There’s a Miami mayoral debate Thursday night, but the biggest news isn’t who’s talking. It’s who’s not going.
The Biscayne Neighborhoods Association, which is hosting the debate along with Griffin Catalyst, the philanthropic arm of billionaire Ken Griffin, decided to only invite the candidates who polled above 10% in a survey Griffin’s group commissioned.
Their list: Former City Manager Emilio González, Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins, former City Commissioner Ken Russell and former Miami-Dade Commissioner Mayor Sir Xavier L. Suarez, who was the first Cuban-born mayor of Miami in 1995. These are the candidates out of the 13 in total who will get the spotlight — and airtime, because the debate streams live on NBC 6 and miamiherald.com.
Read related: One-liners and other memorable moments from Miami mayoral debate
Two of the loudest figures in Miami Politics are apparently not going: Commissioner Joe Carollo reportedly made the threshold and was invited, but had not confirmed as of late Wednesday. And former City Commissioner Alex Díaz de la Portilla — running a redemption tour after political corruption charges were dropped last year — was left on the outside, looking in. He apparently did not even get 10% in the Griffin poll.
You know that’s going to sting.
The four who were invited also polled the highest — along with Carollo and ADLP — for the Downtown Neighbors Alliance debate last month, which became a political food fight of insults and zingers.
Thursday’s debate will be moderated by Miami Herald politics editor David Smiley and NBC 6 anchor Jackie Nespral at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. It starts at 7 p.m., runs about 90 minutes, and while the audience is invite-only — and Ladra has asked to see the guest list — the rest of us can watch live on NBC 6 or stream it on miamiherald.com.
Who’s in — and what they bring
For Suarez, this is a homecoming of sorts. The elder statesman — or elder showman, depending who you ask — gets a primetime platform to remind voters that he was mayor before most of these other candidates were even in politics. He’s been trying to position himself as the grown-up alternative to the circus Miami has become under “El Loco” and “ADLP,” who, ironically, won’t be there to defend themselves. He will appeal to the nostalgic voters.
For Russell, who left a commission seat in 2022 to run for Congress, it’s a new venue in which to pitch himself as the rational, reform-minded alternative. He’s been hammering a message about transparency and ethics — two words that haven’t exactly been trending in Miami City Hall.
Read related: Poll has Eileen Higgins in Miami mayoral runoff with Emilio Gonzalez
For Higgins, the only woman on stage who is trying to become the first female mayor of Miami, it’s an opportunity to stand out. She’s already known countywide as a commissioner who digs into budgets and bureaucracy, and she’ll likely highlight her work on housing and transit. She might even call out the city’s dysfunctional permitting process, again.
For Gonzalez, a onetime President Bush appointee to U.S. Immigration and Citizenship Services, retired Army colonel and Trump fan, it’s a last chance to appeal to the other side of the aisle. A consistent conservative voice pitching tax relief and “back to basics” government, he touts the endorsements of Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Rick Scott and, most recently, U.S. Senator from Texas Ted Cruz. But all that could turn off Democrat and Independent voters, which he needs to win.
Who’s out — and why it matters
Carollo wouldn’t dare show up to a debate hosted by The Herald, which he calls the Miami Gramma, referring to the Communist Party’s newspaper in Cuba. Ladra doubts that Diaz de la Portilla would have gone, if he had even invited. He told Political Cortadito that the Griffin poll wasn’t realistic. “You have to be an idiot to believe that,” he texted Ladra.
“I am in a runoff with Higgins,” added Diaz de la Portilla, who paid $27,500 last month for his own poll, which he declined to share.
The organizers say the cutoff was 10% in the Griffin Catalyst poll. That’s convenient for them — and a little convenient for Griffin, who’s been spending big on “civic engagement” efforts since moving Citadel to Miami from Chicago.
But let’s be honest: Any debate without Crazy Joe and ADLP is going to feel… quieter. No fireworks. No finger-pointing. No reason for extra security. That might make for smoother television, but it also sanitizes what has been a messy, colorful race — and takes two of the biggest political personalities in the city out of the mix.
