Miami City Commissioners could give themselves an extra year in office at their next regularly-scheduled commission meeting. Just like that. All it takes is three votes.
Maybe.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier says they can’t do it without voter approval first.
“If the City of Miami is to amend its charter, either to move the date of municipal elections or to change the terms of office for elected officials, then the change may only proceed by a vote of the elector,” Uthmeier wrote in an opinion Wednesday (more on that later), which is a response to an inquiry from  the Commissioner Miguel Gabela.
But Commissioner Damian Pardo, the sponsor of the the ordinance to move the next election to November 2026, is not giving up. He is working with the city attorney to figure out some kind of go-around.
“We are in receipt of the Attorney General’s letter regarding our item on the City Commission agenda to change the dates of the City’s election from odd to even years,” Pardo said in a statement. “We have immense respect for the Office of the Attorney General; however, the stated opinion is not a mandatory precedence in the State of Florida and is regarded as persuasive.
“Fortunately, the Third District Court of Appeal, which is mandatory precedence, has issued a ruling which may fully address these issues.”
Fortunately? How invested is he in this change without taking it to voters?
Read related: Miami commissioners could extend terms, gain a year for themselves, mayor
Pardo said that several municipalities across the state have already made the change to even-year elections without going to a vote of the citizens and that the aim is to save millions of dollars over the years and quadruple participation.
“We are confident that this reform is both legal and necessary for the benefit of future generations of Miamian,” Pardo said.
This has been cast as a necessary sacrifice to not only get lifetime term limits for city electeds on the November ballot — to stop professional politicians who have already served two terms from running for that same seat again after a short break — but also to make the term limits stick if they are passed. There is some fear that if someone like, say, former Commissioner Frank Carollo or his big bro Commissioner Joe Carollo are elected this year — in District 3 and the mayor’s race, respectively — they could challenge the charter amendment because it was on the same ballot and, an argument can be made that it would disenfranchise voters to remove the newly again elected individual they put in office.
Pardo is sponsoring both measures — the lifetime term limits and the election year change — and once said they had nothing to do with each other. Now, they are on the same agenda and Pardo says that one explains the other. He says both proposals aim to strengthen voter participation, transparency, accountability and to restore public trust.
“These reforms are about creating a government that works for everyone, not just those already in power or those seeking to return to power,” Pardo said in a statement last week. “We must set clear, enforceable guardrails that invite new voices and ideas. Miami’s residents deserve leadership that reflects its dynamic neighborhoods and evolving priorities.”
Currently, the Miami mayor and commissioners are termed out after two terms, but can run again after sitting just one term. This amendment would make electeds permanently ineligible after two terms. It would apply retroactively, mirrored on term limits in the city of Miami Beach, where it was upheld by the courts when former Commissioner Michael Gongóra wanted to run again for commission in 2021. A judge didn’t allow him, citing a 2014 voter referendum that limits commissioners to two complete terms.
Pardo says that’s a strong legal precedent.
But it’s not a sure thing. Commission Chairwoman Christine King spoke against it when originally introduced in April. She said she doesn’t want to limit voters’ choices, but most observers in the know say she is protecting the future interests of Miami-Dade Commissioner Keon Hardemon, who was a Miami commissioner and could want to return when his eight years gig is up at the county. King did say she might feel differently if the ordinance expanded the limitation to sitting out two terms rather than one. Which perfectly serves Hardemon. And Frank Carollo, too.
When Pardo saw he didn’t have the voters in April, he deferred the item.
According to the notice from Pardo’s office, “The charter amendment would take effect immediately upon voter approval, applying to all candidates in the 2025 election.”
Except Pardo doesn’t want there to be a 2025 election.
The commissioner’s second proposal would move city elections from odd to even years, to coincide with the national and state and county elections. That would effectively cancel the 2025 city election and reschedule them to 2026. The stated goal, same as other municipalities that have made the change, is to save money — about $1 million in this case — and increase voter participation. Turnout at municipal elections hovers in the low double digits. The June 3 special election in District 4 barely got 11%. While elections in odd years see a 65% to 70% turnout.
But in Coral Gables, where the commission recently moved the election from April of odd years to November of even years — for the same reasons, savings and turnout — the commission voted to shorten their terms by five months. They did not extend them.
Read related: Coral Gables changes city elections to November, cuts terms by 5 months
Moving the city of Miami’s election to 2026 would “prevent legal challenges potentially arising from having a term limited candidate win a seat at the same time as the lifetime term limit ballot initiative passes,” Pardo’s press release reads.
