The race in House District 103 may prove once and for all that money alone doesn’t win campaigns.
Cindy Polo, the Democrat mom and anti-blasting activist who decided to run for office after the Parkland shooting, may have less campaign spending power than that of former Miami Lakes Councilman Frank Mingo: About $54,000, mostly in small donations from mom and pop sources, compared to Mingo’s $254,000, including a lot of maximum $1,000 contributions from mostly Tallahassee special interests.
But she seems to have more momentum.
“We planned on being at a financial disadvantage so we’ve been very strategic,” Polo said on Sunday, the eve before early voting begins.
An internal Democratic Party poll reportedly has her winning by single digits just beyond the margin of error. Ladra believes the source because it would explain why Mingo and his supporters — who include the powerful next Speaker of the House, State Rep. Jose Oliva — are acting so desperately.
There have been negative attacks either diminishing her inexperience or blaming her for the toll increases at MDX because she once worked at the agency (without any voting power). So it’s a very mixed message. One day she’s “just a mom” and the next, she single-handedly hiked tolls. Sounds like they’re really worried.
Read related: Possible plantidate forces Democrat primary in House 103 for the GOP
Well, they have been since the beginning, probably because Hillary Clinton won the district by 20 points two years ago — its really one of the most flippable seats in the state — which is why they planted that fake Democrat, Rick Tapia, against her in the primary. She handily beat him, 58-42.
Days later, the desperate Mingo camp came up with another strategy and issued a press release last month, seemingly picked up only by the Miami Laker, declaring war on the quarries and announcing — oh so timely — that if elected, Manny Diaz Jr. and Mingo would make anti-blasting legislation their first priority.
Pfffffft. Yeah, right. Nobody believes that. Like Mingo is the missing piece? They couldn’t get anything done when it was just Diaz and Oliva and Rene Garcia in the Senate? Rene, te estan despreciando.
Mingo is more like a second pocket vote for Oliva, who also happens to be his boss at Oliva Cigars. In fact, Oliva put him in office in Miami Lakes, to groom him exactly for this position. Just more of the same of what we’ve had for too long. Judging by his campaign contributions, he will make the expansion and facilitation of more charter schools his priority.
The announcement smells more like sweet desperation.
Read related: Rep. Jose Oliva lends juice for Miami Lakes sprint election
And Ladra predicts it will backfire. People in Miami Lakes, Palm Springs North and Miramar know that while Polo has been pressing the blasting issue for years — indeed it is how she became politically active — these blokes in office have been deaf and even taken money from the quarries, like the one in the photo above.
“The community is tired of the same old accusations and stories year after year. They are on to them,” said Polo, who has concentrated on the issues of blasting, gun control and education. “I’ve lived in this area my whole life. I grew up here. So it’s not something I need cliff notes on.”
She also has the endorsements from the Miami Herald and United Teachers of Dade, as well as the enthusiasm brought on by gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum.
All of which means that Mingo could still very well lose with all that money.

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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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Is the fix in for the next town manager of Miami Lakes? Lots of people apparently think so.
Town Manager Alex Rey isn’t leaving until next March, and a selection committee that is supposed to keep the process super transparent and clean hasn’t even met once yet (it will next week) because Town Attorney Raul Gastesi hasn’t shortlisted the 55 — or 58 or 57 or 59, “in high 50-s and not 60,” but he doesn’t remember exactly (really?!?) — candidates that had applied as of the April 20 deadline.
But at Tuesday’s council meeting, a move by Councilman Tim Daubert to speed up the process was seen as evidence that the rampant rumors about an in-house “preferred” candidate (read: Assistant Town Manager Andrea Agha) were true. Daubert withdrew his agenda item after a number of residents complained that it was inappropriate and smacked of cronyism.
“I don’t want an heir apparent and that is what seems to be occurring,” said Abel Fernandez, a retired firefighter and town activist. “What is the hurry? It is inappropriate, it is a travesty that we circumvent the power of a committee.”
Longtime activist Maria Kramer, a member of the selection committee, said she had heard the rumors about the fix from two veteran municipal administrators, a manager and an assistant manager, who had told her for years that the minute the position opened in Miami Lakes, they would jump on it. When they didn’t, she asked them why.
“They said, ‘Why would I apply? It’s fixed. It’s going in house. Why should I upset my council members?’ This pisses me off beyond belief,” Kramer said. “And whoever has been putting that rumor out, this council and this mayor needs to extend this process and go on record and say that this is an open process. If not, you are cheating yourselves and you are cheating us.
“You are going against the will of the voters of Miami Lakes,” she said. “This process was set up by the voters, by a huge number of voters.”
Robert Ruiz agreed with her about opening up the process again. “I am getting calls from city managers that are 10 and 15 years working in this community who decided not to apply because they thought this was a done deal prior to the selection process,” Ruiz said. “There are good names we want to consider.”
Kramer and Fernandez noted that there was plenty of time to vet all the candidates and go through a thorough selection process, which the charter had recently changed to be a citizen driven process. They have until December at the earliest.
