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).
It is more important as 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 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.
For more city of Miami campaign and government news, support your local political watchdog by making a contribution today to Political Cordito. Thank you for your encouragement!
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Politics makes for strange bedfellows. And never has that saying been so spot on about local politics than it is now, with the sides lining up behind Jose Regalado or behind Ralph Rosado in the nasty, negative District 4 Miami Commission race to replace Manolo Reyes.
The saying is really an abstract of a literary quotation — “Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows” — from William Shakespeare’s The Tempest (written in 1611). It is a proverbial phrase from the mid 19th century used to express when “political alliances in a common cause may bring together those of widely differing views.”
Yeah, that’s what’s happening.
Read related: Manolo Reyes’ widow comes out strong for Jose Regalado in D4 special election
That’s why former Miami-Dade Commissioner Xavier Suarez was at early voting hyping up Rosado, who will vote for changing the elections to even years, which is what his son, Mayor Francis Suarez wants, to extend his term a year. It is also what Commissioner Joe Carollo — who has been running and funding Rosado’s campaign — secretly wants, so he can get the city to keep paying his mounting legal bills.

That’s why former Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla — whose charges on public corruption were dropped not even a year ago — was spotted chatting up Team Regalado during early voting, including the candidate’s sister, Miami-Dade Commissioner Raquel Regalado, and their papi, Miami-Dade Tomas Regalado. ADLP has threatened to run for Miami mayor against a clown car of candidates that includes Carollo, who needs Rosado’s third puppet vote on the commission.
Diaz de la Portilla doesn’t do anything without his own benefit in mind, so he’s also the surest sign that Regalado is doing well. ADLP has been focusing his campaign lately on District 4, delivering mameys to engaged voters and, apparently, gathering intel on the D4 special election. He wouldn’t be behind Regalado if he didn’t think Regalado was going to win.
That’s why he sent a mail piece to voters, paid for by his political action committee, Proven Leadership for Miami-Dade County, calling Regalado “our future commissioner,” and saying that he “understands our values.”
Read related: Miami’s District 4 candidate Ralph Rosado is backed, helped by Joe Carollo
“Unfounded attacks, on behalf of people with no positive history in our community, will never erase a public service history of transparency, honesty, effectiveness and success,” the mailer says in Spanish. “They attack Jose Regalado as if you haven’t been present in our City of Miami District 4 and didn’t know his history, as if you didn’t understand the difference between dedication and the scandals of those who defame him.”
Yeah, it’s a little extra.

Watch Diaz de la Portilla tell everyone Tuesday night that he got Regalado elected.
Either that or it’s a ruse. ADLP really should be a political pariah after his 2023 arrest on political corruption charges — including bribery and money laundering — in the scheme to give away a public park to the owners of a private school that had funneled more than $245,000 into his political action committee. Even though the charges were dropped last year by the Broward State Attorney’s office — because he is not elected by Miami-Dade voters — there is nothing to suggest that it didn’t happen. Why would his endorsement be positive?
In fact, it’s already been used by Team Rosado to take the heat off Carollo. I mean, ADLP has to be just as bad, right? It takes som pressure off the cooties Rosado gets from his Crazy Joe association. It’s almost like it’s intentional.
Then there is that meh mailer. Diaz de la Portilla spent good money on a positive piece about Regalado when he could have done a hit piece on Rosado’s myriad conflicts of interests or his blatant lying or about his getting fired from North Bay Village or being pally wally with former City Attorney Victoria “Tricky Vicky” Mendez. It seems like a waste of his talents.
The Regalado campaign told Political Cortadito that they are not accepting any endorsements, but welcome all well-wishers.
Former Miami City Manager Emilio Gonzalez, who is also running for mayor, has also been walking and knocking in District 4 and, reportedly, pushing for Regalado as well as himself. Or maybe he’s also reading los caracoles and wants to be aligned with the winner. Another announced mayoral candidate, Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins — who is not, like, besties with Raquel Regalado on their dais — endorsed Jose Regalado last week on Spanish language radio.
That’s just the anti-Joe sentiment. And it’s sorta normal.
Read related: In Miami D4 race, Jose Regalado strikes back at Ralph Rosado’s lies on air, mail
But it is weird for Ladra to see someone like Xavier Suarez aligned with Carollo. And he knows it.
“I think they’re both qualified. Maybe Rosado is a little bit more qualified,” said Suarez, who was elected the first Cuban-born mayor of Miami — and served from 1985 to 1993 and then again for a few months in 1997 and 1998, when that election was overturned after evidence of absentee ballot fraud — before he was county commissioner in District 7, preceding Raquel Regalado. (Yeah, we need a flow chart for this one.)
“He was responsive and the other guy wasn’t,” the elder Suarez told Political Cortadito, adding that he tried to reach Regalado about the proposed tree ordinance when the latter was assistant director of the city’s building department. “I couldn’t get a call back,” he said, adding that a friend gave him sage advice: “You can’t base your support on who else is supporting that person.
