Eight months ’til the general election and local Democrats decided that they need Juan Cuba is back at the helm of the Miami-Dade party.

Cuba, who had served as executive director for two years before leaving in 2014 to be a political strategist for the Service Employees International Union, was back on the job this week — just in time to welcome Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro and Congresswoman and DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz at a pre-debate party Wednesday.

Because this is all about November.

“I’m excited to be back with the Miami-Dade Democratic Party. This is the most important election of my lifetime, especially with the Supreme Court hanging in the balance,” Cuba told Ladra.

Read related story: Juan Cuba leaves Dade Dems for union job, doing the same

“I want to make sure we deliver a big margin of victory in Miami-Dade for the Democratic nominee, and that we are electing Democrats up and down the ballot,” he said, although Ladra can’t help but notice a dearth of any real, viable Democrat candidates in vulnerable seats like the one held by State Rep. Carlos Trujillo, whose district went to Obama in 2012.

But Cuba, who was sorta forced to run for office in that “No Free Rides” campaign the Dade Dems launched (unsuccessfully) against GOP House incumbents, isn’t going to run again after losing nearly 2 to 1 against State Rep. Jose Pepe “Selfie King” Diaz. He’d rather help increase voter participation from the big picture perspective.

He also promised that Dade Dems — who got involved in local government issues when the subsidy to the Miami Dolphins was first floated and then fought library closures and helped get Commissioner Daniella Levine-Cava elected in 2014 — would stay engaged in local politics.

“Even though the elections are nonpartisan, the candidates are not,” he said.

Read related story: Dade Dems wage full House battle with 6 challengers

“Right now, you have elected officials who abuse anti-poverty funds and spend it on luxury development, people who want to cut services in low-income neighborhoods but have no problem providing subsidies to millionaires and billionaires,” Cuba said, and Ladra can’t help but think he’s talking about the county mayor.

“There are efforts to privatize municipal services including our water supply, and inaction around transit and affordable housing that can help low-income families.”

Yep. I was right. That’s Carlos Gimenez to a T.

“We are going to apply our Democratic values to local issues and fight for working families,” Cuba said.

And since Ladra is officially on Team Raquel (working with the mayor’s opponent, Miami-Dade School Board Member Raquel Regalado), our tail is wagging. Because I think, by now, the Democrats — who had tried to get Miami-Dade Commissioner Jean Monestime to run — have given up on finding their own candidate for the mayoral race.

Welcome back, Juan!

After taking five whole days to lick his wounds, Former Gov. Jeb Bush — who dropped out of the Republican presidential race after he came in fourth in South Carolina Saturday — sent an email Wednesday thanking supporters for sticking by his lazy, Eyeore self and defending his lackluster campaign.

It’s probably the last email we’ll be getting from info@Jeb2016.com — unless there’s an endorsement coming later. Sen. Marco Rubio told reporters on Tuesday that he and his former mentor had spoken by phone and agreed to meet in the future.

“He’s just decompressing from this election,” Rubio is quoted as saying. “And trying to get going again in the rest of his life.”

We guess that begins by sending the saddest political email Ladra has ever read. It’s also as exciting and engaging as the Bush campaign. Exactly. After you read this, you have to think “no wonder.”

Here is Jeb’s goodbye email in its entirety:

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Three Miami congress members will basically eat crow today when they formally endorse Sen. Marco Rubio in the GOP presidential primary.

Marquito wasn’t their first choice. But U.S. Reps. Carlos Curbelo, Mario Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen suddenly find themselves without a candidate in the race, since their loser pick, former Gov. Jeb Bush, withdrew Saturday after coming in fourth in South Carolina.

Ladra understands that they don’t want to be shut out of the White House should the universe align and Rubio pull an impossible feat by winning not only the nomination and then the presidency over Hillary Clinton. But just how valuable is this runner-up nod? Not much.

Read related story: Gloves are off in Jeb Bush vs Marco Rubio primary

Nobody is going to forget what Ileana said months ago — that Rubio ought to wait his turn. That he wasn’t mature enough yet. What’s she going to say now to get back on Rubio’s good side? That it’s his turn now? Boy, he grew up a lot in 48 hours.

She told Michael Putney on WPLG Local 10s’s This Week in South Florida Sunday that “This Week in South Florida,” Ros-Lehtinen said “we know and love Marco. We never said one negative word about Marco.”

What is Diaz-Balart going to say? He said months ago that  he was “all in” with Jeb. “I don’t think there’s anybody more prepared to be president than Jeb Bush,” he told The Hill. 