But there is no guarantee that the lifetime term limits would pass and already Carollo and Mayor Francis Suarez have formed a political action committee to fight a yes vote.
The change in election year is something the commission can and intends to do without going to a voter referendum for the public’s approval — and would have already happened should the public reject the term limits.
Maybe these two things should be on separate ballots.
They could take it to the people. But they don’t have to. Because, deep down, they don’t care what you think.
The city of Miami commission meets at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday at City Hall. The meeting can also be viewed on the city’s website. Click here for the full agenda. It’s a lot.
The post Miami lifetime term limits, election year change intertwined, like bait & switch appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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Miami doesn’t have Roberto Rodriguez-Tejera anymore on weekday morning radio to let us know what’s really happening at the county, the different municipalities, the state and the country. But, hey, we have Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo every day at 10 a.m. on America Radio Miami 1260 AM to feed us lies.
As if he didn’t already drone on — on and on and on — during commission meetings.
Carollo, who is threatening to run for Miami mayor, gets an hour Monday through Friday to blast his enemies and support his friends — including recently elected Miami Commissioner Ralph “Rafael” Rosado, whose campaign Carollo coordinated — in a show he calls Miami Al Dia. The program sits in between the three-hour programs of Emmy Award winning journalists Sandra Peebles, before, and Carines Moncada, after.
They must be livid.
How is it okay for a politician to have an hourly morning radio show to use for electioneering and political retaliation? It’s basically an hour long ad and there’s no disclaimer. His communications director, Karen Caballero, who is paid $115,043 a year from city taxes, sits there in the radio studio with him, though it’s hard to figure out why, since this is not part of his city job or her city job. Caballero — the same staffer who tricked Ladra into coming to the district office to get served with a subpoena as a witness in a case brought by the mayor of a neighboring city — is the blonde on the bottom left corner in the photo below.
Neither of them responded to several calls and texts for comment.

Remember, this is the same guy who was found by a jury to have violated the First Amendment rights of two Little Havana businessmen by weaponizing the city’s code enforcement against them. He lost and was ordered to pay a $63.5 million. One could say he is now weaponizing the airwaves.
Carollo used the space and time to attack Jose Regalado — who ran against his puppet candidate, Rosado — and the whole Regalado family (including the candidate’s sister, Miami-Dade Commissioner Raquel Regalado, and their father, former Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado, now the county property appraiser). He made scurrilous and baseless allegations about every single one of them, calling them communists and associates of drug traffickers.
The commissioner has also used the airtime to blast other candidates who are or are threatening to run for Miami mayor, including Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins, who has filed paperwork, and former Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla, who is just bluffing. He called Portilla’s campaign stunt — handing out fruit to high priority elderly voters — Operation Mamey and called Higgins a Marxist Johnny Come Lately pandering to Hispanic voters (same ol’, same ol’).
Read related: Ralph Rosado and Joe Carollo beat Jose Regalado in Miami D4 special election
“They learned Spanish with JustiLanguage. And all of a sudden they want to be mayor,” he said, referring to what is actually an English instruction school in Westchester. He could have been including former City Commissioner Ken Russell, who has also filed paperwork and has shown pretty fluent and locally nuanced Español on recent interviews and social media posts.
Carollo also calls former City Manager Emilio Gonzalez, who served in the U.S. Army for 26 years, including a stint as a military attache with the Defense Intelligence Agency and who has also filed paperwork, “Coronel Chiringa” (or Col. Smallshit in English), and former Miami Police Chief Jorge Colina, who keeps getting mentioned in polls, a liar.
Gonzalez said it’s not the first time Carollo nicknames him and he doesn’t care. He doesn’t listen to the show. I don’t think anybody does,” Gonzalez told Political Cortadito.
The station’s program director told Ladra that they are between Nielsen contracts and are not currently measuring their ratings with listeners. How convenient. However, one of the recordings last week has 68 views on YouTube — and that’s over five days.
Colina lives in Miami Lakes and, as such, is not running for mayor, despite being named in some polls. He also doesn’t listen to Carollo’s propaganda and doesn’t care. “It would be concerning to me if it was a more respectable person,” Colina told Ladra. “A vast majority of the people know who Carollo is and know that the majority of the things that come out of his mouth are inaccurate or biased or just self-serving.”
