes, the next state rep for district 108 might very well be elected by less than 20% of the voters.

Right now, it looks like the contest is a three-way between Steril, who must enjoy good name recognition, Menes — who has the Ruth’s List and the Florida Young Democrats’ endorsements — and Patel, who puts his money where his mouth is. Patel leads the pack with $48,000 in his campaign account, including $15,000 he loaned himself. Steril reported $29,000 in contributions and Menes lists $26,665 collected so far.

Despite his politically connected nephew, Hardemon hasn’t reported raising a dime and none of the other three candidates have raised more than $6,000, which makes it hard for them to get voters to notice.

This is a solidly Democrat district. Not a single Republican is running. So whoever wins next month without a majority is our new state rep. Like it or not.

Perennial candidate Ross Hancock is running against another Democrat for the opportunity to face State Rep. Michael Bileca in November.

But it might also look like he’s running against Donald Trump.

Hancock has a mailer going out this week to Hispanic Democrats that plays on their alleged distaste for the brash millionaire GOP presidential nominee. It’s also entirely in Spanish.

“Existe Trump porque no hay respeto hacia ustedes, porque él no los escucha,” it says, or “Trump exists because there is no respect for you, because he doesn’t listen to you.”

Read related story: Perennial candidates may face off in House 115 primary

“I respect you and understand you,” it says on the other side of the 6X11 postcard, explaining how he’s taken Spanish classes — “despite being 60 years old” — to better communicate with the Latino voting bloc.

“My Spanish is not perfect, but I continue to study, as my task will be to represent the members of my community, and language proficiency, without doubt, will be a great tool value for this purpose,” he writes.

“English speaking by birth. Spanish speaking by choice. Democrat by heart.”

The piece, timed for the week before absentee ballots are mailed to voters, shows how much local pols think the top of the ballot will affect voters here. Some observers say 305 Republican incumbents could be in trouble because, in a blue county where Hillary Clinton leads the polls, even many voters are still #NeverTrump. A recent Bendixen Amandi poll for Univision and the Miami Herald showed that one out of five Miami-Dade Republicans would vote Hillary.

But a Democrat using it in a primary is still interesting. Ross faces another perennial candidate, Jeffrey Solomon, on Aug. 30.

Mostly, Ross is using his new Spanish-speaking skills to woo Hispanic Democrats now, and Latino independents in the general, to show that he will be a better listener and representative because, well, he speaks their language.

Ladra wonders if Sr. Solomon habla español.

It’s going to be a busy week for Republican checkbooks.

We’ve got at least four fundraisers planned this week, two for Tuesday and two for Wednesday, for GOP candidates in state House and Senate races.

First up is former Congressman David Rivera. We already told you he’s back, running now for the seat abandoned by State Rep. Frank Artiles, who is running for Senate. His fundraiser kick-off is Tuesday at Cuban Crafters on NW 7th Street and it is the most mysterious. No telling who might show up — since there’s nobody on the host committee.

The same night, Artiles is having his own fundraiser in Tallahassee hosted by some of his colleagues and would-be colleagues in the legislature and only two state reps (Jose Oliva and Jose Felix “Pepe” Diaz. Los dos pepes) from the 305, because Artiles is not liked that much. The others are from elsewhere, albeit heavy hitters from leadership — including President-designate Joe Negron, Senate Majority Leader Bill Galvano and Speaker Designate Richard Corcoran — perhaps indicating that the GOP is seriously trying to take the blue seat from Sen. Dwight Bullard.

Read related story: In battle to keep Senate seat 40, Dems eye Ana Rivas Logan

Or maybe everybody else is getting their hair done and their shoes shined for Wednesday. That’s when, between them, Sen. Anitere Flores and State Rep. Manny Diaz, Jr., have all the serial political event hosts in town at their soirees, respectively, in Coral Gables and Hialeah.

Let’s ignore that it’s strange for these two — both of whom work in the charter school industry and who arguably draw from the same pool of donors — to have their fundraisers on the very same day at the very same time. Maybe Flores will go to Hialeah next week and Diaz will come to Coral Gables. Cuidado!

The invites are engaging simply because of the large list of inviters — especially with Flores, who is apparently not taking the challenge from Democrat trust fund baby Andrew Korge lightly.

Flores’ event has nine special guests/speakers, 14 event chairpeople, and 25 names so far on the host committee that is “still in formation.” Still in formation?!? When is the elevator at capacity?

Among the special guests is the entire Cuban Congressional GOP caucus (Carlos Curbelo, Mario Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen) and five of the 13 county commissioners — Jose “Pepe” Diaz, Rebeca Sosa, Javier Souto, Xavier Suarez and Juan Zapata — as well as Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez.