Ken hitting Eileen is not as much fun as when he hits Alex.
Read related: Fundraising reports for Miami mayoral race show millions are being invested
And by cherry-picking who’s “serious” enough to stand under the bright lights, the debate hosts are shaping the narrative, perhaps to their favor.
Suarez gets legitimacy. Higgins gets exposure. Russell gets a chance to look sensible. González gets validation.
But in a city where politics is performance art, this debate might end up remembered less for what’s said on stage than for who got cut from the script.
The lights go up at 7 p.m. Thursday on NBC6 and miamiherald.com.

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The post No Carollo, no ADLP = no real drama at Thursday’s Miami mayoral debate appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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Six of the 13 candidates in the Nov. 4 Miami mayoral race will face off on stage at the Hyatt Regency downtown for a real, bonafide debate starting at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
They are: Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo, former Commissioner Alex Díaz de la Portilla, former City Manager Emilio Gonzalez, Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins, former Miami Commissioner Ken Russell and former Miami-Dade Commissioner Xavier Suarez, the first Cuban-born mayor of Miami in 1985, wanting a comeback 40 years later.
For those of us who are watching from home — it will be broadcast live on CBS News Miami — there’s something we can do to make it more, um, soportable. This is the first Political Cortadito-sanctioned drinking game and everyone is urged to be responsible and stay put. Don’t pull a Pepe Diaz and get arrested for DUI.
Read related: Miami mayoral hopefuls face off — but only the “top six” make debate cut
Since there are a few expected quips, zingers and BS lines to come out of the candidates’ mouths Tuesday night, why don’t we play along? The rules are real simple. Take a bottle of your choice of alcohol. And then follow these instructions, carefully.
Take a sip or a shot when:

Joe Carollo interrupts someone before they finish their sentence.
Alex Díaz de la Portilla blames the media, the feds, or “political enemies.”
Emilio González says “manager” or “efficient government.”
Eileen Higgins mentions transparency or accountability.
Ken Russell tries to play the peacemaker.
Xavier Suárez references his experience or calls back to the “old days.”

Take two sips or two shots when:

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Updated: He did it! Ending months of speculation, Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo filed paperwork indicating that he is going to run for mayor in the November race in 45 days, after all. He didn’t qualify — yet. But he has until 6 p.m. Saturday to do so.
Carollo said on his morning radio show Friday said he had not actually made up his mind about “taking the final step.” But if he does, “I know I’m stepping into the fire because what’s coming is inhuman.” He said he was going to pray, as if God would listen to him, and talk it over with his wife Marjory, as if he hasn’t talked it over ad nauseam with her already.
But he’s running. Because who else is going to pay his legal bills?
The termed out veteran Miami pol has been hinting at his run, every single morning on his radio show, Miami Al Dia, which he used Friday morning to say how he was going to fix everything “when I am mayor of Miami,” how he fixed everything once before and “acted with honesty and integrity.
Read related: How much longer will Miami taxpayers pay for Crazy Joe Carollo’s lawyers?
“And that is something none of these people can erase,” Carollo said, calling some of the other mayoral candidates “idiots of the extreme left who vomit hate and lies and defamation for ideology or for the little dollars they get.”
He said that the last time he was mayor, the city was “in the worst financial crisis in the history of Miami… and Joe Corollo was the mayor who looked for the solutions and led this city out of it.”
Carollo joins a clusterbunch of candidates in the race. Former City Manager Emilio Gonzalez — who sued the city to make sure the election happened after commissioners cancelled it in May — is a favorite target of his show. As is “leftist” Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins and former Miami Commissioner Ken Russell. He calls former Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla, a onetime ally before the former senator was arrested on public corruption charges and suspended in 2023, “King Mamey,” because of the fruit that ADLP hands out to voters in his campaign goody bag.