Current colleagues also mentioned. Carollo is all aglow about Rosado, going on and on Wednesday about his “illustrious” swearing in on Tuesday. But two of them are regularly skewered: Commissioners Damian Pardo and Miguel Gabela. Carollo has gone so far as to call Gabela’s wife “La Llorona” — or the crybaby — after the woman showed up to a commission meeting and emotionally testified about being harassed and watched by Carollo and his goons. He also played a song by the same name.
It seems a bit childish at times. Like a high schooler podcasting in his garage.
Read related: Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo to lose appeal on $63.5 million judgement
The commissioner DJ also sometimes fills the space with this-day-in-history anecdotes. One recent Thursday, it was the anniversary of Hank Aaron’s 715th home run and also the release of both the movie Dancing with Wolves and the album The Joshua Tree. He played a little U2 that day, but he daily airs what must be theme songs of old western TV shows, like Bonanza.
He once played the theme to The Godfather on the day Marlon Brando was born. But he just had to mention how former Police Chief Art Acevedo — another regular target of Carollo’s — called the commission a mafia. He marked the birthdays of actor Doris Day, and singer Miguel Bose (he played “Amante Bandido”) and wishes people a Happy Feast Day on occasion.
On the day that Richard Nixon died, Carollo talked about meeting him and getting a campaign check for one of his campaigns. “It’s part of the memory I lived that nobody can take away from me.”
But he always has time for the rants. And when there’s not an election that he’s trying to influence, Carollo is always “reporting” on the undercover activity of the hidden Sandinistas and Chavistas in our midst, alleging that anyone who crosses him is laundering money for the Nicolas Maduro regime in Venezuela. He also constantly rages against the leftist Democrats trying to gain control of the city and hails President Donald Trump, trying to position himself as the Trump candidate in the mayoral election (But so is Diaz de la Portilla, who can’t stop campaigning on the “injustice” of the public corruption charges against him in 2023).
Carollo says on his show that the attempt to move the elections to November of next year is a scheme by “extreme leftist Democrats who want to get control of the city of Miami… by creating Biden districts.” He says any proposal to increase the number of districts is also a Democrat plot. And the lifetime term limits are an attempt to stop him from exposing the real corruption in the city.
In other words, Miami Al Dia is a lot like Carollo himself: There’s a conspiracy everywhere.
Ladra hates to admit this, but it makes for good radio. It’s very entertaining when Carollo gets all hot and bothered and starts to raise his voice in what definitely sounds like practiced outrage. His prolonged silences are just as dramatic. It’s radio theater from the golden age of radio. But it’s bad for you. Like drugs. Ladra might need an intervention.
It’s not the most responsible broadcast.
Luis Gutierrez, the program director for America Noticias Radio Miami, said that Carollo is not paid for his time nor does he pay for the hour himself. Gutierrez says that the commercials he brings pay for the hour and that if Ladra can secure $1,400 per show, or $20K a month, she could have one, too (which is a great idea Mr. Mike Fernandez! Let’s dare them to do it!)
Other sources, and just plain common sense, indicate that this is a quid pro quo for the $150,000 that Carollo had the city paid America TeVe, which was affiliated with America Radio Miami, to cover the New Year’s Eve bash at Bayfront Park. The money came out of the Bayfront Park Management Trust, where there is already an investigation into the commissioner’s alleged misspending of public funds for his private or political gain (same thing).
Read related: Miami paid $150K for one long Joe Carollo commercial on New Year’s Eve
In addition, the commissioner’s wife, Marjorie Carollo, is reportedly the “agent” who buys the air time, meaning she gets a commission, which is usually 15%. That means that if Carollo’s political action committee spent $500,000 on radio ads on the show, which could be a conservative guess, the couple got $75,000 in commission 0ver the 43-day election cycle for the special election that ended June 3. Nice little gig, right?
Gutierrez said he did run it through legal and Carollo’s airtime doesn’t violate any federal rules, “as long as he’s off he air by September,” which is when and if Carollo qualifies for the mayor’s race. If the commission doesn’t move it to 2026 (more on that later).
In the meantime, “If an opposing candidate wants equal time, we’ll take the money. I don’t have a problem with that,” Gutierrez told Political Cortadito. “This is straight business for me. I’m not on the right. I’m not on the left. I’m bipartisan — as long as the money keeps coming in.”