Read related story: Senate 39’s Andrew Korge vs Anitere Flores gets ugly fast

Chairs include lobbyists Ron Book, Al Cardenas and Manny Kadre, builders Sergio Pino and Pedro Munilla, automobile mogul Norman Braman and Miami-Dade Republican Party Chairman Nelson Diaz. Hosts include more Jeb Bush, Jr., container queen Remedios Diaz Oliver and a slew of more second tier lobbyists like Jose “El Chino” Fuentes, Luis Andre Gazitua, Bob Levy and Ralph Garcia-Toledo, who is now playing with the big boys thanks to his tour of duty as driver for then Commissioner Gimenez. (Tell your kids: Forget college! Drive a politician around and you’ll get rich!)

All 48 of them invite us to Bulla Gastrobar on Ponce de Leon Boulevard at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Half an hour later, though, we are invited to another fundraiser for Diaz Jr. at Hialeah Park, which you know is impossible in Miami-Dade traffic. Our hosts here include Sen. Rene Garcia, State Reps. Jose Oliva and Bryan Avila, former State Rep. Eddy Gonzalez (who is the RSVP on the invite) and Miami-Dade Commissioner Esteban Bovo, all of whom kind of do stuff in lock step. They also include Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernandez and Hialeah Gardens Mayor Yioset de la Cruz as well as the full council of both cities.

We don’t have to wait long to see who wins the prize for best fundraiser. Checks written Tuesday and Wednesday will appear on the March campaign reports, which are due and become public April 10th or 11th.

My money is on the Gables soiree for Flores — if simply because of the numbers.

Game on, people! Warm up those wrists!

Former Congressman David Rivera is going back to his roots.

Rivera told everyone earlier this month that he was running for state House in the seat abandoned by Rep. Frank Artiles (R-Kendall), who is leaving his final term to run for the Senate.

There’s even a kick-off fundraiser Tuesday at one of his old haunts, Cuban Crafters, owned by former State Rep. and Sen. Al Gutman.

Rivera is serious about House District 118. It overlaps with the area he represented in Congress for two years and also includes much of the area he ruled as a state rep from 2003 to 2011.

Those were the glory days, huh? Rivera was pals and roomies with Sen. Marco Rubio, then a House Speaker and future presidential contender. He had both more success and fun as a state rep than he did in D.C. He still hangs around in Tallahassee a lot, where he does God knows what. “Consulting,” he calls it. Deals, I think. And reminiscing. He would love nothing more than to return to the original chamber he served in.

And it’s not unimaginable.

Read related story: David Rivera collects petition signatures for 2016 House run

Sure, Rivera lost his congressional seat to Joe Garcia in 2012, but he was dogged by headlines and news reports of an investigation into campaign finance violations –– not bribery or graft or any real crime — that seems to have never bore any fruit and has apparently fizzled away. Sources say the U.S. Attorney is loathe to call the case on his one and only witness, the somewhat unstable (read: batshit crazy) Ana Alliegro, who has apparently resurfaced with a story about Rivera attacking her when he was with friends in Tally. They can’t call her now.

And sure, Rivera has a primary to get through first. There are already two other Republicans running for that seat.

One is Anthony Rodriguez, who Ladra believes is Artiles’ handpicked successor. It’s just a gut feeling. That and this picture from one of the representative’s self-serving Farm Share events.

And then there is a guy named Steven Rojas Tallon, a 33-year-old father of four who nonetheless has time to work as some kind of program lead for talent development at FIU in an initiative with the Beacon Council and also still serve on the county board tasked with overseeing the $2.8 billion general obligation bond. Quien es la palanca?

And — just to make things more interesting — there is the rumor that former Miami-Dade Commissioner Lynda Bell is going to jump into this race for House 118. She is probably salivating at the possibility and some say she may announce next month.

And sure, the last time Rivera was in a primary, he lost miserably, coming in a distant fourth behind Carlos Curbelo, Joe Martinez and Ed MacDougall in the congressional race for his old seat. He only got 8 percent, less than half of what MacDougall, the anglo former mayor of Cutler Bay, got. Que pena!

But this is a different voter geography. Bell and Rodriguez and Rojas Tallon could somehow split the anti-Rivera votes between them, and Rivera could slide into the general with his very deep base of loyalists and face off against the relatively unknown Robert Asencio, a former Miami-Dade Schools Police lieutenant and public labor champion who has already spent $12,000 of the $20K he has raised in a year.

Read related story: David Rivera has no past, only a future at Cuba Nostalgia

And sure, Obama won the district with 51.7 percent of the vote in 2012.

But people keep forgetting that Obama is not on the ticket. And Hillary isn’t as inspiring. Also, another Democrat ran in 2014, one recruited by the party who should have performed very well. But he was crushed in an off year with Artiles getting 58 percent of the vote — almost ten points more than Gov. Rick Scott only got, which indicates that voters are willing to vote for a Democrat in one race and a Republican in another on the same ballot.

And we’re talking about David Rivera here. The Teflon Man. Ol’ Nine Lives, himself.

Ladra will start taking bets now.