Former Congressman David Rivera is going back to his roots.

Rivera told everyone earlier this month that he was running for state House in the seat abandoned by Rep. Frank Artiles (R-Kendall), who is leaving his final term to run for the Senate.

There’s even a kick-off fundraiser Tuesday at one of his old haunts, Cuban Crafters, owned by former State Rep. and Sen. Al Gutman.

Rivera is serious about House District 118. It overlaps with the area he represented in Congress for two years and also includes much of the area he ruled as a state rep from 2003 to 2011.

Those were the glory days, huh? Rivera was pals and roomies with Sen. Marco Rubio, then a House Speaker and future presidential contender. He had both more success and fun as a state rep than he did in D.C. He still hangs around in Tallahassee a lot, where he does God knows what. “Consulting,” he calls it. Deals, I think. And reminiscing. He would love nothing more than to return to the original chamber he served in.

And it’s not unimaginable.

Read related story: David Rivera collects petition signatures for 2016 House run

Sure, Rivera lost his congressional seat to Joe Garcia in 2012, but he was dogged by headlines and news reports of an investigation into campaign finance violations –– not bribery or graft or any real crime — that seems to have never bore any fruit and has apparently fizzled away. Sources say the U.S. Attorney is loathe to call the case on his one and only witness, the somewhat unstable (read: batshit crazy) Ana Alliegro, who has apparently resurfaced with a story about Rivera attacking her when he was with friends in Tally. They can’t call her now.

And sure, Rivera has a primary to get through first. There are already two other Republicans running for that seat.

One is Anthony Rodriguez, who Ladra believes is Artiles’ handpicked successor. It’s just a gut feeling. That and this picture from one of the representative’s self-serving Farm Share events.

And then there is a guy named Steven Rojas Tallon, a 33-year-old father of four who nonetheless has time to work as some kind of program lead for talent development at FIU in an initiative with the Beacon Council and also still serve on the county board tasked with overseeing the $2.8 billion general obligation bond. Quien es la palanca?

And — just to make things more interesting — there is the rumor that former Miami-Dade Commissioner Lynda Bell is going to jump into this race for House 118. She is probably salivating at the possibility and some say she may announce next month.

And sure, the last time Rivera was in a primary, he lost miserably, coming in a distant fourth behind Carlos Curbelo, Joe Martinez and Ed MacDougall in the congressional race for his old seat. He only got 8 percent, less than half of what MacDougall, the anglo former mayor of Cutler Bay, got. Que pena!

But this is a different voter geography. Bell and Rodriguez and Rojas Tallon could somehow split the anti-Rivera votes between them, and Rivera could slide into the general with his very deep base of loyalists and face off against the relatively unknown Robert Asencio, a former Miami-Dade Schools Police lieutenant and public labor champion who has already spent $12,000 of the $20K he has raised in a year.

Read related story: David Rivera has no past, only a future at Cuba Nostalgia

And sure, Obama won the district with 51.7 percent of the vote in 2012.

But people keep forgetting that Obama is not on the ticket. And Hillary isn’t as inspiring. Also, another Democrat ran in 2014, one recruited by the party who should have performed very well. But he was crushed in an off year with Artiles getting 58 percent of the vote — almost ten points more than Gov. Rick Scott only got, which indicates that voters are willing to vote for a Democrat in one race and a Republican in another on the same ballot.

And we’re talking about David Rivera here. The Teflon Man. Ol’ Nine Lives, himself.

Ladra will start taking bets now.

Why is everybody so shocked that U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo said he would vote for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump? Ladra is not surprised.

No, it is not because there are a bunch of other Republicans who are casting protest #NeverTrump votes for that evil woman they can’t stand to even look at. Yes, it’s happening, loyalists. Shudder and wince all you want. This year will be record breaking for the number of Republican registered voters who will vote for the Democrat.

Read related story: Some say ‘Bye Marco, Hello Hillary’ because #NeverTrump 

But, no, that’s not it. Ladra is not surprised because Carlos Curbelo has always been a Democrat in disguise.

We wrote about it back last fall after he practically begged to go on Air Force One with President Barack Obama and later posed all giddy with Vice President Joe Biden. The Rino has crossed the aisle to vote possibly more than any other Republican. He has the support of several local Democrats like Florida City Mayor Otis Wallace.

And remember how giddy he got supporting former Gov. Charlie Crist, who had been a Democrat five minutes earlier, against Sen. Marco Rubio?

How far a stretch could it be for him to vote with the Democrats on Election Day?

In fact, the only thing that’s really weird about it is that, well, if he believes his own conspiracy theory about Trump only being in the race to help Hillary, he has now fallen for the trick.

This all came to light after CBS4’s Jim DeFede caught a glimpse of a post on a Key West woman’s Facebook page in which she said Curbelo, who she took a selfie with, told her he would vote for La Clinton.

Of course, he didn’t readily admit that to DeFede on Thursday when the reporter asked him. He hemmed ad hawed and said both Hillary and Donald are “very flawed candidates” that the majority of Americans do not like.

Read related story: Is Carlos Curbelo a Democrat in disguise?

By Friday, he was back-pedaling a little bit.

“I have no intention of supporting either of them for president of United States,” he said on Fernand Amandi’s radio show on WIOD 610 AM.

Maybe Curbelo, who is facing hardly a primary challenge from Jose Peixoto — who has spent all the $27,600 he mustered up, mostly his own money — was looking ahead to the general when he has to appeal to Democrats and Independents if he hopes to defend his seat in a rematch against former Congressman Joe Garcia, who, funny enough, has been trying to tie Curbelo to Trump.

“I know Curbelo tweets he opposes Trump, but we need a congressman who also opposes Trump’s vision, and votes that way,” Garcia said in a statement released earlier this month with a table graphic that shows the Crybaby’s similarities to Trump.

Ooooooooooooh. Is that what happened?

Joe Garcia tries to smear Curbelo with The Donald’s stink, and this is how Curbelo reacts? By promoting Hillary?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Karma works in politics, too.

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