Now he’s going to say there’s nobody more prepared than Rubio? Or is Marco just the next best prepared? Could he be saying the same thing about Texas Sen. Ted Cruz next month?

Read related story: Presidential absentee ballots drop today to 157,000+ voters

Yes, he could. Because this is how it is in party politics, people. 

This sudden Rubio love — an official endorsement at a joint press conference is expected Monday afternoon — is going to be hardest for Curbelo to swallow. He and Rubio have had a longtime feud, rooted in the day Marco beat him for the local party chairmanship and solidified with Curbelo’s giddy backing of Charlie Crist for Senator against his Cuban-American hermano.

What about Jeb? Everyone wants to know if he’s going to throw his weight behind his onetime protege. And how is that going to sound after he’s attacked Rubio on the campaign trail and in debates? Suddenly the no-show votes and abandoning ship on his immigration reform aren’t all that important?

Bush may have hinted at a coming Rubio endorsement with his concession speech Saturday, which sounded a little like the Senator’s stump speech.

“Over the last seven years, our nation’s bright light has become little more than a flicker. We have retreated from the world stage. The American values that have brought peace and opportunity are fading. That is not the America we know and love,” Bush said.

“America is a country that thinks big, acts boldly and leads without apology. It will be up to the next president to restore that kind of leadership.”

Then again, maybe he’s talking about Donald Trump.

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Poor Annette Taddeo. She must be pulling her hair out and/or crying her eyes out.

Former Congressman Joe Garcia jumped into the race less than three weeks ago and already he looks like the front runner.

First, he releases an internal poll that shows him with a double digit lead over his one-time BFF. Okay, it’s an internal poll. But Ladra believes it. Number one, it’s what made him jump into the race (conducted two weeks earlier). And, number 2, no surprise that people still don’t like Annette. They’ve had practice at it and voted against her three times already.

And Saturday, Garcia hit the ground running with a bigger and seemingly better organized operation than Taddeo, who has been campaigning for his old seat for nearly a year.

Garcia dampened Taddeo’s mad desire to be an elected something or other when he announced Feb. 3 that he did, after all, intend to run for the seat he lost two years ago to U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo in an off-year election clouded with headlines about absentee ballot fraud.  This year’s Hillary-topped ballot could be enough to help voters forget that his chief of staff and onetime campaign manager was sentenced to 90 days for absentee ballot fraud.

Read related story: Musical seats game on as Joe Garcia jumps into FL26 race

And he’s already gotten to work. Garcia kicked off his first “Cafecito with Joe” door-to-door neighborhood event Saturday with more than 20 supporters at Ankarr Pastries on Kendall Drive. Garcia talked immigration, a higher minimum wage, making college more affordable and fighting the big, bad Republicans who want to repeal Obamacare, defund Planned Parenthood and oppose the President’s right to select a new Supreme Court Justice.

After cafecitos, Garcia and his supporters knocked on voters’ doors, as he posted on his twitter feed.

“Today, we showed what we can do when we tackle our problems the South Florida way,” Garcia said in a statement.

“We had cafecitos and a lively discussion and then we all got to work, knocking on the doors of our neighbors and making plans to go back to Washington to fight for a better immigration system, a $15 an hour living minimum wage, and affordable college so our sons and daughters can get an education without the burden of tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt.”

A campaign statement said these “cafecitos with Joe” would be weekly.

Taddeo, seen here hosting a Garcia fundraiser in 2014, has been talking about some of these things. The difference is nobody’s been really listening. Maybe because it’s her fourth running after losing once to Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a county commission race to Lynda Bell and, most recently, the governor’s race, as Charlie Crist‘s running mate, in 2014.

Her best bet in the primary is to remind people of Joe’s prior campaign’s transgressions. And she knows that. Taddeo’s campaign issued a strongly worded email, yet again beseeching money, when Garcia announced.

“Sadly the 26th District has instead endured a series of politicians who’ve put self-interest first, acted unethically, and at times even acted illegally,” the campaign said in a statement earlier this month.

“It’s time to turn the page. The communities of South Florida deserve better.”

Read related story: Miami GOP draws first blood on Joe Garcia in FL26 race

It’s also going to be the crux of Curbelo’s campaign if Garcia makes it to the general.

Ladra is no fan of Curbelo, who has a secret list of clients he may still serve as a congressman (talk about access!). But it serves Joe right.

After all, he got into office on the headlines of former Congressman David Rivera‘s own campaign transgressions.

Karma works in politics, too.