Ladra asked him if she could have an hour of time some mornings if Political Cortadito got enough commercial sponsors to pay $20,000 a month. That’s apparently the value of the “freebie” time Carollo is getting on the air. Could it be considered an “in-kind” donation to his campaign?
Gutierrez said he would have to ask Carlos Vasallo, the owner of the station, who is really good pals with Carollo, if they would put me on the air.
“I run the station but I don’t set the rules. And I would have to filter that through him,” Gutierrez said.
There will be an update when he gets back to me. But Ladra is not holding her breath.
Would you like to hear Ladra on the air? Give equal time to the truth and help unmask these liars on the air and in elected office? Help with a contribution to Political Cortadito. All funds will go to amplify the content here in every way possible. Thank you for your support!
The post Commissioner Joe Carollo freelances as ‘Miami Al Dia’ morning AM radio host appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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As always, there are winners and losers in every election that go beyond the candidates. As tradition, Political Cortadito has analyzed the campaigns and results of the special election last week in Miami’s District 4 to replace the late Manolo Reyes.
Ralph “Rafael” Rosado, an urban planning consultant and fired city manager of North Bay Village, is a winner, simply because he got 55% of the vote. But he’s also a loser, because only 11% of the eligible voters in D4 cast ballots and because he is now going to have to be a puppet vote for Commissioner Joe Carollo, who bankrolled his candidacy and ran his campaign.
And Jose Regalado, the former assistant building director and son of former Miami Mayor and current Miami-Dade Property Appraiser Tomas Regalado, and brother of Miami-Dade Commissioner Raquel Regalado, is a loser. He doesn’t win anything. Especially since he left a six-figure job as the number two at the city’s building department to run for office at the request of Reyes’ widow. Ouch.
And that brings Ladra to the list of other winners and losers.
The big winners are:
Topping this list, everyone agrees, is Carollo, whose horse made it across the finish line in first place. He bet big — some say he spent more than $800,000 through his political action committee — and is already gloating about the win. Está insoportable. And he’s going to have that third vote on so many things, including the Bayfront Park Management Trust, which he lost the chairmanship to Commissioner Miguel Gabela and which everyone expects Crazy Joe to take back, even though he is being investigated for misspending the agency’s funds. Carollo might even be able to go so far as stopping the investigation in its tracks.  This win also shows his strength in a potential run for mayor, which means he will get more money to replace what he spent.
Former Commissioner Marc Sarnoff, a lobbyist whose claws are still very deep into Miami government, just got another ally on the commission with Rosado’s election. Sarnoff was spotted at Rosado’s victory party Tuesday night. Will he get more taxpayer-paid contracts from the city? Ladra’s guess is yes.
Former City Attorney Victoria “Tricky Vicky” Mendez is celebrating Rosado’s victory. She is BFFs with Rosado’s wife, after all, and serves with him on their crooked Abuelo’s Foundation, which is a front to find homes to steal from vulnerable elderly residents to flip for a huge profit. Mendez, who could still be held liable for bad advice and other shenanigans at the city — and is representing Carollo anyway through a cushy job at the same law firm where Sarnoff works — just got additional protection for using the city for her real estate scam or any other shenanigans she may have pulled.
Read related: Lawsuit: Miami city attorney, husband ‘conspired,’ used city to flip property
Lying. Normally, Ladra does not include adjectives in the winners and losers circles post election, but this time it is different. Lying and scheming are also victors in this election because they will be seen as winning strategies that can be utilized again and again and again. Yes, it’s true that this may not be new. But it’s never been more blatant. Rosado lied to Ladra when he said that Carollo was “not there” and “not directing” a TV commercial he recorded a park. He couldn’t even admit to it after he was told that there was a video recording showing Carollo giving him instructions and Marjorie Carollo nearby holding a clipboard. He lied again when he said he was a lifetime resident of Miami (he used to live in Schenley Park) and then again when he said that he was independent and not being supported by any Miami commissioner. He’s a perpetual liar who is now a commissioner.
The big losers are:
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez thinks he’s won. But that’s because he’s a postalita without any calle. Suarez supported Rosado and got his dad, former Miami-Dade Commissioner Xavier Suarez, to hype up the Rosado team. Las malas lenguas say he wants pensions back on the table. But Baby X will soon find out — the hard way — that he stepped right into a trap. Carollo has him wrapped around his finger and will soon stab him in the back. Probably in public. Crazy Joe is famous for burning bridges with nuclear bombs. Remember the mayoral election in 1983 between Maurice Ferré and Xavier Suarez, when Carollo was set to endorse Ferré at a public event and then ranted against him instead, on the mics, accusing Ferré of being anti-Cuban (he was Puerto Rican).