Gonzalez, Higgins and Russell had all qualified by Friday, when Carollo filed his bank account papers. Diaz de la Portilla had not. It’s still just a threat from him. Same goes for Miami-Dade Commissioner Xavier Suarez, the father of the current Miami mayor who himself was elected the first Cuban-born mayor of Miami. The deadline is  6 p.m. Saturday. People close to him told Political Cortadito that his heart is not in it and that he won’t follow through if he does not see a path forward. He also doesn’t want to keep pissing off his family. Oops. It looks like they were wrong. X qualified Friday.
Software giant Fred Voccola is also a no-show so far, despite spending a small fortune on text messages, a website and digital ads. And the most recent name to pop up, Kenneth James DeSantis — a relative of the governor’s — is “still on the fence.”
Read related: Fred “Who?” Voccola could be a Francis Suarez reboot for Miami mayor’s race
Qualifying so far: Community Council Member Christian Cevallos, Laura Anderson, who identifies with the socialist workers party — but has zero union endorsements — Alyssa Crocker, Michael Hepburn and June Savage.
Carollo has been hinting at running for months. Earlier this week, he said he received calls from Channel 10 and The Miami Herald asking him if he was going to do it.
“And The Miami Herald told me that my entry into the race would change everything,” he said, clearly flattered, even though he calls the paper the Miami Granma, which is the name of the communist party’s newspaper in Cuba. “Can you believe that? That Joe Carollo could change the election just by running?”
He believes it.
A recent poll has Higgins getting into the runoff with Gonzalez, who has gained a lot of free media exposure for his lawsuit against the city of Miami after commissioners in May voted to change the election from odd-numbered years to even-numbered years, which effectively cancelled this year’s races for mayor and commissioners in districts 3 and 5. He won in court and is considered sort of a hero for saving the election, a title he is riding all the way to the ballot box. A recent video from his campaign calls the other candidates “cheerleaders” (more on that later).
Carollo is an easy target because of the lawsuits against him — including the First Amendment demand from the Little Havana business owners that got a jury award of $63.5 million — and the costs the city has incurred because of them. There was a failed recall attempt against him in 2020 that was thwarted on a technicality after the city claimed it was not filed before the deadline.
But he also hits hard. His certain entry into the race means it’s going to get uglier than it has already. All we need now is ADLP to jump into the clown car and we have got ourselves one fun 45 days in front of us.
Help Ladra cover the increasingly strange Miami city elections this year. Make a contribution to Political Cortadito today. Thank you for supporting independent, grassroots watchdog journalism.
The post Commisioner Joe Carollo files initial paperwork to run for Miami mayor appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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Half a mil is from candidate’s asset management firm
Even before former City Manager Emilio Gonzalez won his lawsuit against the city of Miami for cancelling this year’s election, the retired Army colonel had raised a little more than $750,000 for his mayoral run between his campaign account and his political action committee, Mission Miami.
His campaign account has raised a modest $69,280, according to the campaign finance reports for the second quarter, through June 30. But his PAC, formed in March and chaired by Tallahassee operative Christian R. Camara, raked in a jaw-dropping $681,055 in just three months. And if you think that came in $20 checks from abuelitas, think again.
El pez gordo here is a Wall Street outfit called RIA R Squared — an investment management firm that primarily serves foreign institutional investors. It’s also where Gonzalez has worked for the last five years after leaving the city manager’s job in 2020 under pressure by the commission, primarily Commissioner Joe Carollo. Gonzalez is a partner at R Squared, which manages approximately $1 billion in assets on a “discretionary basis” — and dropped not one, but two $250,000 checks to Mission Miami in April. That’s half a million bucks right there, gente. Enough to buy two condos in Allapattah. Cash.
There’s also a $15,000 contribution from Timothy Patrick Torline, who is a financial advisor at an R Squared subsidiary. And $1,000 from David Kang, the CEO of that subsidiary.