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Your voice apparently matters. There are several community meetings and charrettes going on in different municipalities asking for the public feedback on important issues or projects.

Anti-development commissioner hosts forum

Coral Gables Commissioner Jeannett Slesnick is hosting a citizens’ forum called “Cranes, codes and collaboration” to discuss the development booming all around the City Beautiful.

Slesnick, who ran on a reduced development campaign and was the sole dissenting vote against the controversial Paseo project on U.S. 1, mailed an invitation to Gables residents to join her from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Biltmore Hotel, 1200 Anastasia Ave., Thursday, Feb. 18, to talk about promoting smart development, reducing traffic and parking impacts and “advancing community benefits,” which is shorthand for “what’s in it for us.”

You can RSVP to commissionrsvp@coralgables.com or call 305-460-5326 to get more information.

Pat Keon and FIU roll out sea level rise series

The other lady on the Coral Gables dais, Commissioner Patricia Keon, is partnering with FIU to offer a discussion sereries on sea level rise, which the city is trying to address with a community vulnerability assessment to identify our at-risk infrastructure and propose adaptation and mitigation strategies to deal with the projected effects.

As part of an effort to raise awareness among residents and business owners, the series will focus on potential future impacts, public policy implications, climate-responsive design of resistant built infrastructure and much more.

The once-a-month chats begin at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 16, at City Hall, 405 Biltmore Way, with Dr. Todd Crowl, director of FIU’s Southeast Environmental Research Center, who will provide an overview of causes and local impacts of sea level rise.

In March, the series moves to the Coral Gables Museum on Aragon Aveue, where Dr. Ryan Stoa will discuss the public policy implications of sustainable development in Florida and in April public policy implications of sustainable development in Florida. In April, FIU students from different schools — architecture, engineering, computer sciences, biology, law and public health — will design resilient and sustainable infrastructure for the future.

And here you thought Coral Gables was all about old houses and canopied streets.

For more information, please visit www.coralgables.com/sustainability or call 305-460-5008.

North Beach charrette invites resident input 

The public has been invited to participate in a three-day charrette process for the future development of North Beach, where residents recently defeated a plan to upzone Ocean Terrace.

Through Wednesday, anytime between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., residents can stop by the design studio at the Byron Carlyle Theatre, 500 71st Steet, to see the plans evolve and provide input. This is a unique opportunity to talk with the design team as ideas are developed.

Some of those early plans will be on display at an “open house from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday (tonight). Residents and interested parties will be able to review the community input, the draft plans and illustrations and give feedback.

On Thursday, the “work-in-progress presentation” is from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at the North Shore Youth Center, 501 72nd Street, where people can see all the work presented so far.

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Coming to a mailbox near you: Absentee ballots for the March 15 presidential primary.

Miami-Dade County Elections Department dropped more than 157,000 ABs in the mail today (Tuesday, Feb. 16) to voters with a request on file. The county encourages these people to be on the lookout for their ballot in the mail.

Ladra encourages Republicans to ignore all the also-rans that are not really in the running anymore but are still on the ballot.

Miami-Dade ballots, like most Florida ballots probably, include candidates like Chris Christie and Lindsay Graham and Carly Fiorina and Jim Gilmore — all of whom have withdrawn from the race.

In fact, there are more candidates on the ballot, at 13, than there are in real life. As of right now, there are only six candidates left: Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, John Kasich, Marco Rubio and Donald Trump.

Even though Ladra completely expects a couple more (read: Ben Carson for sure) to drop out in the next month.

Maybe even Jeb! Depends on how he does in South Carolina Saturday and Nevada Feb. 23. Because our former governor really, really doesn’t want to come in fourth in Florida.

A few reminders for those who plan to mail in their ballots. 

• Ballots must be received by the Supervisor of Elections no later than 7:00 p.m. on Election Day.
• Voters must sign inside the red box on the back of the return envelope.
• Signatures must match the signatures on record.
• Oh, and never give your ballot to anyone, unless they have been authorized as a designee under Section 12-14 of the Code of Miami-Dade County. 

“Absentee voting continues to grow in popularity with each election cycle because voters are able to research the candidates and vote from the comfort of their home,” Miami-Dade Elections Supervisor Christina White said in a statement.

The department will likely be mailing absentee ballots out every day as voters continue to request them. The deadline to request a ballot for the March 15 primary is 5 p.m. March 9.

Voters can request an absentee ballot on the website, by phone at (305) 499-8444, in writing or in person. Go to www.iamelectionready.org or call 305-499-VOTE (8683) for more information.

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