Jose Regalado is not the only one in his family licking his wounds. The whole family is hurting. They are used to losses, of course. But Tomas Regalado is taking this one hard. It feels kinda personal to him. It is. Carollo went on the attack against the whole family, lashing out in very cruel and personal ways like only Joe Carollo can, or will. Raquel Regalado is more disappointed, but still laser focused on her county job. The day of the election she was at a county commission meeting and then a virtual Zoom update on the issues at the Coconut Grove Playhouse since part of it collapsed recently (more on that later). Tomas N. “Tommy” Regalado, who lost to Carollo in a crowded 2017 race, must be feeling a little deja vú.
The loss Tuesday must still be stinging the Reyes family, as well. They backed Regalado hard. Not only did Chacha Reyes, who was married to the late commissioner for decades but never recorded a commercial for him, do a radio spot urging voters to support Regalado, but her son, lobbyist Manny Reyes, helped Regalado raise money for his campaign. They made calls and walked. They may also feel party responsible for Jose Regalado’s sudden unemployment, because they were the ones who asked him to run and continue Manolo Reyes’ legacy.
Read related: Manolo Reyes’ widow comes out strong for Jose Regalado in D4 special election
Miguel Gabela is not sitting pretty. Did anybody see his face at the Rosado victory fete? He was not happy. Gabela supported Regalado and is the biggest thorn in Carollo’s side right now. He has had two special meetings to reach out and slap Carollo recently — one on the Bayfront Park Trust’s mismanagement and misspending and another on Carollo’s weaponization of government (more on that later). Ladra thinks he is going to be on the losing side of a lot of votes at the next meeting — and for the foreseeable future.
Miami voters citywide are also loser. This was a District 4 race but the ramifications will be felt by all Miamians in all corners. Pensions, lifetime term limits, the change of election year, the future of the Bayfront Park Trust and its moneys, the future of the city’s community redevelopment agencies, and particularly the Omni one, are in play. Residents from District 1, Gabela’s district, and District 2 — Carollo already hates Coconut Grove people — should be especially afraid.
That seems like a pretty complete list, but Ladra always forgets one or two. So, please feel free to add any winners and losers left out of this story in the comments below.
The post Political Cortadito’s Winners and Losers from Miami’s special District 4 election appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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Proposed change of election year is part of the ruse
There’s a new political action committee in town. It was formed late last month, just in time to get involved at the last minute in the special election in Miami’s District 4 to replace the late Commissioner Manolo Reyes, which was won Tuesday by the PAC’s chosen candidate, Ralph Rosado.
But that might just be the beginning.
Floridians for Good Government filed paperwork with the Florida Division of Elections last month, naming Raul Diaz as its chairman and Jose “Pepe” Riesco as the treasurer. Diaz and Riesco also play the same roles at Miamians for Sensible Government, another PAC that has worked with Jesse Manzano , Rosado’s campaign manager, and gotten $35,000 from Miami For Everyone, which is the PAC for Miami Mayor Francis Suarez.
So it’s safe to say that Floridians for Good Government is another Baby X PAC.

And it’s also likely that it will be used not just for the D4 campaign, but to fight against the referendum question that may be put on the ballot for the lifetime term limits, which would strengthen current term limits by prohibit electeds from skipping one term and coming right back.
Because Rosado’s support of the term limits and the ultimatum from Suarez to change the election date first are all part of the ruse.
Here’s how it goes:
Las malas lenguas say that Suarez threatened, through proxies, to veto the lifetime term limits unless the sponsor, Commissioner Damian Pardo — who looks like he is being fooled, maybe again — agrees to move the elections to even numbered years, which would extend everybody’s terms by a year and has already been threatened by legal action by at least two of the 2025 candidates (more on that later). Lo and behold, Pardo announced Wednesday morning — the day after newly-elected commissioner Rosado won his special election in District 4 — that he was going to put it on the agenda for the next meeting, June 12, at the same time as the term limits. He had said earlier they would be discussed at different meetings because they are not connected.
Bullshit.