Read related: Third DCA strikes down Miami election change; November ballot is on
“They believe in me,” Gonzalez told Political Cortadito, adding that he does no sales and his company does no business in the state of Florida. “They simply believe in what I stand for and my vision for the city.”
Gonzalez, who has never run for office or had a political action committee before, is starting from scratch and doesn’t have anybody to shake down like Carollo does. He doesn’t have the power of incumbency like Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins, whose PAC raised $250,000 in the same period.
The other big donors to the Gonzalez Mission Miami PAC are:

$30,000 in two checks, for $18K and $12K, from Palmetto Bay’s Roger West, CEO of Pyramids Property Management.
$25,000 from SGD Offices, a Doral company with Max Alvarez as one of its principals.
$25,000 from Peninsula 2705 LLC, a North Miami Beach real estate holding.
$23,000 from the law offices of Miguel Inda-Romero.
$10,000 from the Carlos M. De La Cruz Revocable Trust in Key Biscayne.
$10,000 from Maybe Beach attorney Jay Eric Gould.
$10,000 from Juan “J.C.” Flores, a Tallahassee political operative who has worked for Marco Rubio and Carlos Giménez.
$10,000 from Black River Productions, an audio studio in Doral.

On paper, Gonzalez’s own campaign account looks modest by comparison: about $69,000 raised in Q2 from nearly 146 donors, most of them local. Notable names include:

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The Third District Court of Appeal hasn’t dropped its ruling yet on whether the City of Miami can just cancel its elections like a bad brunch reservation, but the smart money is on Emilio Gonzalez — the former city manager who sued to undo the shady ordinance that postponed this year’s mayoral race (and two commission contests) until 2026.
Gonzalez wants to run for mayor now, not next year. After all, he’s been campaigning for months. Last week, Miami-Dade Judge Valerie Manno Schurr agreed, ruling the city commission’s change of the election by ordinance without a voter referendum was unconstitutional because it violates both the city and county charters, which trump state law. So, super duper unconstitutional.
Read related: Miami-Dade Judge: Miami Commission can’t cancel election without public vote
In other words: Commissioners cannot just cancel the election because they feel like it. Not even if they say it really fast in legalese. Or hold up props, which is what the city’s hired gun, outside attorney Dwayne Robinson, did in moment of legal theater that would make Shakespeare cringe. Robinson stood there holding two printed copies of the city charter — one from before the election-postponing ordinance passed and one from after — and told the court: “There is no change. There is no amendment. Nothing is repealed.”
Nothing’s changed? Except the whole part where the city commission gave themselves another year in office, moved the election to 2026, and completely ignored the charter’s very clear instruction that elections be held in odd-numbered years. But yeah, nothing’s changed.
Robinson barely made it a minute in before Judge Monica Gordo interrupted with a polite but pointed, “The charter is the city’s constitution, is it not?”
“Why would the commission hang its hat on a permissive state statute when they have a constitution confronting them with a ‘shall,’” Gordo asked, rhetorically because you could tell she already knows the answer is they cannot.
You could almost feel the eye rolls from the bench. And Gordo wasn’t the only one wondering why she was there. Because the city’s legal logic would get laughed out of a mock trial at Jose Marti Middle School.
Judge Kevin Emas seemed frustrated with the city’s argument that, hey, moving an election without voter approval was totally legit and not at all a coup in slow motion. Judge Fleur Lobree seemed bored. She scooped up her documents and notes to leave before the city’s rebuttal was even finished.
Several times Emas made the point that Gonzalez and his attorneys were making: You can’t have a charter and a code that contradict each other and expect this not to end in chaos.
Read related: First lawsuit filed to stop city of Miami from cancelling November election
Attorney Alan Lawson, a former Florida Supreme Court Justice representing González, called the city’s argument “a semantic sleight of hand.” Well, that could describe a lot of discussions at city commission meetings. Basically, Lawson said, if the charter says elections are in odd years, and you pass something that says otherwise, then you’re changing the charter — and you need a referendum. Voters get a say. It’s really not that hard.
