Both Zoraida Barreiro and Joe Carollo filed their first campaign finance report in their race for the same city of Miami commission seat and they must be a tad disappointed. 

Sure, $14,000 (Barreiro) and $10,000 (Carollo) is respectable — for any novice, first-time no-name. But Barreiro is wife of Miami-Dade County Commissioner Bruno Barreiro, who must not have tapped his donor pool yet (he raised $140,000 last year before he ended up with no opposition). Maybe he’s not 100% on board? And Joe Carollo is the former mayor of Miami, a former city manager of Doral and a buddy of Carlos Gimenez — or at least a member of his 2016 campaign team, at $6,000 a month for a total of $144,000 billed to the mayor’s PAC.

You think he could loan himself more than the $100 he reported earlier this month.

Read related story: Crazy Joe Carollo adds twist to crazy Miami commission race

But both of them did have significant bundling in their reports, as measly as they were. Half of Barreiro’s contributions come from companies owned by former School Board Member Demetrio Perez and $3,000 came from Lanzo Construction. Carollo got $3,000 from Robert Patino, $2,500 from the guy who owns Dade Outdoor Advertising and $2,000 from Norman Braman and his wife, which is kind of weird since Braman supported Raquel Regalado against Gimenez.

But these two aren’t the lowest scoring candidates in what is already a clusterbunch race with seven candidates so far, and qualifying isn’t even ’til September. This is the open seat in District 3, being vacated by Commissioner Frank Carollo, Joe’s baby bro, who is termed out and, reportedly, running for mayor, though he hasn’t filed any paperwork yet. The other candidates and their paultry little piggy banks are:

• Alex Dominguez, with $4,650, has been fundraising for almost two years.
• Olidia “Lee” Hernandez loaned herself $1,000, but she only just filed on Jan. 27.
• Alfonso M. Leon has raised $36,978 — a lot of it in $27 and $40 and $100 and $200 checks.
• Miguel C. Soliman has raised $27,530 — all of it but $1,000 in the first month reported, May.
• Daniel Suarez, who filed in December, hasn’t raised a dime but just loaned himself $55.

Soliman is the only one with any evidence of bundling, which are multiple donations from the same person — using relatives or different corporations — to maximize impact (and access or investment). He got $6,000 from Luis Garcia, who owns Adonel Concrete and several real estate holding companies.

Read related story: Mr. and Mrs. Sarnoff give up seat to Ken Russell, sans runoff

As has been pointed out before, money is not necessarily a sign of who is going to win the election. Commissioner Ken Russell beat a far better financed Teresa Sarnoff in 2015. But it does tell you who has more ability to get their message out. And if the donations come from residents rather than corporations, it could also indicate voter support.

Of course, it’s early yet. And we still don’t know if there are any PACs involved. Only one is listed on the city’s website. But A Stronger Miami, which filed documents in October, has not raised a dime.

So its doing worse than even any candidate.

If former Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla runs for city of Miami mayor, he could make it into a runoff with Commissioner Francis Suarez.

And if he jumps into the commission race instead, the Dean will hit the ground as the front runner.

These are the findings of a tiny, very unscientific poll done online by a political operative using Survey Monkey. Is it science? No. Is it interesting? Absolutely.

Pedro Diaz, who is running the commission campaign in District 3 for Alex Dominguez, sent the three question survey to insiders and influencers who are not necessarily voters in the city of Miami — lobbyists, fundraisers, gatekeepers, decision makers and the like. 

Baby X will be happy to learn that he came out on top in the mayoral question — “If elections for City of Miami Mayor were held today, whom are you more likely to vote for?” — with 31% of the 368 responses. But Dean DLP was not too far behind with 27 percent.  The survey had former Miami-Dade School Board Member Raquel Regalado, who is rumored to be jumping into the race, in third place with 23% and Miami Commissioner Frank Carollo, who is termed out and expected to run also, in fourth with 19%.

Read related story: Will she or won’t she? Raquel Regalado rumors are rampant

Diaz de la Portilla has not filed any paperwork and only came into the picture last month after residents in Little Havana got a postcard in the mail from him wishing them a happy holidays. It doesn’t have a political disclaimer. “Whatever is beautiful, whatever is meaningful, whatever brings you happiness… May it be yours this holiday season and throughout the coming year,” it says, and it is signed by Alex Diaz de la Portilla “and family.”