Read related: Ralph Rosado and Joe Carollo beat Jose Regalado in Miami D4 special election
The mayor wants another year to campaign for Florida governor or whatever is next, because he has no place to go right now. The anxiously expected ambassadorship to Saudi Arabia is seemingly not a thing, so he’ll hang out as a postalita, no-show mayor and benefit from his public role and documented side gigs as much as possible..
Carollo could get 12 more months of taxpayer paid legal representation on his multiple lawsuits and can always run for mayor next year — even though, this year, he could very well be the frontrunner with the current clown car of candidates.
Because, here’s the thing, they have no intention of letting lifetime term limits become reality. The change in the election can be done by ordinance, in the next month or so before qualifying in September. Rosado has already said he is in favor of it. He’s also said he is open to the idea of the lifetime term limits, but wants to hear from his new colleagues, which means he likes Chairwoman Christine King‘s idea of making former electeds wait two terms before they can run for the same office again.
Either way, any enhanced or expanded term limits — watered down or not — have to be approved by voters. And that is something that can be fought in the court of public opinion. The campaign consultants that work for Carollo — and Carollo himself, who makes money off every campaign — is banking on it.
The stated purpose or scope of Floridians For Good Government is “to support or oppose candidate and ballot.” It looks like the word “question” was left off at the end of that sentence.
Ladra is 99% certain that this PAC is going to be used to push a no vote on the lifetime term limits. Sources have said that Suarez and Carollo are both making calls to raise money for it. With enough dollars, they can define the charter change as an unnecessary communist move to limit voters’ choices — or something like that. And an obvious sure thing gets completely muddied and instantly becomes a wedge issue.
The PAC is also affiliating itself with President Donald Trump and his “Make America Great Again” slogan. The D4 special election mail had the slogan matched with Rosado’s name and “Make District 4 Great Again.” This works with a lot of Miami voters and is likely to be the tone of several campaigns this year — or next.
Read related: Miami commissioners could extend terms, gain a year for themselves, mayor
Once the lifetime term limits are rejected by voters, it’s too late to change the election back. That boat will have sailed. So Pardo’s concept of sacrifice — that it’s worth another year of Carollo to get rid of him for good — might not really be worth the risk. Because it may not work out that way.
Floridians For Good Government will have to file two campaign finance reports between now and the November election, where the lifetime term limits could be on the ballot. One is in July and the other is in October, for the second and third quarter of the year.
Ladra will be on top of that to shine a light on who is backing, and who could benefit, from extending the current electeds’ terms by a year.
It is more important than ever to be all over the Miami city commission like black on beans. Like green on grass. Like bees on sweet. Like government money on a bad idea. Help Ladra stay on top of the commission’s moves and antics with a donation today to Political Cortadito. Thank you for your support!
The post New PAC forms for Miami D4 election and, likely, vs. lifetime term limits appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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Evil triumphed over good on Tuesday in the rushed, special election for Miami commission in District 4, to replace the late Commissioner Manolo Reyes., who must be rolling in his grave.
Ralph “Rafael” Rosado, an urban planning consultant and compulsive liar whose campaign was run and funded by Commissioner Joe Carollo, beat Jose Francisco Regalado, who left a really good job at the city’s building department at the request of Reyes’ family to follow his own family’s footsteps into public office.
Which means that Carollo will now get his third vote for the majority and will wield that baton with the same penchant for level-headed justice and service to others that he always has shown. Okay, stop laughing. Because it is not funny that it will be the exact opposite — political retaliation and personal benefit all the way.
Read related: Miami District 4 race is a referendum on Joe Carollo and his abuse of power
The election wasn’t even close, really. Rosado got 55% of the vote to Regalado’s 45%. With less than 11.5% of the 46,500 eligible voters in District 4, Rosado (or, better said, Carollo) won across the board — absentee or vote-by-mail ballots, early voting and Election Day votes, though by a larger margin with the ABs.
The negative tone of a relentless campaign against Regalado and his family waged by Carollo in mailers, TV ads and on the radio — could have turned people off and suppressed turnout, which was also dampened by the rain on Election Day.

Carollo likely spent hundreds of thousands of dollars from his Miami First political action committee to get Rosado elected. We won’t know how much until July, because PACs only have to report quarterly not every month. But some longtime political observers have said it could be up to or more than $1 million.
Regalado raised and spent more transparent money from his campaign, with almost $191,000 compared to $79,500 raised by Rosado, reported through May 29, according to the latest campaign finance reports.
