DEVELOPING STORY: Coral Gables Commissioner Jorge Fors, who is in a heated runoff for the Miami-Dade Commission seat in District 6, has filed a lawsuit against his opponent, GOP political operative Kevin Marino Cabrera, over what he says are lies and “doctored images” of Fors in a series of mailers.

“I won my current seat in 2019. I know South Florida political campaigns can get ugly, but this is beyond the pale. Enough is enough,” Fors said in a statement. “Cabrera showed us he will do or say anything, even outright lies, to get elected.”

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In addition to the candidates, there are always other people, groups, institutions that win — or lose — in every single election. Without further ado, here are the most obvious winners and losers from Tuesday’s Miami-Dade primary.

Winners:

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When did we decide that forums were better than debates? And why? Spoiler: They’re not.

The first commission candidate forum put on by The Miami Foundation was boring enough that Ladra recommends a recording, if they have one, but only for anyone having trouble getting to sleep. Yawn.

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Several candidates try to fool voters with photos and fake ‘voter guides’

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Sure, there are four candidates in the Miami-Dade Commission race to replace longtime Commissioner Rebeca Sosa in District 6. But it’s really a head-to-head between Coral Gables Commissioner Jorge Fors and political operative Kevin Marino Cabrera.

And it looks like it’s headed to be the most heated of the county commission contests.

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What is possibly the nastiest race ever in the city of Coral Gables ended Tuesday with the election of a lawbreaking newcomer who used a shadow Trojan political action committee to attack his opponent with lies.
Attorney Jorge Fors beat former Commissioner Ralph Cabrera, 51% to 49% with a 173-vote lead, which is not a mandate but enough to win the seat. Only provisional ballots remain to be counted, but the gap seems too wide for it to make a true difference.
It was close all the way to the end and Cabrera never came close to the 753-vote lead he had on Fors in the first round, when there were four wannabes running in Group 4.
Read related: Coral Gables voters return Raul Valdes-Fauli, send two to runoff
The first votes reported Tuesday were absentee ballots and Cabrera got 51% of those, which represented a slight 87-vote lead. But with 87% of the precincts reporting, those same percentages switched sides and Fors was winning with a 128-vote lead. That expanded to 166 votes with 96% of the precincts reported.
By then, Cabrera — who entered the runoff with 39% of the vote to Fors’ 30% — had conceded defeat.
Cabrera was cast by Fors as a pro-development career politician, but both had development and real estate interest money in their campaign. Cabrera raised $55,450 during the two weeks leading to the runoff and Fors raised $37,175. Their totals raised were $184,920 and $166,425, respectively.
But someone — we don’t know who — also spent at least $50,000 on five mailers from a shadow Trojan PAC on Fors behalf. The Jensen Beach-based Leadership for Florida’s Future has no expenses and no contributions listed for March, so we won’t know who the new commissioner’s benefactors are until May 10th or 11th.
Read related: Secretly-funded PAC attacks Ralph Cabrera with mystery mailers, lies
If even then, because the people who run the PAC told Ladra early on that the first mailer was not sent by them.
Voters elected Tuesday a man who committed homestead exemption fraud, claiming an exemption on this Little Havana condo he did not live in for eight straight years. This is something you have to fill out and apply for every year in March. So it’s not like he made a one time mistake.
The fact that he “self reported” months after he opened a campaign account and three months before the election — also right around the time Ladra started asking around about it — does not mean that he didn’t try to cheat his neighbors, indeed all of us, by paying less property taxes than he was supposed to. For eight years.
Read related: Florida Bar investigates candidate Jorge Fors for homestead fraud
They elected a man who is under investigation by both the Florida Bar and the State Attorney’s Office and whose political action committee smeared Cabrera with vicious lies in an attempt to make voters stay home, which apparently worked.
There are 33,144 registered voters in Coral Gables and 6,026 voted, representing just over 18%. The first round April 9 had a 26% turnout, which means that more than 2,400 voters decided to stay home for the runoff.
Commissioner Fors must be so proud.

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