“If I knew it was based on some sort of deal, it would be different.”
It’s hard for Ladra to believe X is that naive, still. Because if it’s Carollo, it is based on some sort of deal.
The post Strange political bedfellows form from Miami’s ugly District 4 special election appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo stood Ladra up Wednesday. Or, rather, set me up.
It was awfully suspicious that Carollo would agree to grant Political Cortadito an interview after the hostilities he’s expressed, the names he’s called me, even saying from the dais that Ladra was paid to attack him. For the record, I do it for free because it’s so easy and fun and important.
But if one is a serious political blogger, one cannot turn down an opportunity to interview Carollo face to face. There were so many questions to ask that I made a list. The easy, “friendly,” questions would come first, and get increasingly — er, pointe? Difficult? Hostile? — before he would toss me out. That’s how I envisioned it. Was Ladra nervous? Yes. But I was more excited.
And, apparently, naive.
Ladra should have known it was a ruse, but it wasn’t Carollo himself who invited Political Cortadito to his district office Wednesday. It was his communications director, Karen Caballero, who I thought was a respected journalist herself at one point. Ladra found out about the commissioner’s Monday press conference too late to attend. So, I called and texted Caballero to get the documents he had distributed to the press. She didn’t answer. I texted again on Tuesday, after someone spotted her sitting next to Carollo in the audience in commission chambers during Commissioner Miguel Gabela‘s emergency Bayfront Park Management Trust meeting.
A few hours later, she texted back.
“Good afternoon Ms. de Valle. I hope this message finds you well,” she wrote. “The commissioner mentioned that he will make time to meet with you at the district office. Please let me know if you are available to come by today or tomorrow. Thank you.”
Could this really be serious? Ladra thought to herself.
We arranged for a time and Caballero gave me the address. And Ladra nearly jumped out of her gaming chair (which is the best desk chair I’ve ever had; try it!)
Read related: Miami Commission clash: Miguel Gabela vs Joe Carollo war heats up
On Wednesday, an hour before the fake meeting, as I prepared to get into the car and make my way from Kendall to Little Havana , I called Caballero and spoke to her on the phone. To confirm the meeting was still going to happen. She said the meeting was still on, but she would not be there. The commissioner will be there? Yes, she said. I imagined with other staffers, not alone.
When I arrived at the district office, which used to be the Little Havana Neighborhood Enhancement Team branch, it was locked. Am I the only one who thinks it’s strange to have a public building locked on a weekday afternoon? I rang the bell and announced myself. I sure did have an appointment!
Then this guy comes from around the corner, asking who I was. He looked familiar and carried some papers in his hand. Immediately, I knew. I was duped. Carollo wasn’t going to meet with me. This was the purpose of the “meeting” all along.
The process server’s name is Jose Mejia and he was awfully nice. (You can watch our interaction on Political Cortadito’s new TikTok platform.) They all have been, really. He said they had been trying to serve me but couldn’t. That is weird since I’ve been served at my home, twice in recent months. We gave the last guy a cold can of Coke. So, I thought, finally, Carollo is serving me with some cease and desist or defamation motion.
Read related: Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo served with court summons in meeting
It happens. Corrupt politicians don’t like to be called out and try to silence their critics using the courts. It never sticks.
Anyway, guess what? It wasn’t Carollo’s subpoena. It was one from Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago, calling me as a witness  in his lawsuit against Actualidad, in which he is trying to go after all his critics (more on that later). Basically, he wants all my communications with anyone regarding the story in Political Cortadito about his false affidavit on not having any family members involved in the Little Gables annexation interests.
But what’s really important here isn’t that Ladra got tricked into going to a meeting that was a ruse all along by an elected official and one of his public payroll staffers. While that is sorta rude, my readers will understand that I had no choice and are likely to find it funny. I did.
No, the important thing is that Carollo and a staffer, his press secretary, knowingly lured a journalist to a public building, which belongs to the taxpayers Ladra informs, in order to dramatically serve a subpoena — they could have come to my home — from a mayor in a neighboring city. How is that ethical?
What kind of deal did Carollo — who was at Lago’s election night victory party at Wolfe’s Wine Shoppe on Miracle Mile last month — make to be the lead in this con? What has Lago promised in return?
They do share an attorney. Mason Portnoy, who is former Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff‘s litigation lapdog (Marc can’t litigate but he can get business, because he knows a lot of shady people; Mason can’t get business but he can litigate), represents Carollo in some matters and was at Tuesday’s Bayfront Trust meeting to try to stop it from happening (more on that later). Maybe Caballero showed him my texts and the scheme was born. Portnoy also represents Lago in the threatened lawsuit against Ladra that never materialized after I refused to take down to post or write a retraction.
Read related: Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago and chief of staff threaten to sue Ladra
Ladra has called both Carollo and Caballero five or six times each since Wednesday. I’ve left specific messages asking them what happened. I texted Caballero specifically asking her about her role in the whole scam. There has been no answer. Silence.