Rosado reported raising absolutely nothing in one recent report. Because he didn’t have to raise money. Carollo was pouring money from his PAC into Rosado’s campaign, mostly attacking Regalado and his family, which includes his father, former Miami Mayor and Miami-Dade Property Appraiser Tomas Regalado, sister Raquel Regalado a Miami-Dade Commission and former Miami-Dade School Board member, and brother Tomas N. “Tommy” Regalado, a journalist who ran for the commission seat in District 3 in 2017 and lost.
They weren’t just bashed on the dynasty thing, que ya cae mal. They were called communists and drug dealers and professional campaigners, which is funny because that’s exactly what Carollo is. Crazy Joe, who has a history as a wife beater, also got personal on his daily morning radio show, attacking Raquel Regalado’s son, who despite having autism is a data processor and works, like a lot of autistic individuals, and Tomas Regalado’s supposed romantic dalliances. It was very ugly.
This 43-day election cycle made way for one of the nastiest Miami campaigns Ladra has seen. And that’s saying a lot.
Read related: Miami’s District 4 candidate Ralph Rosado is backed, helped by Joe Carollo
Rosado tried to distance himself from Carollo and has told everyone that he is going to prove he is independent, even though it appears he owes his victory to Crazy Joe, who was at the newly-elected commissioner’s watch party at El Atlacatl, a Salvadoran restaurant on Calle Ocho.
So was former City Attorney Victoria “Tricky Vicky” Mendez, Rosado’s BFF, who was fired last year after several controversies — including her family’s involvement in basically stealing homes from elderly residents and flipping them for huge profits.
So was Beba Sardiñas Mann, the president of the Crazy Joe Pollo Carollo Fan Club, who said she had an unbiased “forum” for candidates (it was really an ambush), and who will now be able to get her illegal street closures in Silver Bluff, the ones that were forcibly removed by the county after a court fight in 2023 (more on that later).
Also there: Former Miami-Dade Commissioner Xavier Suarez, who was the first Cuban-born mayor of Miami, Miami-Dade Tax Collector Dariel Fernandez, Brickell Homeowners Association President Ernesto Cuesta, Downtown Neighbors Association President James Torres, who has been accused of aligning with Carollo against Pardo, who was also there along with Commission Chairwoman Christine King.
Commissioner Miguel Gabela, who actively helped Regalado during the campaign, was also there. But he didn’t look as happy as Pardo did.
While there were promises of being congenial and working with all the commissioners, Carollo already lashed out at Gabela on Univision 23 Miami, and Ladra feels Mike will be on the losing side of the vote for the near future.
Rosado will have his first chance to show his supposed independence next week at the June 12 commission meeting, which promises to be a doozy after the last commission meeting ended abruptly in chaos when Carollo and Gabela went after each other verbally. But not with the lifetime term limits ballot question which is on the agenda. That’s a ruse (more on that later).
There are other things to watch where he is going to be Carollo’s puppet pocket swing vote, like the street closures at 22 locations in Silver Bluff, which is also on this Tuesday’s agenda.
Other items on the agenda include the sale and development of condos and a waterfront park on Watson Island, a no-bid concession agreement for Miami Marine Stadium and a presentation by the Miami Downtown Development Authority, which has come under fire recently for some of the six figure checks they give to billion dollar brands and which some residents want to abolish, trying to justify its existence.
Read related: Effort to dissolve Miami DDA cites ‘bloated’ salaries, redundancy, UFC gift
The term limits, which is proposed by Commissioner Damian Pardo, would prohibit anyone who has served the maximum terms as commissioner or mayor to run for that seat again in the future. Right now, an elected can skip a term or two and run again, like former Commissioner Frank Carollo, Crazy Joe’s bro, is doing this year in District 3.
If voters pass the lifetime limits, which seems easy enough, it could stop Carollo from running for mayor, as he has threatened to do this year, because he already served the maximum terms. There’s also a controversial proposal coming to move the election to even years, extending current terms by a year, which is also on the agenda, just not this agenda for next week (more on that later). This is being proposed under the guise of avoiding a legal challenge if either of the Carollos are elected this year at the same time the charter amendment on lifetime term limits are approved.
Carollo and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who also supported Rosado, have both come out against the lifetime term limits. Suarez would also be barred from running for mayor or for commissioner, since he served the maximum terms in both posts.