But many seem to think ADLP — who became active on twitter in 2015 and last year to campaign for his brother and for Sen. Marco Rubio to get the GOP nomination (see photo with Jeanette Dousdebes Rubio, left) — would run for Carollo’s commission seat rather than mayor. After all, Baby X and his dad, Miami-Dade Commissioner Xavier Suarez, went out on a limb to endorse and support Miguel DLP against newly-elected Jose Javier Rodriguez in November’s race. Alex typically rewards that kind of loyalty and support for either of his brothers.

And the Carollo seat in his core base of Little Havana is an easier win — unless Tommy Regalado, the mayor’s son, runs as he has indicated to some that he might. But that depends on whether Raquelita runs for mayor. Ladra doubts both siblings would run at the same time.

Carollo’s open seat has already attracted a clusterbunch of candidates. Five have opened accounts and started to campaign, including Diaz’s client Dominguez — who ran for state rep and property appraiser already — and Zoraida Barreiro, wife of Miami-Dade Commissioner Bruno Barreiro.

Another Diaz poll has Dean DLP leading that race, with 39% and Dominguez, who has been campaigning for months, trailing with 34%. But that poll — this time by telephone and with a sample of 589 actual District 3 voters — only pitted them against two also-rans, Alfonso Leon and Miguel Soliman (17% and 10%, respectively), because Barreiro and Daniel Suarez, a longtime civilian police watchdog, had not yet filed any paperwork when it was done in early December.

The Dean told Ladra in a text message Monday that all the rumors are just that. “I am not running for anything and the ‘mailer’ is a Christmas card,” he texted.

“Now I have to be a grinch like you guys?” Us guys is the media.  “Bah humbug!”

But c’mon! A Christmas card is something you send friends and family, not voters you don’t know! Sometimes there’s a funny family picture on it. Usually, there’s a hand signed note. That wasn’t a Christmas card. That was ADLP staying relevant with his core constituency — like he does with the birthday cards he sends to seniors in public housing. They don’t have to say anything political to be politically motivated and beneficial.

“I am not running for anything at the moment,” he repeated. Key words: At the moment.

Maybe the Dean is getting ready for 2018 and thinks he can take the state House seat back from newly-elected Rep. Nick Duran. Or maybe he plans revenge against J-Rod, who beat his brother Miguel in November after beating Alex himself in the House 112 race in 2012.

But Ladra has to believe (read: hope) he is running for something someday.

And we can dream of an election cycle with a Suarez, a Carollo, a Regalado, a Barreiro and a Diaz de la Portilla on the same municipal ballot, can’t we?

One of the biggest 2017 political questions in the 305 is will she or won’t she?

We’re speaking, of course, about former Miami-Dade School Board Member Raquel Regalado, who lost a bid to unseat Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez in November. She has been dogged for more than a year by rumors that the county campaign was nothing more than a precursor to a run for the city’s mayoral seat, where her father sits now.

But that makes such little sense. Why would she risk getting $8 million worth of attack ads to do a preview campaign in a city where Raquelita’s name recognition can hardly be improved?

Don’t ask Ladra. While we were on Team Raquel last year, something happened and she doesn’t return my calls anymore. Hardly returns my texts. Maybe she blames me for her loss but she is the one who cut me out of her inner circle in September. After several attempts to reach her, last month I finally sent a final text message saying that Ladra would have to say she did not respond to multiple attempts to reach her. Electeds hate that. Former electeds who want to be elected again hate that, too.

Her texted answer: “I’m considering my options and will announce my decision in January.”

Me: “Hmmmm…No details on what options those might be. LOL.”

Raquel Regalado: “Nope.”

Read related story: Raquel Regalado’s message: ‘I can be a better mayor’

It’s January. So, folks, we will soon find out together if she is going to run for city of Miami mayor, as many are whispering. After much reconsideration, Ladra would bet she will. After all, wouldn’t she just say she wasn’t if she wasn’t? Why would she just let it keep being a mystery? Unless it’s just to make Commissioner Francis Suarez, who has already opened his mayoral campaign account, sweat it out. And that is not completely unfathomable.

But if she does finally throw her hat into the ring for that race, Ladra doesn’t think that this was the plan all along. Not everybody did, but Raquel Regalado truly thought she could beat Gimenez and be a better county mayor. She spent hundreds of hours poring over the county budget information and studying transit information and learing about solid waste management operations — stuff that is not going to necessarily serve her as mayor of Miami.

But maybe, since she lost, it’s become a consolation prize. Because nobody can imagine Raquelita would actually just sit and wait and do nothing more than a weekday afternoon radio show — even if she gets to go to Tallahassee every now and then — for four years before running again countywide. That girl is antsy! And patience is not one of her virtues.