First, they stood me up. Now they are ghosting me. Typical Miami relationship.
The post Joe Carollo and staff set Ladra up to serve Vince Lago’s newest subpoena appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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The political battle between Miami commissioners Joe Carollo and Miguel Gabela — which began in earnest after Gabela took the chairmanship of the Bayfront Park Management Trust from Crazy Joe — erupted into a full blown war this week with several bombs launched. It culminated Thursday at a city commission meeting where Gabela’s wife accused Carollo of, basically, stalking them, and, after which, Chairwoman Christine King, like a frustrated parent with unruly kids, stopped the meeting abruptly.
Like a cease fire.
Nothing from the agenda — aside from the presentations and accolades — got done. Nothing.
And poor Loco Pollo Carollo — smiling and satisfied like the cat that ate the canary — had only just gotten there, after leaving his chair empty throughout the entire public comments period, during which Mariela Gabela said he and his staff were harassing her. Yes, that’s Mrs. Gabela, the commissioner’s wife.
Read related: Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo loses Bayfront Park Trust to Miguel Gabela
“He’s messing with my livelihood. He’s been messing with my livelihood since 2023,” Mariela Gabela said, coming to tears and pointing at the empty seat where Carollo should have been. “He has a person outside my house watching me night and day. He has the sergeant of arms over here taking photos of me and watching me day and night. I’m the wife of an elected official, and that guy over there is always watching me and his employees are always taking photos of me.
“This is not a communist country!”

This all actually started on Monday, when Carollo hastily called a press conference to make shit up about both Jose Regalado — the former assistant building director who is running for District 4 commissioner against his puppet candidate (more on that later) — and Gabela, who was made the chairman of the Bayfront Park Management Trust after Crazy Joe was accused of misspending the agency’s budget like a slush fund and was stripped of the title.
The press conference was really a pre-emption of Tuesday’s announced “emergency” meeting of the Bayfront Trust, which Carollo just knew was going to be all about his malfeasance, which it was.
Carollo, who has been known to have people followed and surveilled, distributed satellite photos of Gabela’s house with cars parked on the property and boats in the Miami River behind it. The accusations of code enforcement violations didn’t get much press traction, so he had his Chief of Staff William “Billy” Ortiz send an official complaint to the city manager, which Gabela mentioned on Thursday.
So, Carollo’s press conference was nothing more than trying to set the narrative before Gabela was able to blast his actions on the Trust. Because on Tuesday, two bombs dropped: Gabela had both Cristina Palomo, the former Bayfront Trust board member who resigned because of the Dogs and Cats giveaway, and former Bayfront Trust Executive Director Jose Suarez, who has accused Carollo of misspending hundreds of thousands of dollars — maybe millions — and is suing him and the city for pressuring him to resign.
The meeting was an indictment of Carollo, who was there and tried in vain to defend himself (more on that later). And there is now an ongoing forensic audit and investigation into the use of the Trust funds for Carollo’s personal gain, Gabela said.
Read related: Commissioner Miguel Gabela set to expose more Bayfront Park Trust issues
This alone, is enough of a story to set alarms on fire. There should already have been an investigation.
Then, at Thursday’s meeting, Gabela had a discussion item on the agenda to prohibit electeds from weaponizing any city department — akin to the resolution that Carollo passed that does not allow the city’s police department to investigate them. But when King announced that she would be leaving early, Gabela wanted to take it out of order. She said she would go in order.
“No, no, no. I need your vote. We need to do this because I’ve been targeted by the City of Miami code enforcement department through the city manager because of doing my job on the Bayfront Trust and Commissioner Carollo is harassing me,” Gabela said, while King, who has increasingly been seen as Carollo’s protector, kept interrupting him. She wouldn’t have it.

“He wants my house to be investigated when I have done noth… No, ma’am. No, ma’am. I know what’s going on here. I’ll tell you what. If we don’t do this, I’m leaving right now.”
King called a recess that ended up being permanent. Hopefully, things will get done at the next meeting. Because there is a lot to get done.
Gabela was unapologetic when he spoke to Ladra on Friday.
Read related: Joe Carollo wants to abolish Miami’s Bayfront Park Management Trust
“We’ve had people following us since 2023,” Gabela said, referring to his campaign before he was even elected. Back then, however, we thought it was former Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla who was behind it. He was running against Gabela after being suspended by the governor after his arrest on public corruption charges, including bribery and money laundering, that were later dropped. But Gabela says it’s part of the same cabal.
He also knows that Carollo is trying to derail the results of the Bayfront Trust investigation and change the narrative, which is not going to be good for him.
“This is his way to intimidate people. This is his way of coming after me,” Gabela told Ladra. “He is freaked out. He is scared. We hit a couple of bombs but haven’t hit the nuclear bomb yet.”
But we all know it’s there, don’t we? Where’s the fallout shelter?
The cease fire was also short-lived. There will be a Sunshine meeting in commission chambers on May 30 on “the weaponization of city government.” That’s going to be another indictment on Carollo.
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