“We deserve a process that is fair. We deserve the very best possible administrator in all of South Florida to apply. We need to take Miami Lakes to the next level,” Kramer said. “Please don’t make a mockery of the process. If someone takes another job [in the meantime] they weren’t meant to be our manager.”
In fact, all the residents concerned about the process asked the council to extend the application period, rather than speed up the selection process. The council unanimously set a new deadline for any applicants that stayed away the first time: June 15. Kramer said the town should do the same as Key Biscayne, which kept its selection process open through the end, but some of the council members weren’t willing to leave it open that long.
Gastesi seemed to try very hard to get the council to leave the application deadline closed.
He said the process that resulted in more than 55 — but less than 60, he’s not sure exactly (seriously?!) — applicants was “open, public, recorded, advertised. It can’t be any more transparent as to what we were looking for. We discussed every aspect of what were the minimum qualifications, the educational requirements, size of their management experience, private vs public.”
He dismissed the rumors. “If you didn’t apply, you made that decision on your own. We’re adults and whoever decided not to apply, maybe the reason they didn’t apply is they didn’t want to create friction from where they are. It’s kind of an affront to everybody sitting up on this dais. It’s an affront to everybody on the committee, that somehow they have made that decision.”
Gastesi disclosed that he and the human resources director are going through the resumes to decide whether or not the applicant meets the requirements before passing them along to the final selection committee, which will then make a recommendation to the council, any one of whom, by the way, can bring in their own recommendation. If Gastesi has a doubt about anyone, he will submit them to the committee, he said. He was visibly and audibly upset by the accusations that the position had already been promised or decided for someone (read: Agha).
“I don’t know how else we can make it more transparent,” Gastesi said. “If someone decided not to apply, that’s on them… If there’s a rumor out there as to who’s in the bag or who’s going to get this, it’s not appropriate.”
Councilman Frank Mingo, who is running for the seat in House District 103 — where Manny Diaz Jr. is jumping off to run for the Senate seat vacated by Rene Garcia (more on that later) — agreed with Gastesi.
“It’s sad to hear some people didn’t apply because they made assumptions or heard rumors,” he said. “Nobody controls that committee and nobody controls this council. There is nothing set in stone. that I’ve learned.”
Well, maybe not stone.
But Gastesi tried again, really hard it seems, to talk the council out of re-opening the window of opportunity.
“We have a deadline to apply to get the recommendation to the committee,” Gastesi explained. “The committee process that we set up is the committee process that we set up. We worked long. We worked hard. People worked long and hard to get their applications in under the deadline and comply with the rules and procedures. There are 50-some people who did that.”
Remember, he can’t remember the exact number. Around 57. Or 58 maybe. Or 55. Something like that. No, that doesn’t sound sketchy at all.
Then Gastesi went on and on and on about how opening up the application window again would interfere with “a bunch of work to get to where we are” in the process.
“The fact is that this committee has done a lot of work, met, discussed parameters, input, emails back and forth to us inquiring of certain issues,” Gastesi said. “We’ve gotten public records requests from members of the committee. So we’ve done a lot of work so far.”
Councilman Nelson Rodriguez asked the right question when he asked what committee? What work? The committee, remember, will meet for the first time May 8.
Um, er, Gastesi stammered. “The only work that’s been done… the committee itself has not met. We’ve called meetings… by May 8, I will have reviewed all the resumes, discussed what piles they are going to go into and then turn them over to them and then they can decide what steps to take next.”
So in other words, the committee — whose own members asked for the window to be opened again — hasn’t done any work yet. Not “a bunch” of work. Not any.
Rodriguez was the one who pushed the issue. Daubert expected it to go away when he withdrew the item from he agenda, but Rodriguez wanted to talk about it and was assured that it would come up in the attorney’s report.
“The name of Miami Lakes is being smeared and I dislike it a lot,” he said, adding that he, too, had heard “it’s a done deal” was in the rumor mill. “That’s one of the reasons I wanted to discuss this. I wanted to make it clear that nothing is a done deal. Nobody is going to control my vote and tell me how to vote.”
Councilman Ceasar Mestre said the council should “stick by our procedure” and not change the process midstream. He said this could also set a precedent for more changes which is contrary to what the committee was about.
“We are trying to be transparent and now we are coming out with a little way to get around it,” Mestre said “That kind of bypasses everything and if we do get a resume that did not apply on time and for some reason that person gets picked… if there’s rumors now can you imagine what it’s going to be like?”
Which does raise the question that maybe this is being done for a particular applicant.
Said Gastesi: “There is not a process in the country without a rumor mill.”
Councilwoman Marilyn Ruano said that her opinion was guided by the committee members who wanted to open the window again. “We’ve been abundantly transparent. That’s been the idea. And it has backfired.
“There were several committee members here tonight and it was their desire to reopen the process. It’s an abundance of caution at this point,” Ruano said. “We want to make it clear that this didn’t happen…I don’t want the perception to remain that we’re closing it off because that is what we wanted to do from the beginning.”

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