Ladra always thought she would do some policy-driven or issue-oriented thing — like the courtroom referendum tax she campaigned against all by herself (which helped to put her on the county map). Maybe she’ll take on courthouse reconstruction reform. Or some kind of referendum on the county’s transit dollars, since she knows they are being misspent. She did talk on the night of her defeat about working to pass campaign finance reform and having a supervisor of elections that is elected rather than appointed by the mayor. It is not beyond Raquelita’s reach to create a PAC on either one of those items and start to deliver for us even if she is not an elected. She’s very, um, driven that way.

Read related story: Raquel Regalado set to fight anew for charter change, reform

There’s always a state seat. Regalado’s ideas and policy issues are more suited for a legislator at the state or federal level — even if she doesn’t realize it yet. The newly elected Rep. Nick Duran, who won an open seat, is not unbeatable in two years and the Regalados endorsed another candidate in that race. So that’s not impossible. 

Others have speculated that she would run for city commission in District 4 once Suarez resigns to run. But it is doubtful that she would go up against longtime family friend Manolo Reyes, who has already filed paperwork for that seat and who is being endorsed by her father, Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado. And that would kinda be a step down, no? Not at all in her character. She’s too big for a commission seat.

But a mayoral run, justified by the excuse that no other candidate is really ready or qualified (and, yes, Baby X should take it personally), might just be the right size. And it fits in her character. I heard there was even a poll where she was cast as one of the potential candidates (more on that later). And a credible source tells Ladra that a couple of lobbyists have told him they have to “give to everybody” for this mayoral race: Suarez, Commissioner Frank Carollo — who is termed out and expected to make a run for the office — and Raquelita.

So maybe they know something we don’t. As usual.

Or maybe the money she is raising is for a PAC?

Stay tuned. There are only 26 and a half days left in January.

True to form, Miami-Dade School Board Member Raquel Regalado is not going to shut up and go away just because she fell a bit short in her shot to become the first female mayor of Miami-Dade.

Conceding Tuesday night and thanking her supporters, Regalado vowed to continue to fight for Miami-Dade residents and against the special interests at County Hall. Looks like the reporters there missed the lead because she laid out specific goals that have not been reported in stories that, instead, speculate about her future aspirations.

Because just because she wasn’t elected this time, doesn’t mean she’s going to stop representing us.

Regalado, who has already fought for us against the ridiculous courthouse tax referendum and in court to get back $9 million Mayor Carlos Gimenez gave to one of his top donors, said she was going to set her sights on charter changes that would hinder the abuse of power going on at County Hall and reform campaign finance.

Specifically, a change to have our elections supervisor elected by the people rather than appointed by the mayor and a referendum for campaign finance reform. Gimenez — who may have abused his power to provide the elections department with a replacement check after hours — spent somewhere around $10 million between his campaign account, his PACs and his multiple non-profits that we can’t track. And much of that came from people and companies who do business or want to do business with the county.

Regalado told supporters Thursday that she was going to reach out to the Accountable Miami-Dade group that failed to get campaign finance reform measure on the ballot to talk about joining forces.

Read related story: Gimenez submits late night campaign check (10:20 p.m.)

These are serious issues that are about to be tackled by a serious woman with a serious track record of getting things done. Yet reporters want to keep speculating about whether or not she will run for mayor of Miami next year to replace her termed-out father. This was a whisper campaign started by the Gimenez camp early on last year as soon as Regalado announced her intention to run for Miami-Dade mayor. She has said repeatedly that she is not needed as mayor of Miami but is needed at the county. Everybody has daddy issues but her.

Sure, it’s possible she could run for the seat being vacated by Miami Commissioner Francis Suarez, who is running for mayor (again). That would provide her with a $103,000-a-year salary and perhaps keep her busy in public service for the next three years. But no way does she finish the term. Because if she can run for mayor of Miami-Dade again in 2020 as the front runner in an open seat why on Earth wouldn’t she? 

On Wednesday, Regalado — who will be back on Cuban AM radio next week and Spanish-language weekend TV later this month — sent an email blast repeating her intent to continue fighting for the community and to pursue both ballot questions in near future.

“I will continue to fight for them, for you, for us. I will continue to promote our community’s priorities. I will continue to watch what happens at County Hall and voice my concern and bring forces together to fight the special interests that have taken hold,” Regalado wrote.