“They say, ‘We didn’t amend the charter. The words are still there in the charter,’” Lawson said about the city’s argument. “They say that this is just an alternative means of rule-making in an area historically limited to the referendum process. They say it’s an alternate path.”
And if the commission can take an “alternate path,” why bother with a charter at all?
“Lincoln famously said that you can call a tail a leg but it doesn’t make it so,” Lawson said. What if they call a tail the head?
In other words: saying “we didn’t change the charter, we just ignored part of it” is the legal equivalent of “it’s not cheating if I close one eye.”
Even Miami-Dade County showed up to remind the city that they’re not above the rules. And when the county feels the need to weigh in on how broken your logic is, you know you’ve lost the room. Assistant County Attorney Michael Valdes told the judges that under the Miami-Dade Home Rule Charter — aka our local constitution — changes like this must go to the voters. You’d think that would be obvious to a city with more lawyers than potholes.
The city’s rebuttal? That the charter isn’t a “magic document that cannot be altered unless there’s a referendum.” Oh really? So is it a suggestion box? A pirate map? A mood ring? A souvenir from when there was democracy in Miami?
If it’s not binding, then what is? The whims of three commissioners?
But, you know, a Miami courtroom drama isn’t complete if there’s not a Carollo cameo. And here, there were two.
Frank Carollo watches intently while county attorney Michael Valdes argues the home rule charter trumps state law
Commissioner Joe Carollo wasn’t there Tuesday — but he wanted to be. As if he didn’t have enough legal battles of his own, Carollo — who always wants to be el protagonista — wanted to insert himself into someone else’s courtroom drama. Crazy Joe loves the sound of his own voice. Y como un colado in a quinceañera he wasn’t invited to, Carollo asked the court to let him speak at oral arguments in a case he’s not even a party to.
The Gonzalez legal team told the judges that this was disruptive and that Carollo simply wanted to grandstand. Ya think? The DCA judges — who may have seen Carollo drone on and on and on at commission meetings — told him nananina. They saved themselves.
But his brother was there. Former Commissioner Frank Carollo, who has filed to run again in District 3, sat behind Gonzalez in the audience and looked glum. He later made a comment to the press outside because he doesn’t want Gonzalez to be the only one getting a ton of earned media for suing the city.
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, was also in the courtroom, in the front row. Suarez is hoping the city prevails so he can have an extra year in office to increase his net worth even more.
Read related: Miami Commissioners pass election date change — and steal an extra year
Observers expect the judges to issue a ruling soon. Ladra is surprised it’s taken them this long because their skepticism was pretty evident at the hearing.
This isn’t about “clarifying” the charter or “modernizing” elections. This is about commissioners handing themselves an extra year in office and hoping no one would notice.
Well, guess what? People noticed.
So did Judge Manno Schurr, and now three appellate judges seem poised to deliver the same message: You want to change an election date? Ask the damn voters.
A ruling is expected soon. Ladra just hopes the city doesn’t try to drag this into extra innings with another appeal. Haven’t we wasted enough taxpayer money already?
The post Third DCA seems skeptical of Miami city election change, cancellation appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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Miami’s political telenovela just cast another familiar face: Former Miami Mayor and former District 7 Miami-Dade Commissioner Xavier Suarez wants his old job back — and maybe a rematch with Commissioner Joe Carollo.
Just hours after a Miami-Dade Circuit Court judge on Monday declared the Miami City Commission’s election year change by ordinance unconstitutional, effectively rescheduling the cancelled election, Suarez — who had been considering a run and was included in multiple polls — popped out of the shadows to announce its official.
Read related: Miami-Dade Judge: Miami Commission can’t cancel election without public vote
That’s right. The O.G. of Miami’s Cuban political club, the first island-born mayor of the Magic City, and papi to current Mayor Francis Suarez, is officially hitching a ride in the clown car that is the next Miami mayoral election — whenever that is. He said he would file paperwork Tuesday morning for what’s shaping up to be the most dramatic race for Miami mayor since… well, dare I say 1997?