Rosado has publicly said that he generally likes the idea of the lifetime term limits. But he has also waffled on it and said he wants to hear the debate from his colleagues — as if they haven’t talked about it enough. More likely, he will support the watered down version that King has floated about forcing electeds to wait out two terms instead of just one before running again.
Because he knows that his buddies Carollo and Suarez — another unlikely pair of strange political bedfellows — are already raising money to fight it and push a no vote (more on that next).
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The post Ralph Rosado and Joe Carollo beat Jose Regalado in Miami D4 special election appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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And the voters’ decision could mark the city’s future
The fate of Miami over the next decade is in the hands of a tiny number of people.
There are 46,730 registered voters in city commission District 4. Of those, only 3,632 have voted via absentee or vote-by-mail ballot (2,298) and the three days of early voting (1,334) that ended Sunday. Turnout is not expected to be very much above 10%, if it reaches that. If 5,000 people vote, that means that .01 percent of the population of the city of Miami will decide the victor.
And while it’s just a D4 race — for voters from Flagami, Coral Gate, Shenandoah and other neighborhoods — whoever wins Tuesday will decide the future of the whole city — with immediate votes on lifetime term limits, moving the election to even years and whether or not to continue an investigation into the improper and possibly illegal expenditures of the Bayfront Park Management Trust.
Read related: Miami’s District 4 candidate Ralph Rosado is backed, helped by Joe Carollo
It could also decide whether or not Commissioner Joe Carollo, who was the chair of the Trust and is the subject of the investigation and a lawsuit for wrongful termination, stays in power for eight more years.

If Carollo’s candidate, urban planner and former Bay Harbor Islands manager Ralph Rosado — who was forced to resign before he got fired — beats former Miami Assistant Building Director Jose Regalado, the son and brother of two famous Miami-Dade electeds, then Carollo will have the third vote, the majority he needs to move his agenda along.
And to retaliate against those who cross him.
Read related: Ralph Rosado is a fraud, liar, puppet trying to become Miami commissioner
He will ditch Commissioner Miguel Gabela‘s chairmanship of the Bayfront Trust and put himself back in charge before the forensic audit and investigation finds any more of his abuse of the public funds, and possible criminal conduct. He will kill the lifetime term limits, which would block him from running for mayor again. And also kill the moving of the elections to even years, because he has a much better chance against the current clown car of candidates than he would in 2026 (more on that later).
Carollo will wreak havoc on the commission with the majority, which he could maintain if he becomes mayor. ¡Solavaya!
But if Regalado wins, then he will likely side with Gabela and Commissioner Damian Pardo on the lifetime term limits and moving the elections and a number of other reformist issues — like limiting outside legal counsel costs for commissioners (read: Carollo) — that would drive Crazy Joe more loco. In fact, it could be fun to watch Carollo get thwarted and repeated frustrated by a lack of majority (read: power) to do anything on the commission. Karma in action.
This is why the race has turned into a referendum on Carollo. Three other potential mayoral candidates — Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins, former Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla and former Miami city manager Emilio Gonzalez — have been supporting Regalado (more on that later).
Read related: Commissioner Miguel Gabela set to expose more Bayfront Park Trust issues
Higgins went on Actualidad 1260 AM morning radio last week to endorse Regalado. Gonzalez has been campaigning in District 4 more than anywhere else and spreading Regalado’s platform as well as his own. And ADLP — who has also been campaigning in District 4 and was at early voting every day —  even has a mailer or handout that tells voters to pick Regalado, paid for by his political action committee. He was seen by many hanging out with the Regalado team — including Miami-Dade Commissioner Raquel Regalado and Property Appraiser Tomas Regalado — at early voting Sunday at the Shenandoah branch library.
It seems that in this race, you are with Team Regalado or Team Carollo, who has been directing Rosado’s campaign and using his own political action committee to pay for mailers and TV ads.
There is a reason why Carollo is spending hundreds of thousands — some observers say up to a million — to push Rosado’s election. There is a reason why he attacks the whole Regalado family and campaigns passionately and aggressively for Rosado in every morning radio show he hosts (more on that later). It is in his own best interest. Rosado has already come out against moving the elections, which would extend the current terms a year and against term limits, so that Carollo can run next year instead.
Meanwhile, he’ll get the Bayfront Trust back and its millions to misspend and giveaway to his cronies for another year.
In other words, Carollo’s very existence depends on Rosado’s election Tuesday.
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The post Miami District 4 race is a referendum on Joe Carollo and his abuse of power appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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