“In the coming weeks and months, you will hear from me again as I mount efforts to put measures on the ballot that will change our county government. We should elect our supervisor of elections, as they do in the other 67 counties in Florida. And we must pass campaign finance reform to ensure that the decisions at county hall are made in the best interests of residents and not of special interests.”

Ladra is still with her. Because those are both good ideas. Because we need to stick together and keep an eye on Carlos Gimenez.

And because this leadership in fighting for justice and this zest for transparency and pureness of process is what makes Raquel the best candidate for mayor in 2020.

Miami City Commissioner Ken Russell was not able to get even a second on his motion to fire City Attorney Victoria Mendez Thursday.

Russell had made the move to terminate Mendez because he said she intentionally withheld emails that he had asked her for. He said the 26 emails not provided to him painted a different picture than the ones he got when he made the same request of IT — which was that Mendez was helping a developer get approval for a lot split in Coconut Grove to build five houses on one property. He said he lost trust in the city attorney.

But as if that wasn’t enough, he also mentioned another instance in which Mendez made him uncomfortable — when she advised him to get a cell phone services that would help him avoid having to make his text messages public.

“My very first week in office, in my very first meeting with Ms. Mendez, her first advice to me was which phone company I should use because it erases your text messages sooner,” Russell said at the meeting.

“It’s Sprint by the way.

“And my heart sank because this is not what I wanted to hear from the city attorney,” said Russell, who added that he stuck with AT&T.

Which made Ladra wonder who uses Sprint. So I asked. And the answer is nobody. Unless Commissioner Frank Carollo uses the service provider, because he was the only one that couldn’t be reached over the weekend.

Commissioners Willy Gort, Keon Hardemon and Francis Suarez each said they, too, use AT&T.

Certainly not what Ladra expected.

It seems odd that everybody would ignore the city attorney’s advice, but Suarez — who has been critical of Mendez on other professional issues — also said that the city attorney had never advised him to use a particular cell phone company.

“She’s never said anything remotely similar to me like that,” he said.

He wouldn’t go as far as calling Russell a liar.

“I don’t think he’s a dishonest person. I also don’t think she’s a dishonest person. We get told a lot of things,” Suarez said.

And since he uses AT&T, whatever he gets told in text, stays put for longer.

Miami City Commissioner Ken Russell lost his first political battle Thursday when he failed to get any support whatsoever on his move to terminate City Attorney Victoria Mendez after she failed to provide all the emails he asked her for about a certain Coconut Grove lot split and development.

He didn’t even get a second to his motion.

Russell has said that Mendez, who makes $215,000 a year, intentionally withheld some of the emails he requested on the development application for a lot split on Battersea Road. She gave him 13 emails dating back to November 2015. When he requested the same email search from IT, he got 39, and the conversation started in October. The attorneys even provided the city attorney with draft language for the resolution.

“The whole 39 told a different story,” Russell said.

A drawing composite of one of the five homes to be built on Battersea

The freshman commissioner says the emails show that Mendez went above and beyond to help the developer get a positive ruling on the application to divide the property into five lots so he could build five homes. The original ruling from planning and zoning was that the application needed a document called a warrant. The emails suggest Mendez shopped it out to different attorneys on her staff until she got the decision she was looking for.

She also assured Javier Vazquez, an attorney/lobbyist for the developer with whom she is rather friendly, that she was doing all she could to resolve the issue. And one email indicates it might not have been an easy sell.

Read related story: Miami commissioner wants attorney fired for missing emails

“Javier, we’re having a hard time on this. Let’s talk next week,” she wrote on Oct. 30 last year. This was after she had told an assistant city attorney to talk to him and “see how we can figure out.”

That email was among the ones that were withheld from Russell. So was the one that had been sent by Assistant City Attorney Amanda Quirke the day before, on Oct. 29. “I spoke to Javier today. I reviewed this issue at length with planning and zoning to see if we could get to the same interpretation, but we could not,” Quirke wrote. “This is an unplatted lot that has had a house on it for more than 50 years. It is a building site, and no building site shall be diminished in the NCD without a warrant.”

Quirke was no longer needed for meetings after that, as Vazquez indicated in an email Oct. 30 to Mendez’s assistant Marta Gomez about a meeting she was trying to reschedule for when Quirke would be back.

“My client cannot afford to keep waiting. Respectfully, we know Amanda’s opinion on the matter. We are simply wanting face to face time with Vicky to give her our interpretation,” he wrote.

Mendez chimed in: “Have Goldberg come up to speed with alternatives and we can still meet without Amanda.”

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