That was the year of the first mano a mano mess between Suarez and Carollo, who’s been threatening to run for mayor for more than a year. Suarez technically won the race, until it was revealed by The Miami Herald that the election was tainted by absentee ballot fraud. Not only did a dead man vote, but people who lived in Westchester and Broward also voted in the city election. Eso no se puede hacer.
Ladra worked that election investigative story and remembers that Suarez was never officially tied to the AB shenanigans. Suarez just got swept up in the scandal when the court threw out all the ABs, effectively handing Carollo the seat.
And we all know how that turned out — with Carollo yelling at everybody and betraying his supposed allies. So, pretty much what he’s doing now, almost three decades later.
In addition to Carollo, Suarez and Diaz de la Portilla, none of whom have filed any paperwork as of Monday, there are 10 other candidates who have opened bank accounts and made their intentions official. They include Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins, former Miami Commissioner Ken Russell, former City Manager Emilio Gonzalez — who sued to restore the November election, which commissioners tried to change without voter approval — onetime congressional candidate Michael Hepburn, former Miami-Dade Community Council Member Christian Cevallos, perennial candidates Max Martinez and June Savage and first timers Alyssa Crocker, Ijamyn Joseph Gray and Linda Anderson, who doesn’t stand a chance as an official member of the Socialist Workers Party.
Read related: Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins could join Miami Mayor’s race
But he is also sorta running against his son. Baby X is termed out in November and, by all indications, was counting on a bonus year in office to increase his net worth with side gigs and fundraise for his next influencer trip to Dubai. The city is appealing a ruling Monday from a Miami-Dade judge who cancelled the cancellation of the November election for mayor and commissioner because the vote last month to move elections from odd to even years was unconstitutional.
In his announcement Monday, Xavier Suarez congratulated Emilio Gonzalez for initiating the lawsuit to challenge the city commission’s change (read: cancellation) of election by ordinance — and took some credit. “I was directly involved in the selection of counsel and contributed significantly to the strategic approach, specifically advising that only indispensable parties be named as defendants,” reads his statement. Ladra thinks he means Carollo, whose attorneys filed an amicus brief.
The senior Suarez also said that his political action committee would campaign against the proposed ballot referendum on lifetime term limits, even though there is a carve out for him and Carollo because they did not serve two full, regular terms. He said the ballot question is misleading. “The city’s charter already provides for term limitations,” Xavier said in his statement. “This proposal seeks to implement retroactive lifetime restrictions and unfairly imposes constraints on individuals who previously served when such limitations did not exist.”
Instead, his PAC will support putting two other questions on the ballot, which are the petitions that have been collected by Stronger Miami, a coalition of community groups including the One Grove Alliance: One would move the elections to even-numbered years by a public vote and the other would expand the commission from five to nine members.
Hey! Isn’t that Russell’s issue?
Read related: Petition aims to add Miami commission districts, change election to even years
Suarez didn’t throw his son completely under the bus, saying that the “city has made commendable progress in maintaining public order, stimulating significant private-sector economic growth, and reducing the millage rate.” But, apparently, not enough progress on property tax relief. X said he supported measures proposed by state legislators and dropped the names of State Representative Vickie Lopez and Florida House Speaker Daniel “Danny” Perez.
Suarez, 76, hasn’t held elected office since he left the county commission in 2020.
Now, all eyes are on Carollo, who lives for this kind of political drama. Will he make it official and file paperwork to set up the rematch nobody asked for — but everybody will watch? Or will he just scream from the dais and call everyone a traitor until the November ballot goes to print?
The deadline to qualify is Sept. 20.
¡Aguántate, Miami! Because the ghosts of elections past are running again.

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The post Former Miami Mayor Xavier Suarez to file for crowded city mayoral race appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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